We Wouldn't Have Won These Last Two Games Last Year.

To me, I think the difference was not only our defense but also our rebounding. All night the announcers were commenting how well Thunder big men were blocking shots, but Beverly & Harden each had more boards then any of their bigs (Adams, Perkins, Ibaka). I find this comforting because your shot may not always show up in these games, but there's no reason you can't hustle, which is what getting rebounds and playing defense is all about. I think that just shows that we wanted it more, even though our offense was abysmal.

It was ugly, but I will take it.

 

I'm with you. If we play offensively anywhere near as s****y as we have the last 2 games my expectations for this team will drop considerably. When we were blowing out teams (that we should have blown out) I was pretty confident that we were a serious contender.

Blowing out the Spurs w/o Duncan, Manu, Splitter and Bellini was a bit of a statement game at the time because we dominated and it was never much of contest as one would expect if we are a serious contender. The loss to GSW was also a positive in that it was a "good" loss because we were w/o 3 starters (and I am almost positive we win that game if Howard can manage to play even 20 mins in that game) and the game was tied w/ 6 mins to go in the 4th and our bench couldn't quite supplement Harden and Ariza enough in the end especially in the paint against a very talented and all but full strength Warriors team.

Ever since then, we have looked suspect the Wolves game was closer than it should have been for 2.5 qtrs, then the Sixers literally gave us the game the other night (if MCW doesn't commit such a boneheaded t/o that is likely another L, and then tonight against a KD/BW-less OKC team we struggle to get anything going offensively and as mentioned above the great defense played tonight was on a team w/o 2 of the top 15 players in the league - KD arguably # 2 and BW probably between 15-20), not a very reassuring stretch of games these three...

If we come out and take it to the Grizz (a team we typically have trouble matching up with especially who will play ZBo straight up) then I am back on the "Championship or Bust" train, but if we struggle again and lose anything other than a very tight game, i will really start to sweat...

 

id rather win a game like this than lose a game 130-127. at least the defense came to play. a rather gutsy win..kinda like 76ers.

 

HARD333333N

 

Common guys, we made 7 of 35 treys. If we only made 3 more, it won't even be close. 90% of those were wide open shots and were part of the offense. No need to panick.

 

9-1 and folks crying... spoiled brats!!! if we was 5-4 folks would be still crying.. you suppose to win ugly games when you're off.. a sign of a true champion is still winning ball games and your offense is non existent.. I had a pleasure to witness the championship years and some of you wouldn't even appreciate what they had to go through..

 

rockets are.number one in defense.

they have consistently kept opponents below 90 points. except for the wolves game which had a exhibition feel to it.

and the teams the rockets have beaten avg almost 100 a game

everyone should be happy because defense wins championships

and you dont know jack if you think rockets recent offensive woes are the norm

 

I think we should be very happy with the way our team is playing defense, we are currently giving up the fewest ppg of any NBA team. Considering how putrid our defense was towards the end of the season last year, I will take a few ugly wins over games where we score 110 and still lose.

 

but if against the warriors the rockets had howard and t. jones, they would have won that game.

 

All good points, but with the exception of the GSW and Miami games we haven't faced any teams with a core of proven all stars or excellent deep bench players. The Spurs were kind of like us against the Warriors hen we faced them, and all the other teams had either 1 or at most 2 top tier players and we were blowing teams out, or comfortably putting them away when the game came down to crunch time.

The Mavs, Clips, Blazers, Spurs (at full strength),Warriors all scare me if we can't balance a decent amount of offense w/ this newly discovered defensive dominance. I'd bet my house on it that we lose and lose big tonight if KD or BW (and especially if both) are in the line up. Sacramento and Memphis are worrisome as well because of dominant bigs inside. If can be shut down so easily by Ibaka/Perkins/Adams (admittedly if he had just hit FT's we would have won comfortably tonight), how is he going to fare against Gasol/ZBo (typically hasn't done well) and this beastly version of Demarcus Cousins ?

 

If Howard could be shut down by Ibaka/Adams/Perkins that should have read...sorry.

 

Thunder would be the best team in the NBA right now with healthy Durant and Westbrook, their B team was 3 points short of beating us tonight and went into Memphis and lost by 2 there as well.

I still think the Thunder end up making the playoffs as a 7th or 8th seed when Durant and Westbrook come back, we better hope we don't finish in the top 2 because I have a feeling it will be a very short series if we do.

 

So true. The 72-win Bulls lost to the expansion Raptors.

 

Lol, who's Maurice?

 

Grizzlies are probably in midseason form while other teams, a lot of teams are not.

You won't see another true test (except that Grizz game) for another 30 games.

When 45-50 games are played that is when teams are starting to increase pressure, when there is playoff intensity.

 

We had two, but they remained on the bench all game.

 

fyi thats a defensively elite frontcourt trio

 

LOL

I remember the lottery bounded tanking sixers beat a certain 2-time world champions last year in the season opener. Not the smartest of argument bro.

 

76ers, Bucks both beat the Heat in the last couple of years

 

the 2010 championship lakers lost to the 21 win clippers... TWICE