And Lo and Behold the team we beat 3 times has the best record in the nba

If we beat the Thunder on Tuesday, we will only be ONE GAME away from the 2nd seed. Knock on Wood.

GO ROCKETS!

 

I'm not sure you can "choke" all the way to 4 rings and a finals appearance last season. Let's just call a good team good and be glad that we match up well with the likes of them. It means we have a fighting chance in what is essentially our first year together as a team.

 

To be honest, I ain't talking about Spurs ever again. I say something, they go against it.

 

lol what?

 

In order to be a champion, you have to think like a champion. Remember that one year when the Spurs waxed the Rockets in the regular season then Dream took Dave to town in the playoffs? Yeah, I remember. Fear no team. The playoffs are a different season. Let's rock.

 

Who cares? The last game we played against them we didn't have James Harden and still won.

 

yeah. but every team drops 4-5 games to teams they should beat. just like how the thunder lost to the lakers tonight. so that all kind of evens out.

 

way too early to say that. We've looked terrible all year against LAC and OKC. Sometimes it's about matchups. As long as Rockets stay 3rd or above they're guaranteed a 2nd round in the playoffs. Anything beyond that is questionable.

 

I think people overestimate the LAC. Theres a a reason they're considered a regular season team. Once playoffs come, refs hold the whistle and guys like Chris Paul and other jump shooters who can't actually create won't get the same calls they got during the regular season. They may fall for Chris Flops shenanigans in game 1 but as they keep playing the refs will catch onto his antics. Hence why even in New Orleans, he's never fared well in the playoffs.

 

By that same token why not give us the same consideration. We played the Clippers twice early. The last time we played them was on the 5th game of a 5 game road trip. You could look at the schedule and see it would be a tough game. We clearly ran out of gas.

We have improved since those early games. That being said the Clippers are playing better than anyone not named Rockets right now. It will be interesting how we match up against them this next game coming.

 

And another frequent mistake is "should have won ..." not "should of won ..."

 

And if we lose to the Thunder on Tuesday, we will only be the... Okay forget that Go Rockets. Another tough road win. I can't 5 games we shoud have, could have easily won. Imagine if that had happen.

 

That wasn't a good example though. It took Rudy and the Rockets about half a season to realize that the best Rockets lineup was 4-out/1-in offense featuring Horry at PF and Elie at SF. When they unleashed that in the playoffs, no team could match up against them.

The Spurs run the same offense this year as they did before. The Spurs Rockets games of last year look similar to this year, except this year we have more talent and therefore won instead of lost.

Side note: If it weren't for Rudy's health issues, would be so cool if he came back to the Rockets as a coach. He's perfect for this team. And no one talk about him as among the great coaches in the NBA past.

 

Be careful what you wish for because lo and Behold we are on a second round collision course with them. The Clippers schedule is too easy so they will probably pass us along the way especially since they own the tiebreaker. There is a slim chance we pass OKC but they also will likely possess the tiebreaker. So in all likelihood we face the Blazers in the first round and the Spurs in the second. The spurs are well tuned machine unlike the inexperienced Clippers.

 

Yep. The clippers scare me too.

 

You do not believe the TT experiment at the beginning of the season was an organizational directive? Asik was very unhappy and the Rockets had to know if he could play along side of Howard.

 

I'm fine with TT being an organizational directive. My issue is the number of games they used it as the "go to" line up... it was 5-7 games too many, and for too long in the games they used it.

My personal belief is the time to work on TT is under specific scenario's...

1) Have a healthy lead -- 15+ points
2) Are having problems against a big front court (Memphis for example)
3) Against 2nd units

My problem with the way they ran TT is how they allocated the TT minutes, IEthat they used it out of the gate (putting us in a DEEP hole... I'd rather lose some of a LEAD with TT than use TT and have to dig your way out), AND they gave up on it entirely too soon (run it in practice and select spot minutes for more games to keep Asik happier).

I wasn't opposed to working on TT, but if you're going to work on TT make the commitment then run it for spot minutes throughout the season, but do NOT jeopardize games to "work" on it. For example, don't run TT out of the gate against a 1st unit, just run Dwight + Asik when the opposing team runs their 2nd unit for 3-5 minutes then pull Dwight. And preferably only do it when you have a LEAD.

This cuts a few minutes off Dwight's alone time and Asik's alone time, but you're not putting up an inexperienced duo against the best line up of the opposing team.

Anyway, long dead and gone... TT could have been implemented better and phased in much more selectively and gradually with less jeopardy to individual games.

 

We have proven we can beat great teams at home.

But we have yet to prove we can beat these teams on the road. OKC, Chicago, and Miami this week would go a long way to helping establish us a contender. When 2 of 3 and it will be hard to say we don't have a legit shot at the title.

That LAC game also looms large.

 

The Spurs are one bad fashion trend that just won't go out of style!! Seriously.. their time is up.