Do you still think we can beat the Warriors this year?

Given that its 3-0 Rockets so far...wouldn't the question be whether the Warriors can beat the Rockets?

 

I think you replied to the wrong person.

 

Yes, the Warriors TOTALLY locked us up last year. And House could be the deciding factor.

 

If the Rockets are healthy in the playoffs, Worriers won’t get past the Rockets.

 

If the Rockets are all healthy enough to play, then yes. House and Shump will make a difference having.

 

Oops lol

 

I would love t

i would love to play the Nuggets in the playoffs. We would probably sweep them.

 

If we can resolve the House situation (and it turns out that he’s legit) Throw in a healthy Shumpert on top of that...would make us quite formidable at that wing spot. The rest of it hinges on CP3’s status. If he can be the player he’s been the past two games... Rockets will absolutely go on a magical run.

 

I definitely think we have the best chance to beat them other than maybe Okc. We can beat any team if our role players are hitting their shots. Harden/CP3 will create wide open shots for their teammates and we just need to knock them down. Still waiting to see how much of an impact will Shumpert has on the team plays too. Having Cousins on the Warriors is actually an advantage for us. We will have 2 players that we can pick on when we run our pnr. we have great success against Curry and now Cousins. At the same time, the one team I worry about as far as the match up is Okc because of their length and defense. We still have an incomplete team because we don't know how our line up will be until we see the team play with Capela/Faried/Shumpert etc in full strength

 

i mean they're 2 games ahead of us and weren't missing half their roster for half the season. is that supposed to mean something?

 

Look, that was an incredible performance on Saturday, but that type of effort is not the norm for this team. All year they've been extremely inconsistent. I'm just as skeptical that we can beat whatever first round opponent we face as I am that we can beat the Warriors.

 

The Rockets have beaten a lot of good teams in the NBA this season. Their biggest issues aside from that horrendous start in October and November are their propensity for taking crappy opponents lightly and blowing big leads. The former will kinda take care of itself come playoff time cuz you don't face crappy teams. The latter is a lingering issue, but hopefully as CP3 asserts himself more(assuming he stays healthy), that'll be less of an occurrence. And besides, I'd much rather be a team that can build 26 and 20 point leads against the likes of the Thunder and Warriors respectively and struggle to hold on for the win than a team that has to claw and scratch its way to victory against the elite ballclubs in the league.

 

I understand your point and in theory it makes sense, but there are very few examples of an up and down team suddenly turning it on and being consistent in the playoffs. The inconsistency throughout the season is an indication of deeper issues within the team, mainly the defense. To advance in the playoffs you need to be extremely disciplined and focused all game, every game. The Rockets have not shown the ability to do that (yet) this season.

 

Part of that is due to injuries. I don't think that'll cure all their defensive ills, but getting guys like Capela and CP3 back will certainly help. As for teams turning it on in the playoffs, there was one in particular that stands out. The 1995 Rockets. Granted, they were the defending champs. But this Rockets team was literally one win away from that status.

 

theres definitely alot of people trying to hop back on the train when they were off it pouting a long time ago

 

Haven't taken the time to read all the responses, so sorry if this is a repeat of what someone else has said....

The question for me is not if we can beat the Warriors. The question(s) are:

1. Can 2-3 folks other than JH knock down 3s in a 7 game series
2. Can Manimal and Clint really shore up the rebounding issues. At least to the point that it's not lopsided.
3. Can we win the close ones (+- 5 points) in the playoffs
4. Will James adjust to the no-calls quickly enough in a series AND still be effective?

We can definitely beat the Warriors or any other team for that matter.....most of you will flame me for this, but we can't have Harden AND EGO AND CP3 throwing their hands up on every play and walking back. Its the playoffs, you deal with the officiating and adjust. End of story. We've seen this play out in the past (just last week as a matter of fact). Do the Rockets take control, or whine about it and expect a different result?

 

Haha, exactly

 

Yes! But if you see Scott foster for game 6 and 7. Just go home and sleep rather than playing. There's really no point.

 

Maybe. Obviously GSW wasn't ready to take us seriously on Saturday. We definitely had that day circled on our calendar and prepared to play them. It will be different in playoff when they will be targeting Harden on defense to make him work.

 

Yes but I worry about our chances if (God forbid) CP3 goes down again. The two games we've played against GSW this year in which Paul was on the floor we won rather comfortably. The only game he was out we had to fight all night just to scrape by with a W. This team, and Harden, needs to show they're capable of playing and winning one solid game (aka a game not spent playing catch-up) against GSW without heavy reliance on Paul. He sacrificed his leg in Game 5 of the WCF to get us that win and the series lead. We just needed our 300 million dollar MVP to go nuclear for ONE game to basically win it all, and he couldn't even do that. And no role players really stepped up.
With a healthy Chris Paul, a determined, fearless James Harden, and hungry and productive role players, we definitely have a good chance at beating the Golden Boys in a best of 7 series.