I still don't know what kind of team we have. Can they jump in to Spurs/Clippers realm? That's the question. They really only need to play about 10 minutes of good defense a night in order to win games.
If the team can play defense, like they did in the 2nd overtime of warriors game, for most of the game on a daily basis then top team. I am not worried about MDA offense unless we have injury issues, although offense needs to improve but not as much as the defense.
The Clippers have struggled a bit lately. We're only 2 games back of them in the standings. Of course, they're also the kind of team that can just as easily rip off a 17-game winning streak before you know it. I think the Rockets are at best a #4 seed. I just don't see them competing with San Antonio or LA. If they wind up higher than #4, we're talking Harden for MVP and D'Antoni for Coach of the Year.
If James Harden can start trusting Gordon and Anderson more so then I think we can make that step. Speaking of the Clippers. Can we please try and sign JJ Reddick in the offseason. If we are going to embrace this 3 point fest. Can we have a Harden, Gordon, Reddick, Ariza, Anderson line up when we go small. One can dream.
This team does not play any good defense, period. The reasons we won in the second OT in that game were : 1. Curry gone after 6 fouls. 2. GSW made more dumb decisions and taking more bad shots than us down the stretch. In the second OT, the Rockets did not play as good as they were overall, before that Gordon basket, the previous 3 Rox processions are horrible offense too. Yes both teams were tired, but GSW just played a bit worse in that stretch and it did count. So no, we did not stop anyone.
We've already played the Spurs twice w/o Beverly and Dmo, no they're not that better than us. They also barely squeeze out wins even against bad teams, and their point differential is not that different from Utah's (+ 4.8) The Clippers have lost 3 out of their last 6 games and CP3 does not look as good as he did in the beginning of the season. Their defense also seems to be coming back down to earth. I'd say we have good chance of catching up to at least one of those two.
That's really high. I might go #6 like Stein. However, the Rockets' momentum is great right now and I can see #3 being in the future if they sustain the level they've been at on this road trip.
But the Spurs are 11-0 on the road. I don't care who the competition is. You pull that off, and you're a damn good team. I'm inclined to say the age of some of their key guys(Gasol is 36, Manu is 39, Parker is 34, Aldridge is 31) could be an issue, but that didn't seem to stop them last year en route to 67 wins. As for the Clippers, their win totals the last 4 seasons are 56, 57, 56, and 53. And if you prorate their 40-26 record in 2011-12 over 82 games, they would've won 50. So the Rockets have their work cut out for them to win enough games to finish ahead of that team.
this is ridiculous. 1. Curry racked up all those fouls while trying to guard Harden, and Harden can do that to Curry any day of the week. 2. Not only did we play good defense in that game, I'd argue it was one of our best defensive performances of the year. Bev, Ariza, Dekker, Harrell, Harden, Gordon and even Ryan all played great defense, making sure almost every shot was contested. 3. That game should've never went to double OT, because we were supposed to win during the regulation. Did you even watch the game? For the most part we were the ones who were controlling the game. The GSW got lucky in the end and we executed poorly down the stretch, which means we can do so much better against them the next time. 4. Draymond fouled like 10 times in that game and still didn't get fouled out. 5. We also played very well against the Spurs and the Cavs. This is not some fluke you're seeing, GSW, Cavs and the Spurs are the top 3 teams in the league right not and we are 2-2 against those teams, not getting blown out even once.
But the point differential does really matter, ask any basketball-analyst about it. That's why I always say we were never as good as people thought in 2014-15 and surely it turned out that way. If you need Kawhi's buzzer beater to barely put away the Wizards, it doesn't really signal to me that the Spurs are heads and shoulders better than us, especially when we went 1-1 against them while missing few of our key players. The Clippers are difficult to predict, but all I'm saying is they aren't looking that good for the time being. I don't know what's going on, but their defense is not what it used to be in the beginning of the season.
we dropped in the CBS rankings this week, seems everyone has gone Pelicans-crazy http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/n...icans-make-huge-jump-thanks-to-cousins-trade/ 6 Rockets Want to know something crazy? The Rockets' defense is better with James Harden and Eric Gordon on the floor together than Harden and Beverley. Eric Gordon needs more recognition for how he's played this season. dropped 1 40-18 Does the point about the Rockets' defense with Gordon vs Beverley deserve its own thread? discuss.
How is Defense Quantified ? E.Gordon is a plus Defender and a Plus on Offense, that equals a + plus/mins of 1.73 puts him at 7th place among all SG. Wins per +/- : harden is number one with 11.46 and Gordon is 7th with 5.02