ClutchFans Game Thread: Clippers @ Rockets 5/4/2015 (Playoffs Round 2, Game 1)

Based on what exactly? His stellar play against Dallas?? It's the 2nd round now. You need stable, steady veterans who are battle-tested. This game is just a battle amongst a much larger war, but every battle counts. GO ROCKETS!

 

Getting their bigs in foul trouble early is key for us. When they have to dive into their reserves, we can exploit that huge depth issue the Clippers have.

 

We beat Dallas 4-1, as was expected by many of us, but we could have played much better. Talent wise, the Clippers are much more superior than Dallas, so if the Rockets are to advance to the conference finals, I hope McHale and the players took the extra time off to tighten up their defensive rotations and overall play on offense.

Looking for the Rockets to cover the spread, lead by an extra motivated Harden.

 

I respectfully disagree. Game 1 winners end up closing out the series over 70% of the time. If you lose home court advantage in the first game, that sucks, and can affect a team psychologically. Go out there and dictate pace, and you can start to set a tone for a series...instead of having to try to change it.

 

You're joking right? Every game in the playoffs is meaningful...

 

8:30? Come on man, even the home games are late! This series is going to kill me.

 

It means a lot in the sense that the Rockets obviously wanna take advantage of a tired and potentially short-handed Clippers team. But I don't think a Game 1 Rockets victory means much in terms of determining the outcome of the series.

 

Any news on Bev? Any chance he comes back later in the series?

 

Given the fact that we had a lot of rest, they didn't and Chris Paul might be out was my reason to say game 1, victory or loss, will not mean much. Game 2 is all about adjustments and historically game 3 has been the most important (if I recall correctly). Showing you can win on the road is always important, but as long as we are 2-1 after three, we will be in good shape.

 

Pretty sure that's not possible. He doesn't even get the cast removed for at least 2 weeks. The earliest he'll return(assuming he can even get cleared) is sometime during the Western Conference Finals. But let's cross that bridge if/when we get to it.

 

calling bs on the Paul injury, hes playing

 

The winner of the game 1 ended in winning the series at ~75%, do not know what are you talking about.

 

Except for 1 game, DMo did not have a good series against the Clippers in the regular season.

During our first two games, both losses against them, TJones did not play. Once we got Jones back, he had 2 very solid games. One with 5 blocked shots and another with 12 rebounds.

We're essentially replacing DMo at the 5 with DHo at the 5 for this series. And Capella should be replacing Dorsey, who had a couple stinkers against them.

Terrance Jones is going to have a very strong set of games against the Clippers in this series. He's going to open a lot of eyes.

All that said, I think it'll be Rockets in 7 games.

 

I hope Dwight/Harden can keep their composure when they get a dose of Barnes/Big Baby committing hard fouls and trying to get them off their game. I think Dwight did an excellent job in keeping his composure against the Mavs, let's hope they don't let those two get to them and get into any unnecessary altercations because I know Barnes will try to get under their skin.

 

Yeah, and plenty of Game 1 winners have gone on to lose series. I refer you to the 1998, 2005, 2007, and 2009 Rockets. All I'm saying is that winning Game 1 tonight over an exhausted and banged up Clippers team is something they're supposed to do. It's important to get off to a 1-0 start, but it doesn't mean this series is suddenly heavily favored toward the Rockets.

 

Smith should start, Jones will get ripped apart by Blake.

 

Agreed.

 

It's going to be brutal, this one.

Redick and Crawford go ham on us.

It's gonna be tough to win this one.

Rockets lose big.

Rockets 87
Clippers 115

 

Yes, you made a good point, but I still think Game 1 is more important than Game 2. We have to win Game 1 even although we are still not favored after one win, but if we lost Game 1, I do not see we have much chance to win the series.

 

Nah. You don't mess up what's working. Jones starting and Smith coming off the bench has been working perfectly in the regular season/playoffs. We need Smith to be a play maker off the bench.

Besides, Jones has been a lot stronger than in the Portland series last year. I feel like he can hold on his own against Griffin.