Aren't you a spurs fan as well? I've also seen you on the mavs forum in the past. Unless yiur screen name is just one big coincidence.
So much reverence in here for guys who won their first trophy 12 or 16 years ago. And that's fine, as a tribute. But they're ready to be taken down. Don't ever overestimate the legs of a champion.
Good point but they won their latest ring last year In all seriousness. I like the Rockets chances against either team. Rockets are up and coming and this first round victory was HUGE. I feel like the team can play "looser" in the 2nd round due to getting over the first hump which in some ways I would consider the toughest.
Definitely the CLippers. They can't hack-a-howard/josh because we'd just do it to them. Plus Spurs has all sorts of match-up problems for us.
Spurs. To be the best you must beat the best. If we beat the defending champions that gives us the confidence to potentially beat Golden State
But GSW to reach WCF will not have to face the Spurs...why should the Rockets have a different standard? If somehow the Clippers can beat the Spurs in 7, Clippers starters would have no legs to outlast us if our series go the distance...we would be in the box seat. They have no answer for Harden
Clippers - likely no hacking (or we hack back), and Dwight doesn't have to be guarding post-up play with DJ (as opposed to Duncan). Possibly more importantly though, is our depth. Their starters are great, but after that, their bench is barren.
Rockets don't need any so called "confidence" to beat the Spurs, Clips, Warriors or anyone for that matter. They got over a HUGE hump in the first round which i feel sets the precedent for the collective "confidence" from here on out regardless of who they face. Every other team in the playoffs does NOT HAVE a beastly Howard and Best player in the league in Harden. Truthfully, I think it's backwards....other teams should be very concerned with the Rockets peaking at the right time now. That's a problem.
We finished ahead of the Clippers by virtue of owning the first tie breaker, division winner. That applies to HCA as well. Memphis had a better record than Portland, so there was no tie breaker required to determine HCA, if Portland had the same record as Memphis, then they would have had HCA.
Ah, you would think so, but remember how many people claimed that the Rockets were not the best team during their championship years, because the Bulls weren't there (Jordan playing baseball, then Jordan and the Bulls getting beaten by the Magic in the 2nd year). Beating them head to head leaves no doubt! :grin:
Bingo. Rockets looked fantastic in this 1st round series. Granted, it was against a trash Mavs team, but still... we should be less worried than LAC or Spurs fans. There will be no 6 hour game(s). Coaches will employ the hack-a when they have a definitive advantage over the other team. Meaning, when the other team has one of the very few players in the league to shoot an embarrassingly bad FT%. If you yourself have one of those players (as Doc does)... I doubt we'll see it happen. Would be surprised if we see any *serious* hack-a-back-n-forth vs. the Clippers, but it'd be funny if they do it for grins on a few possessions early in the series. Here's to hoping you're wrong about the rule change. My personal opinion aside that the Rockets still would've taken it in 1994 regardless, you're leaving out the fact that that 95 Bulls squad didn't have a 100% Jordan. He came back from baseball mid-season to play a whopping 17 games with the Bulls. Magic Mike was back for the following season aka greatest team ever.
The hope here for Rockets fan to go all the way is that the NBA has yet to see the Rockets with a fully healthy and playoff focused dwight howard. Dwight was hurt and not fully playing his hardest during the regular season. You can tell he's the type that can coast and all sudden turn it up when the stakes are high like in the playoffs. Golden state didn't see this type of Howard and in fact I think they played us without Howard twice during the regular season. Spurs saw us with Howard on a minute limitation and just coming back off a 2 month injury. It can very well be a much difference series in the playoffs against any of these teams than what we saw in the regular season. Of course the same can be said of the spurs who are known to coast and turn it up during the playoffs, only difference is they are much older.
