First Round: Houston Rockets (8) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (1). How will it go?

I think it's unlikely the Rockets will make any decisions about who stays and who goes because of this series. I think the Rockets have a pretty good idea of what they have in Harden, Lin, Parsons, and Asik. And I don't see them making long term decisions on the Rookies based on their play in this series. Maybe if someone like TJones steps up and has a couple of huge games then maybe the Rockets would view him as a much more valuable asset. D-Mo and TRob probably won't even play much. Harden is the only player we know won't be traded. I don't see the Rockets changing their minds about anyone else because of this series.

I think the Rockets might win one game.

 

Mchale sucks.

Sweep.

 

Man are fans over reacting. Were not playing well right now but we weren't supposed to be here in the first place. Mchale has made some coaching mistakes but this board reacts the same when Adelman and Van Gundy was here. You have to accept that this team is young and has it's up and downs. There is no way I expect them to come out and play excellent ball every game of this series. The Thunder from a few years back were an eigth seed that took LA to 7 games but they had 2 legitmate superstars including rookie Harden. We are not even that good as an 8th seed so no one should expect an all out 7 games series in order to say the rockets had a successful playoff series. Harden will play hero ball, there will be some stagnet offensive sets, there will be bad turnovers because let's face it, we are playing the best team in the west and we are the bottom end of the play off teams. This team is young, they exceled this year and will get better but we need to add more peices to compete. It's simple as that, the comments about Mchale getting fired over this series is crazy.

 

People keep saying this. People are wrong.

I ask you to support this with facts and figures.

As soon as we traded for James Harden, I expected us to make the playoffs. I knew Harden was a star, an experienced one at that, and stars get in the playoffs. As it is, we end up barely getting in as the 8 seed.

9 players averaged 20+ pts/game this season. 8 of those players are in the playing in the playoffs. Tell me the posters on this board who doubted that Harden would score more than 20pts/game and I will question their sanity.

I know nothing about Pythagorean Wins, but what I do know is that the Houston Rockets underachieved this season. And at minimum, JVG or Adelman would have gotten us to 50 wins.

 

Closing the season losing to Pheonix and Lakers is pathetic. The reason McHale would need to go is because he's not coaching the team is free styling it out there. The other teams in the league has figured it out now next year they will have to get a coach that has a great strategy for this team or sign another star otherwise they won't make the playoffs next year.

 

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So first off, I want to say that I'm happy the Rockets are in the playoffs. It's definitely 'more' than what was expected coming in to the season. However, I've never been more disappointed about being an 8th seed and really unenthused by the upcoming series. The Rockets lost 2 games at the end of the season, showing very little urgency and ZERO offensive game planning from the coaches. Playing OKC is an almost guaranteed loss in the first round. Do I hope they can win? Of course--but history and this little thing called reality says otherwise.

I just hope the Rockets show some heart and can carry that over with them next season. Just a crappy way to finish the season when the 6th seed was there for the taking (and the 7th for that matter). I would've given the Rockets better than a prayer to beat the injured Spurs and Nuggets over a juggernaut like OKC. This just sux

 

I'll be surprised if we won 1 or 2

 

I think we'll get one game. Maybe two.

 

This is what we expect to happen with a match up with OKC:

I wanna see TJones matched up with Ibaka, Parsons on Durant, Lin/Beverly on Westbrook, Harden on Thabo, and Asik/Greg Smith on Perkins

Off the bench...Nick Collison/Thabeet vs DMO/Smith/TRob
Kevin Martin vs Delfino/Garcia
Maynor vs Lin/Beverly

The Rockets should at all costs match up via personnel...Parsons should be on the floor any time Durant is...Greg Smith should be on the floor any time Collison is, and TJones should be on Ibaka...


What will happen as per McHale coaching:
Asik, Smith, Lin, Harden and Parsons match up against Perkins, Ibaka, Westbrook, Thabo, and Durant...

Then in some weird combos...he will have Garcia on Martin, Delfino on Ibaka, Delfino on Durant...

