ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Spurs 5/1/2017 (Playoffs Round 2, Game 1)

So is Kawhi the MVP now?

 

Yep. Not enough help around him

Harden has all those snipers, 3 point gunners, all star like Ariza

Kawhi is playing with the corpses of Gasol and LaMarcass and Tony Porker

 

Of course! Like Brodie, he doesn't have enough help.

 

Spurs will win game 2. It depends on Houston rebounds more than anything

 

This is how we wanted the Rockets to play for most of the season.

They would have won 60+ games if they would have.

Saying that, if it were not for the Spurs and Warriors, I think the Rockets would win the championship.

But they can take this from the Spurs but if they do, I am very concerned about the Warriors, whose talent is on steroids.

 

I love that Lou and EG can get in the paint as well

 

Rockets have one of the most stacked teams in NBA history though. Nene is like Shaq off the bench. Lou Williams is a future hall of famer.

 

The Rockets A-game can take the Warriors as well. Key is consistency if they ever get that far. There was a stat on here that whenever the opposing teams of Warriors made 12+ 3-s, they are pretty darn beatable.

If the Rockets can prevail past Round 2....I think they are peaking at the right time at full strength. Anything can happen.

 

Man, what happened to Aldridge.

Remember when he destroyed us a couple years ago?

Now completely shutdown my Playoff Rhino.

 

Spurs won the last two quarters though, they have momentum.

 

Is there any way we can get highlight video with Craig Ackerman making the calls or maybe there's one out there I haven't found. I heard some of the sound bites on the way to work and it really got me pumped for game two.

 

You can go all the way back to the Celtics and Lakers, where the loser of a game 1 rout goes on to win the series. I hope we don't fall into a lightning in a bottle attitude and try to recapture what happened last night. I think it's very unlikely that we'll see the Spurs play this poorly again.

I do think we surprised them with some of our rotations on defense and our desire to compete on the boards. When the Spurs didn't get any easy second-chance points, we strung together a few makes, and they really fell apart. They looked more emotionally tired than I thought they would be.

Inside the numbers:

Spurs guards and total touches - this is a testimony to how hard we worked on D.

Parker 22:48 minutes -- 50 total touches
Ginobili 11:56 minutes -- 19 touches
Mills 15:45 minutes -- 20 touches​

Kawhi Leonard 1 offensive rebound chance in the game (and he did not get it)
Aldridge 2 offensive boards and 4 defensive boards of 4 offensive chances /6 defensive chances /10 total chances

I think the Spurs will come out and play with more purpose, but if Ryan Anderson is healthy (Harden too), I think the Spurs will struggle to keep us under 115 points a game. That's going to translate into wins for the Rockets because like OKC, the Spurs don't have enough scoring punch. I don't think Parker, Ginobili, and Gasol can carry enough of their scoring. We can put up a pretty good defensive game plan against these players.

 

Last night was a great Houston sports fan night between Rockets demolishing Spurs and Astros beating Rangers. It's definitely a top 10 sporting night in Houston's history imo. I was on cloud nine. Could not believe how badly we demolished the Spurs. But, it's just one game and this is still a series. That team in SA has a lot of pride and I'm not counting them out. I honestly thought the Rockets would be the cold team coming in after the long break between series. But, they looked like a fine tuned machine. If we play with that intensity and effort, then I like our chances in this series. I don't think San Antonio can hang with us if we do "our" thing like last night. As Harden said, the role players are critical. But, man, what a game to watch! It was beautiful. Who knew we were going to be watching a garbage time fourth period with the end of our bench playing? I did not recognize some of those guys. lol. Go Rockets!

 

League better not suspend Nene for that BS.

 

mvp

 

Replay of last nights game on NBA TV right now.

 

Cavs? Lebron still king?

 

What often stands out to me when the Rockets play the Warriors is that the Warriors just play so much faster than the Rockets. The games always seem to get out of hand because the Warriors will run off a few plays in a row in which they run the ball down for easy lay-ups before the Rockets are even at half-court.