Why is this such a revelation? Rockets defense was trending UP after RoCo trade and Rockets have been defending at ELITE level in the bubble. But OKC series should have cemented this for everyone. After 1 round, Rockets are the BEST defense in playoffs. Why is this so difficult to accept? Rockets switch D is for real.
i agree in general it sucks but you also have to look at reality a bit. lakers arent being pushed down our throats as much as lakers are the "home" team and rockets are just the challenger. why are they the "home" team? because they have had success and it has increased popularity and this has gone on through 80s and showtime magic & kareem to the shaq kobe to now with lebron. the lakers have had a relevant team and this snowballing situation along with a massive southern california audience. after I lived in southern california it really clicked for me. they have literally NOTHING else. dodgers off and on ..and usc sometimes but you are talking a huge sea of people from santa barbara to tijuana that pretty much are lakers all day every day. same way you turn on radio in dallas and its cowboys cowboys in houston radio its texans texans ( who habe sucked since day zero ) and practically impossible to even hear a peep about rockets. the lakers are very popular and I wish houston had the interest level although in LA it is also wannabe fair weather. there are enough of those though too the league goes where the interest and money is. why would anyone promote the rockets if their own city doesnt care? so you have one place with a decent team to really good and a huge consumer base that lives and breathes hoops of course the attention will be circular.. this is a big deal for most of LA relative to the other sports ..and even nfl has tried and tried but cant get all those locals and transplants to latch on to a team.. and not enough years and years like in bb from wilt/ west to literally jan 26 this year.. and you wanna talk rockets ? (not picking on you btw you are good poster...its just a supply demand and interest thing)
I didn’t really pay attention to the commentary but nothing stood out as blatant hating. As far as commentators go Doris Burke is the only person that obviously takes a rooting interest against us.... and has basically said as much. Some of these guys just aren’t very good but she’s unprofessional.
Maybe flex commentating will be the way of the future. You get to pick your home commentator even during national broadcasting.
I didn’t say it was difficult to accept. I said it was surprising that it is coming from a D’antoni team, which it is. It is the opposite of his reputation, and the rockets have been at best a top 10 defense until recently. Don’t interpret it as hate. It’s just an observation that it is different than what everyone is used to.
Just wanted to say that after watching the game again, what Mark Jackson actually said wasn't how I heard it in the "heat of the moment." It was more innocuous than I realized at the time. My apologies, Mr Jackson. Want to add that watching the game again was fun. I honestly don't know how the Lakers are going to win this series unless the refs hand it to them on a Silver platter. As long as we are healthy and keep playing with this kind of intensity, they simply don't match up with us. I'm tempted to say we beat them in 5, but it's more likely to end up a 4-2 series win for the Rockets, in my opinion. Fingers crossed. How the media will view all of this will be a trip to watch. Probably a "bad trip," but what the hell.
Even the sports shows when the Lakers & Lebron get beat, they'll start off with "we didn't play our best game". That shows you who the media is rooting for