 

looking at how this team is playing, not moving the ball, confusion of lineup, how could they beat the OKC, even once is beyond my comprehension, a bunch of losers on this team, except Parsons

 

Asik i believe will just not be as effective as he should be because of a lack of a traditional Center...Perkins might be his only counterpart, bc Ibaka is a far more superior athelete...He may be able to match up with Nick Collison or Thabeet, but I really dont see how Asik wins us this match up...
Smith IMHO is going to have a hard time with Ibaka, based on his ability to shoot a midrange jumper...Smith doesnt go out too far from the paint and that could be a weakness the OKC Thunder exploit...This is why i really want TJones on Ibaka...he has the physical size and length to cover the midrange jumper and still be active enough in the post.

The Key matchup will be at the PG and bench scoring...Anytime you get Westbrook to take more shots than Durant...should be a good thing...but you have to make Westbrook a shooter...must at all costs keep him from attack the rim...thats when he is the most dangerous...

Durant is going to get his...and Parsons will have to play the role of Shane Battier...just try to be disruptive and hope you get lucky...

James has to be efficient and trust his teammates more...especially Lin, Beverly and Parsons...He should ask them to create more...and work off screens and shoot spot up jumpers...Harden can do things differently...its the coaching staffs perogative to get that to happen...

Finally, Jeremy Lin...I believe if the Rocket even have a chance at making this game close...is based on the scoring that Lin provides...we need Jeremy to take and make shots...and really be the best playmaker on the floor..he needs to create as much as he can...if Lin can get 16-20ppg with 10 assists...I like our chances at the games being close...if not...these games will resemble the first two we played agianst OKC...

I know we are going to lose this series, but I would rather go down fighting against the best team in the West...playing our best...and it has to be our players playing well, bc our coaching staff isnt gonna get our players to be able to play their best...Mchale just doesnt get it...and its too late to depend on him being able to deliver...

 

In some ways, we match up pretty well since we have
- CP to somewhat bother Durant and force him to play some D
- Thabo shouldn't burn Harden too much while Harden can still score on him
- Westbrook will get his (surely the strategy will be to have him shoot a lot) while JLin should have some success against him offensively and Bev defensively
- While we have to keep Ibaka from getting easy baskets and he will hamper our driving capability, we can hold our own against him and Perkins
- Jones vs Collison would be a good scrappy match

I'm pretty worried about Martin since I'm not sure how well Anderson (or Harden obviously) can stay with him. I'd consider putting in Bev/Lin at times when Martin is on the floor since I think either of them can stay with him.

We need to play CP a lot as there's a big dropoff to Garcia and Delfino when he's not on fire.

Obviously they're just better so we'll just have to play the style that got us here on offense (transition, attack the lane, shoot open 3s), rely on our somewhat improving defense, and hope we have 4 good games when they have 4 bad games.

 

We are absolutely capable of winning a couple of games against OKC, but in the end, they are too talented and deep to overcome. Thunder in 6.

 

Why do people assume OKC will sweep us in this series when they didn't even sweep us in the regular season? That's silly.

I think we will lose this series, but I doubt we get swept. OKC will win in 5 or 6 games, and if it's 5, at least one of the losses will be extremely close.

 

Bad matchup against a Thunder team that is spectacular on the wing and solid down low. The key for the Rockets will be the 3 pointer. If we can hit north of 30% of our 3's in the series then these games will be close.

 

Durant just net his 15 ast... More updates coming soon.....

 

4 or 5 games, maybe the Rox rain 3s in one game and pull it out, but the Thunder are much better and more experienced.

DD

 

Steve Blake with another 20pt/7reb/7ast on the rockets, how is that??? More updates coming soon....

 

Because the playoffs are a different atmosphere. The game slows down, there's way more pressure on each possession(particularly late in the 4th quarter), the refs usually allow the players to play more which is detrimental to Harden's game, and execution on the offensive end becomes of the utmost importance.

I'm not saying last night's Lakers game was indicative of the Rockets for the entire season. That would be unfair as they did win 45 games and make the playoffs in a brutal Western Conference. But if they play anything like they did last night over the course of this series, it ain't gonna be close.

With regard to OKC in particular, the Rockets did beat them once in the regular season at home. But it was a very close win that required them to come back from a huge deficit. The other two times they played OKC, they got hammered.