[The Ringer] - The Further the Rockets Go, the More They’ll Need Their Other Stars

That's what I'm hoping too. EG would always attack the basket(with his patented "I was fouled" scream) during the regular season. He looked hesitant to do so thanks to Gobert's presence inside. It affected Harden as well. CP3 didn't even attempt to drive to the hoop unless Gobert was on the bench.

That all changes vs the Warriors. Sure, Green and Durant can block shots, but those two do not have the insane size and wingspan of Gobert.

 

You don't know basketball!

 

Can't wait for this series to start.

 

Okay let me break it down for you game by game, Mr. Recency Bias:
- T'Wolves Game 1: Literally everyone but James sucked except for first half Capella. 3 point win
- T'Wolves Game 2: Few complaints, dominant win (Ego was crap, though)
- T'Wolves Game 3: Bad loss, very poor defensive effort, inefficient offense (weirdly good game from Ryno, though)
- T'Wolves Game 4: Terrible first half, historic 3rd quarter. Mixed bag, but I like our chances any game we have a quarter like the 3rd
- T'Wolves Game 5: Slow start again, but dominant second half

So against the T'Wolves I count 6 bad halves and 4 good halves.

- Jazz Game 1: Dominant first half, but took the pedal off in the second. Admittedly the game was never in question.
- Jazz Game 2: Come out flat and lazy again, got stomped and couldn't put it together. Bad defense and inefficient offense again
- Jazz Game 3: More wire to wire dominance. Love it. This is the team we need to be
- Jazz Game 4: Good fast start and held on for the win, despite bad night from Harden
- Jazz Game 5: Another fast start, but we let it slip away in the 3rd. By the time the Rockets pulled away the Jazz were playing without Rubio, Exum, and Mitchell, and another bad game from Harden.

Against the Jazz I count 4 bad halves and 6 good halves.

That's about 50% on focus and execution.

Unlike the Jazz, the Warriors have no important injuries at this point and plenty of rest. The first couple of rounds have given them time to gel again.

Look, I'm a 99'er and huge Rockets fan. But it's stupid to act like the Warriors aren't and shouldn't be favored to win this series.

I think the Rockets can beat them, but there's very little room for error.

 

If Eric Gordon show up, the Warriors have no chance to win.

Last time Gordon's shots are on, Rockets went on to a 70-40 first half massacre on the T-Wolves.

 

We won every game by an average of 14.5 points. How many quarters we won is completely irrelevant and not any kind of indicator of future success. You can do a similar break down of quarters lost and waning focus by any championship team and get the same result.

I’ve also made exactly zero comments about us being favorites against the Warriors. I agree that they should be the favorites but not because of anything that has happened in the first 2 rounds.

 

He doesn't know Picture Size either.

 

The way I see things, I like it when players raise their games in the playoffs and I don't like when guys get worse. From that perspective, I like what I'm seeing from Capela, Paul, and Tucker especially, and I don't like what I'm seeing from Gordon and Harden, which is a big concern because those are their most important bench guy and their team leader/league MVP (I guess you could throw in Anderson for playing himself completely out of the rotation). Doesn't mean the team sucks or anything, and I know playoffs involve adjustments and stuff, and I'm proud that they've gotten this far and have had a great season. It's just that in my experience teams that win championships do so because they're stocked with guys who you can rely on to be even better in the playoffs than they were in the regular season. The Warriors have this, the Rockets own championship teams definitely had it, but these Rockets just look inconsistent right now. Maybe they've been conserving their energy for this moment and it's going to be Utah game 3 all series long, but right now I'm in the "have a great shot, good matchup, but they're underdogs" category.

 

And one more thing..Like I said in the game thread, James has to quit shooting that dumbass step back 3. Those are the shots that give the Warriors easy transition baskets. Control the pace, take good shots and limit our turnovers are keys to winning the series.

 

I think the offensive firepower between these two teams is a wash. These games are going to come down to rebounding, not turning over the ball and defending the arc.

 

@DarkHorse

.. but the Warriors are also flawed if we are using similar standards. Durant didn't shoot well in games 2 & 3 against the Pels. The Warriors were stomped and blown out against the Pels in game 3. The Warriors almost blew a once 25 point game last night against the Pels. Oh! the Warriors got beaten by injured Spurs team. Did I mention how streaky is Klay?

See how this goes?

Man! Monday can't come here soon enough. Let this series plays out.

 

You don’t consider the Jazz series a pretty good battle test especially on defense? Gobert is a terrible matchup for what Harden like to do to.....finish at the rim. They defended the 3s well too.

I thought the Jazz series was a grind for the most part. Granted winning 4-1 doesn’t exactly imply that

 

I’ll also add that the Rockets had to overcome the pressure brought on themselves losing game 2 and HCA to the Jazz. They responded by taking the next two in Utah. Not an easy feat

 

I think the key to this series will be running CP3, Harden, and Gordon together. That assures the exploitation of Curry on D and it also allows Ego to play in a spot up role more often. Ego often plays a poor man's CP3/Harden...maybe running that 3 guard lineup can turn him into a rich man's Ariza/Moute? And as I say this...i cant help but think that the warriors have Iggy, durant, and klay. All long and quick defenders. This is gonna be a tough and fun series. We are going to see both teams go to things we havent seen all year.

 

I don't think it was really much of a grind.

As fans we tend to not take things for granted. We always think we can lose. However, from an objective view I don't think there was that much stress in the series. Indeed, the only thing the Rockets had to do was play harder after game two. There were a couple of reasonably close games in the series but the Rockets responded. The Jazz series would have been a good battle had the Rockets failed to focus.

I think it was about what I expected. In fact I think the Rockets handled the Jazz a little easier than I expected. I had the Rockets in 6. No disrespect to the Jazz, they play hard and if you are not prepared they can beat anyone. However, they are limited. Also, I expected Snyder to out coach MDA. Snyder is excellent at adjustments, but MDA countered and that was essentially the series.

 

No one here knows basketball. I know basketball. Lmao! Everyone is too serious. It’s so easy to troll ClutchFans it’s hilarious. I still think rockets take game 1. 85 to 80 after 48 minutes of bumping and grinding.

 

Excellent recap.

No question Jazz Game 3 (1st half in particular). Gonna need 4 games worth of those to beat these Warriors.

 

It will have to be a team effort of course. The more players join in ; the bigger the @** whooping we’ll throw down.

 

thank you, I needed those words. Maybe it is related to GSW increase on performance. They seemed bad before the end of regular season, they improved and added Curry. We may seem to be playing worst, but you´re right, numbers are on our side. We have our full roster, everybody is rested.

 

I think we have a legitimate shot at winning unlike 2015. Huge difference. If I’m a neutral observer I’d pick the Warriors in 6 but no way I’m betting against my own team. : ) Expectation should be that this is a super competitive series, anything less would be a massive disappointment and anything more would be amazing. The winner of this series is probably a big favorite in the finals.