Western Conference Semifinals: (1)Golden State vs. (5)Memphis

The Rockets has no chance against the Warriors, mainly because Howard will be a non-factor. Bogut is like Yao, not great leaper, nor fast, but use his wide body wisely to always keep the offensive players in front of him, force them to shoot over him. Historically, Howard always had little success against guys like Yao, or Bogut.

Once Howard be neutralized, the Rockets has to beat the warriors with their outside shooting, we all know what that mean.

 

IF the Rockets get to play a the Warriors it will not be an easy time for the Warriors. The Rockets team is not the same team the Warriors roll through in January. The first game the Rockets were short handed No Beverley, Howard, or Jones. The bench consisted of DMo, Terry, Garcia, and Daniels. The Second game no Howard or Jones bench consisted of Dorsey, Terry, Daniels, Capela 1 minute played and Johnson. The Third game No Jones, Howard had 23 pts and 10 rebounds The bench now had Brewer and Smith but Josh was not even with team for a month and remember January was a month where the team did not have time to practice because of the brutal schedule. Finally The Fourth game still no Jones, Howard had a bad game signs of him being frustrated because of his knee. Josh not a good game either still not enough practice time.

 

I understand your point that the Rockets is a better team now than the one lost to the Warriors 4 times in the regular season. But this is just a bad match-up for the Rockets. Both teams rely on their outside scoring heavily, but the Warriors get more open shots with their movement, and they have much better shooters. The Rockets's biggest advantage is Howard, but the Warriors don't post up much, so that kind of marginalizes his impact on the defensive end, and he always had a hard time to score against big centers like Bogut.

The Rockets will have a hard time to win more than a game if they end up playing the Warriors, but let's get the Clippers frrst tomorrow.

 

Howard would destroy Bogut on the glass, irrelevant if they post him up or not. If Howard can go toe to toe with Jordan AND Griffin on the glass the Warriors are going to have problems getting rebounds.

As for Bogut guarding Howard and you compare him to Yao but one thing you forget, Yao was 7'6". Howard CAN shoot over him with ease and will do so. The only chance Bogut will have is by flopping and getting him frustrated. Which is what he'll probably get away with.

Actually...Clippers or Rockets whoever wins this is going to control the paint so hard. Warriors weakness is down there, Grizz exploited that some but their front court isn't nearly as athletic as the Clippers or Rockets front court.

 

It would be difficult to beat the Warriors. But let's get past the Clippers first.

 

Stop being bitter. Luck is a part of the NBA. Your team wasn't lucky and lost. Deal with it.

 

I'm the biggest Howard fan on this board, always thought he is the BIGGEST factor for the Rockets' success in the playoff. But if you look back at the past games he played against Bogut, he had very little success to score over Bogut. Memphis's bigs scored more of their points by shooting a high % mid-range jumps in game 3 & 4, they shot a miserable percentage after the Warriors made the adjustment by sending the helper. Howard cannot shoot 8ft away from the basket, and he couldn't get around Bogut , so he won't be a factor for the Rockets offensive.

The Rockets' defense is too undisciplined to stay with the Warriors ball movement, will give them wide open shots after shots, and the Warriors always make you pay for that.

 

You are talking about a regular season Howard who is usually nursing some injury. Regular season Howard is completely different than Post season Howard has been. People really have to stop taking regular season stats and translating them to post-season stats.

If Dwight can score on Deandre Jordan low in the post and position himself low in the post against a bigger and stronger Jordan than he's going to have no problem against Bogut.

Sending the helper works against the Grizzlies, since their weakness is outside shooting...which isn't a weakness the Rockets have. If you're helping out off of Harden, Terry, or even Ariza that may be a big problem. They are not consistent at 3 but they are not players you just want to leave open.

This is also not even considering the PNR game and the oops that the Rockets create which has even been a problem for the uber-athletic front court of the Clippers

 

Gasol really shat the bed this series