We were saying if we could come out of this stretch of tough games at .500, then you'd say that's a win. Well, winning the first 3 created such a high that losing the last 3 was such a let down because of the possibility of going 4-2 or 5-1 or 6-0. 3-3 isn't bad. Still 1 game up on Portland. Many people were expecting the Rockets to fall behind to 5th during this stretch and would have to make up ground the rest of the way. Nope. Rockets still have home court right now. Houston's remaining tough games: Clippers Brooklyn? Could be difficult maybe? OKC Spurs Portland's remaining tough games: Warriors Miami Chicago Memphis Phoenix Warriors Clippers Golden State would be the only other team who could possibly realistically catch the Rockets. They are currently 3.5 games back and have the remaining tough games: Portland San Antonio Memphis Dallas San Antonio Portland So they have some tough games, too. So Rockets are in good shape to remain the 4 seed. Portland has more tough games and the Rockets own the tie-breaker. And the Rockets still *could* get the 3rd seed. Rockets are in good shape.
I still contend that we caught Miami on the first game in a bad slump. Same with Indiana. Portland was for sure a gutsy win though. With the way we came back to win we should've capitalized on OKC missing Perkins and Sefolosha but Dwight just did NOT show up. NOBODY showed up for the Bulls game. We once again couldn't hold a lead in the Heat game. I really do love this team but it has too many problems with execution down the stretch on both O and D, turnovers and missed FTs to be a true championship contender.
No, I'll tell you what happened with the Heat. The Heat were on an 8 game winning streak going into Houston, San Antonio, and Chicago. Miami was rolling, and then next up is Houston. They were going to play Houston tough and keep the streak going. But nope. Houston gritted out a nice win. Now Miami had to play San Antonio. It is tough to get up for that game after losing a tough game to Houston. So they lost by 24. Then they ran into a tough Chicago team. It's not surprising they lost those 3 games. We saw it with Houston. Houston lost a tough game to OKC (Like the Heat to Houston). Then got beat by 20-something to the Bulls (just like the Heat to the Spurs). Then Houston played a tight game with the Heat but came up short (just like the Heat to the Bulls). That's just the NBA.
Doesn't really matter. Stay in the 4 spot and get Portland in the first round, then SAS in round 2. Gift-wrapped appearance in the conference finals, if SAS keeps the top spot.
I just hope we don't get mentally devastated by losing to a team below our weight class (knowing the rockets it's something we're bound to do with a lot more than just a few games left in the season).
People are salty because of today's game, but 3-3 during that stretch of games is pretty good. I'm pleased.
I thought we would go 4-3 with the chance of dropping a winnable game. We dropped the Bulls game and go 3-3. Hurts that the refs ****ed us against Miami.
outside of the obvious tough games (Clippers, OKC), @ Raptors will be tough since the Rockets always lose there.
It's not THAT we lost. It's HOW we lost. I want to see them beat us because they outplayed us in the 4th. Not one or two plays. Not because of some stupid 3 second violation calls that they only called on Dwight. How can the man protect the rim if all he gets is 2.5 seconds in the paint? Everyone stands on the line and doesn't get called except for Dwight. The Heat touched the ball and delayed the game twice by my count and they didn't get called for it once. The point is what JVG said. It was a good game. Why did the refs have to step in and take that away from us? Nobody wants to see their team lose because the refs decided it's time to use the rule book to make sure the Heat win. If LeBron takes over or Allen hits a game winning 3 then I am happy to see an exciting ending. But to give up 3 hours on a Sunday to see a good game end because the refs didn't want to risk the Heat losing twice to the Rockets, this time at home on national TV or because they had to cover a 5 point spread...it's anti-climactic.
Honestly, I wish we would have at least won one on an opponent's home court. Small sample size of consecutive games against the better teams is small, but it's a little worrisome how we won at home and lost on the road. 3-3 is fine, to me. Just wish it was like, 2-1 home and 1-2 road, instead of 3-0, 0-3.
Performing well on the road is a MUST have to get far in the playoffs... unless you have the best record in the league which we clearly will not have. As mentioned above, 3-3 is nice but losing ALL road games against playoff teams is worrying. Add the fact that we narrowly scraped through against POR and the MIA win. That POR win was so close at home that it worries me in a 4-5 match up against them. My worst scenario would see us losing in the 1st to them. I really want us to at least make the 2nd round and gain some respect.
2 of the road games we lost were against the 2 best teams in the NBA, and both teams were quite motivated to beat us. I wouldn't expect to beat either one of them in a 7 game series this year anyhow. All of the goals we set out for this season still appear very likely to me.
4-3 overall(the Orlando game should be included since it was a quick turnaround on a B2B) is fine. If you'd told me 2 weeks ago that's what would happen, I would've taken it. What bugs me about this past week was how they lost. They didn't show up for 3 quarters against a short-handed, struggling OKC team(who just lost by 23 AT HOME to the Mavs tonight, BTW). They didn't show up at all(save for Jeremy Lin) against an inferior Bulls team who had just gotten smoked at home by the Spurs and lost to the Grizzlies in Chicago before that. And today they did a p-sspoor job executing down the stretch against another struggling team in the Heat. Yes, the refs were horrendous and borderline corrupt in that game, but it was still there for the taking. So the record itself is decent. The losses at OKC, Chicago, and Miami are fine when viewed in a vacuum. But it's disheartening that with smarter, better play, they could've done better than 4-3. And considering that coming into this week, the 2nd seed was still a very realistic possibility, it makes it even more frustrating. Imagine having home court against every team in the West not named San Antonio. Well, keep imagining cuz the reality of it has all but slipped away at this point.
You're going to lose games against good teams. It's all those games we lost to crap teams that hurts... Sacramento, Philly, Utah. Hopefully next year we'll be focused more consistently when we play scrub teams.
The Portland game was only close because it was a 5v8. Bring on Portland. I say we would blow them out. Not to mention LMA is hobbled.
I'm just grateful we're no longer fighting for an 8th seed and as long as we're in the playoffs, we have a good chance of competing for the championship as anyone else.
