Jazz. Dare anyone here say we can beat Jazz? Our starters have no change. We definitely can handle Spurs if we have healthy Yao and T-mac.
Agreed. I believe the Jazz are slightly overlooked and could very well give us another tough series, if need be, although some of the faces have change....they still have the personnel to give us a hard series. 1. Spurs (They're defending champs, and have won 3 championships out of the last five years, only other champions this decade are the Pistons and a bunch Shaq-lead teams). 2. Mavs (I think that they will be our next toughest test, because we are pretty evenly match with them right now, but Yao and T-Mac might give us slight advantage) 3. Suns (People on this board are scared to death of the Suns....I don't really think should be as much as people like to think so. I mean if the Spurs have found a way to stifile the Suns in the playoffs, while teams like Bulls, Pistons, and even Nuggets have shown how to attack and slow down the Suns. I think we would stand go chance of beating them with this new team. The old team coached by JVG and ball control/slow down offense, not so much. We had too few third and beyond options to beat the Suns in a series. But with this new team, I think we have great chance beating them in series. If it comes down to which team can make most defensive stops, the Rockets should have advantage, while also having a number of offensive weapons. The talent disparity between two teams is pretty much even, unlike last year. 4. Jazz (still a tough team, but minus Derek Fisher, we beat them more easily though). 5. Lakers (I know I am going to get bashed for this one, but the Lakers have proved to be thorn for us over the years. I don't think we would sweep them, and Kobe plays out of his mind against us...2 50 point games (one loss and one nearly coming from behind victory in Fourth Quarter), and another loss earlier in the year ( where we were down by 24 points and reserves decrease the lead to 4). I think we split with them again this year, because Kobe will have one or two big games against us and we lose one or two.
1. Spurs - it's an even year, so they won't win it all. Another factor in their inability to repeat is that they basically have on huge target on their backs in the years following their championships. Then after a while, they seem to sneak up on people who forget how good they are, and that's how they win every other year. If teams gun for them, they will not win. History's shown that, and this team is only getting older, not better. 2. Mavs - psychological mess. The improvement from Josh Howard/Devin Harris will not be enough to offset the decline from Dirk, Terry, Dampier, Devin Brown, and basically everyone they had that played their brains out last year. And when it comes to crunch time, that history of choking will only manifest itself once again. 3. Suns - The biggest threat to the Rockets. It remains to be seen how this new style of Adelman's compares against their play, but just based on personnel alone they've had our number and then some during the entirety of the JVG-era. We won that one game at the end of last year because we were hungrier, but come playoff time I doubt we could beat them in a best-of-7. Here's hoping that they are the 2-seed to our 1, or vice-versa, so someone can knock them out before the WCF, or else the WCF might be as far as we go this year. 4. Celtics - You're kidding right? 5. Jazz - Our players will remember the hurting they put on us last year, just like how the championship era Rockets made it personal with the no-honor Jazz of the mid-90's. Very little is different from back then if you think about it; the Jazz still grease their butts before the start of each game so they can slide 10ft on the court when it's their turn to fall to the ground. What will be the difference maker from last is: a. we'll have Mike James and Brooks as primary defenders for speedy PG's like Deron Williams (and the same for Paul who equally torched us last year). b. we'll have a much deeper front-court of Scola Hayes and Landry to stick it to Boozer (just imagine how bad it was with only Juwanathan to spell Hayes). c. and we'll have an actual bench this time to counter their take-a-dump-on-me relief squad of Matt Harpring, Paul Millsapp, and Banana-face Giricek. No more gassing out in the 4th quarter with only four people scoring in the game. I am fully expecting, and I think it's a realistic expectation given the talent disparity, a regular-season sweep of the Jazz, and elbows to the face of every player on their roster should we meet them in the playoffs. Go Rox!
Afraid? A word not in my vocabulary. It the Rockets are as good as we think they are, then we need to crown their a$$!
If the Rockets are playing up to their potential I'm not scared of any team. But if there is one team I want the Rockets to take down, it's not the Spurs it's the Suns. Listening to Phoenix fans you would think that the Suns had already won a couple of NBA championships!
Some Suns fans make you think they are the greatest thing since the slice of bread....I could see Lakers and Spurs fans doing so, they have reason to....but when see them gloat about the Suns this and that....oh they haven't really lost true series in 3 or 4 years. Or they should've won in 93...95 or whatever....it's quite sicken.
I'm not worried about any team in particular but big guards,PF's and rebounders will give us the most trouble defensively.
None. We are underdog against Spurs, Suns and the Mavericks so we should not be afraid of them. I am not afraid of Celtics nor Jazz.
The Spurs should always be scariest, since I think Popovich is the best coach in the league. Suns? Nah. No defense, little depth and once they figure out that Nash needs a consistent, reliable backup, then I'll worry. The Mavs? Not when Dirk Nowitzki is your "leader." Boston? They're not better than Detroit or Chicago. I do worry about the Jazz. Great depth. A sound 1-2 combo in Williams and Boozer. Great coach. But a lack of perimeter shooting and depth at the 4 spot will hurt 'em.
