With the moves, are the Rockets a better team than the Blazers?

We will all find out how this team stacks up shortly. Rockets have a tough schedule coming up. I hope Canaan gets more PT . Last night Beverly played hard, and still seemed a step behind Conley. I wished Beverly could put more pressure on Conley on the offense side.

 

OKC with a healthy KD and RW.

 

We got jobbed last year with how they called the game (tight tight on LMA, "let the boys play" on Harden). This year it won't be close. I really really hope we match up with them again, because they're about to get a whuppin'.

 

Unless we knock them out, we can't say anything.

 

+1. I think we can go all the way this year too.

 

Yes. With Smith, Dwight and DMo rotating on Aldridge we can wear his arse down. We can also throw some different looks at Lillard--Bev and Brew. I think we're competing for the ring this year if we play as a team and the chemistry works.

 

Bev was in Conley's pocket all night.

Conley had a bad game.

 

Of course, we were a better team than them last year but we lost the series. Like when NYG beat the Pats in the Super Bowl.

Sadly, the way I see things in the west, officiating is going to play an enormous role in determining who advances. Memphis and Houston have it the worst in that they play more inside out, defensive basketball than the other perimeter teams. Bigs typically suffer when officials are liberal with the whistle, as we saw last year in the Blazers series. All things equal, no team in the west should beat Memphis or Houston. I do worry about Aldridge and Kevin Durant whining to the officials every single possession.

 

They were a better team before the moves, and are much better now.

DD

 

People forget Bev was sick during that series + plus Batum does not look nearly as good this year. WE should beat them, but games are not played on paper.

 

The Mad Chicken pissed Batum off with his boast of being the best SF in the series .... and Batum made him eat those words.


Someone else mentioned officiating .... I think it will boil down to how many games Harden gets to the line 10+ times .... or not. The refs really did seem to stop giving a lot of calls he got in the regular season and his game suffered for it. Wesley Matthews was allowed to mug Harden. He should have fouled out of a couple of those games in the first quarter .... but was still around at the end of games.
If that happens again over the course of a series the Rockets could lose to any team in the top 8.
If teams are allowed to man handle Harden there is no secondary playmaker to make them pay or take the pressure off of Harden. Maybe Shved is that guy but I haven't seen enough of him yet to get a feel what he can do.

Offensively this team concerns me at this point because they so often go thru offensive funks where they just cant buy a basket. Hopefully they get that figured out .... The other big concern is team FT shooting , this team has a lot of poor FT shooters and that could be a huge hurdle to overcome in the post season.

 

Yes the moves makes us better than Portland, Memphis, Dallas and Warriors. It puts us in the same league as the Clippers and Thunders.

 

Can't make my judgment yet. Have to see how they contribute over a longer stretch of games

 

I'm finding it difficult to see a team that the Rockets couldn't beat in a seven game series so yes they are better than the Blazers. I think this team could sweep the Blazers, beat the thunder in six and the Clippers in five

 

Let us beat the Clips one time at full health. Than I will change my tune.

 

I still think the Rockets were a more talented team last year than the Blazers. The entire series was extremely close- I don't remember, how many games went into overtime? When the series is that close it only takes a couple of very minor things to swing it one way or the other. So even though I think we were the more talented team, we were outcoached and had a couple of bad breaks which was enough to turn the series.


This year, I think we are significantly better than we were last year. They are more or less the same team and have only had some minor changes to their bench (added Chris Kaman and Steve Blake but lost Mo "he know" Williams)

 

Here are the career stats for LMA vs Smoove, H2H


Player.................... G W L GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS


LaMarcus Aldridge... 17 9 8 16 38.2 7.7 16.6 .463 0.1 0.2 .333 3.4 4.3 .781 3.4 6.3 9.6 2.2 0.8 1.1 1.9 2.6 18.8
Josh Smith..............17 8 9 17 37.9 6.7 14.3 .469 0.3 1.5 .200 2.8 4.1 .681 1.8 7.5 9.3 3.8 1.4 1.9 2.2 2.8 16.5

 

We were better than the Blazers last year. Portland didn't want any part of us in a Game 7 in Houston

 

We should have won last year. We just didn't defend. Sure the refs making calls and then the NBA apologising for that OT call is a different story. It also showed up our lack of depth. Parsons was definitely not that third guy.

The problem is not so much Josh Smith expectations. I think it is in Dwight expectations. He is an excellent player and I love how he changes games. However, everybody expects him to be a Hakeem or a Yao but he is not. His strengths are short hooks, catching lob passes and offensive and defensive rebounding (he is the best rebounder in the league, I think - arguably the best of the three centers listed above). However, he doesn't have as strong a jump shot as the other two and neither does he shoot free throws as well. I think his ceiling is about 20/10 per game with 1 or 2 blocks as a second option. Not a crunch time go to guy or a creator.

Daryl Morey saw his limits and thus was after a "third piece" in the offseason. James Harden is a different story. This guy is insane. I hated the way he didn't play defense last season but after watching 3 games this season, I loved the way he chased people around screens. The game winning block on Tony Allen was phenomenal. Thats the difference this season, we are winning games with defense - blocks, steals, stops. Good job in focusing on team defense, McHale (although sometimes I still wonder why you aren't substituting or running a certain play).

It starts and ends with James Harden. He is our leader and best player. We don't have to look at plus/minus values. It is just painfully clear that when he is on the bench, we can sustain short spurts then start to look lost.

I bleed Rockets Red!