[ROCKETS mention] Pick your poison: Sizing up the Thunder’s first round matchups

I like how we match up with OKC. Dragic gets under Westbrook's skin and makes him angry and play below his ability. Parsons is as good a defender of Durant as I've seen. OKC doesn't have a dominant inside scorer, which has been our achilles heel all season.

The only guy who really scares me is Harden, but it seems like OKC has been hesitant to run the offense through him every play he's on the floor, and it will contain the damage if they continue to limit his touches.

I see us taking OKC to 6 or 7 games, maybe even a close win if we get lucky bounces and the officiating crew doesn't screw us over too hard.

 

Might hate them, but gotta respect them. The Spurs scare me. We can't contain Parker the way we can Westbrook, and when Duncan gets hot he's unstoppable. Manu is even scarier than Harden when healthy.

Anyway, I don't really hate SAS... at least they're not the Southern Oklahoma Mark Cubans.

 

We match up well with OKC. Dragic got under Westbrook's skin last time. Parsons is the closest thing to a Durant stopper in the league. They don't have as much of a paint presence as some of the other teams in the league.

For the Spurs, we do have Dragic. But Tony Parker scares me no matter what age he is.

 

Are you kidding me? You guys rather play an experienced team who has won championships with a Hall of fame coach rather than a very young inexperienced team? ok..... Give me OKC any day. Also, OKC is never winning anything with Westbrook as point guard.

 

Agree

 

just no spurs please. BRING ON OKC!@!!

 

You could put it that way...

Or, you could say we'd rather play the team that's lost in the first round 2 of the last 3 years and only reached the second round the other time. The team we split the season series with, and although it averages out to 7pts losses, they were more like 3 or 4 pt games, one of those in OT.

The earlier the round, the less experience counts. Also, in the playoffs, OKC home court > SA home court. Their fans are hungry.

 

No to the Spurs. Parker, Ginobili, Duncan. They have matchups all in their favor and they're too experienced.

On the other hand we match up great with the Thunder. Dare I say it would be a 50/50 toss up who would win. We're one of the BEST teams at defending the iso which the Thunder rely heavily on. Dragic will get under Westbrook's skin, Parsons will hold Durant. I easily see the Rockets advancing if we face the Thunder.

 

We have a real chance at making 6th seed too. If that's the case, how do you all like our chances against LAL, compared to OKC/SA?

I think LAL is the match up we should really go for. We smoked them last game, and Parsons can do his thing on Kobe like he can on Durant.

While we do matchup well against OKC, just keep in mind that both our wins against them were very close. We did not run away with the wins, hence why I think we have to push for the Lakers, because we've proven we can really run away with it against them.

My preference to match up against is:

1. Lakers
2. Thunder
3. Spurs

 

I say play whichever team you get and stop being match-up sissies:grin:

 

I think NBA would let us beat the spurs, but not the thunder...

 

He's age 29 FYI.

 

Man, San Antonio is looking dangerous. What would it be like for Timmy to get his 5th ring? How would Kobe like that?

 

Your right at this point last year they just snapped there 6 game losing streak, while we have a current 9 game winning streak right now. The Spurs haven't even peaked yet, especially defensivly, still getting use to Diaw, and Jackson who both been wonderful so far. Houston has played us good all year, and Scola, and Dragic are known around here as Spurs killers, the same with Lowry if he comes back. Yall do match up pretty well against us, and if we do play Houston I would hope that Duncan and Splitter would get 30+ minutes against the lineup of Dalembert, and Scola, if it's going to be a easy series. I'm pretty sure the Spurs will have a gameplan to slow down Dragic, and let the Kevin Martin's kill us, but Stephen Jackson's defense has been phenomanal so maybe put him on Martin would be perfect. I say Spurs in 6 games, but I rather have Denver, or Utah at the end of the day tbh, but I would love too see a Spurs vs Rockets playoff series for once:grin: as I was too young to remember the 1995 playoffs.

 

Dragic gets into Westbrook's head and when that happens, he starts to do really dumb things. I wouldn't mind this matchup if we got them in the first round. It would be a very fun series to watch.

 

Fan standpoint: OKC and Houston....

In hopes of actually winning standpoint: San Antonio and Houston....

You always have the chance Durant, Westbrook or even Harden could just take over any game. With San Antonio....I think we would be realistically in every game. They don't have the players to just bury you early.

 

We need to get out of the 8th seed -- period.

 

I could see OKC getting fired up to play against the Rockets, which could possibly be a good thing, especially with a team like OKC who's core is still really young and inexperienced. Lowry needs to be back though. As much as people debate whether or not we should keep him, he is still crucial to keeping the Rockets successful this year.

 

Parker, Manu, Duncan?

 

I completely forgot the spurs trade for Jax...forget what i said, bring on OKC, Jax kills us every time...