Face it, folks, the Clippers are just better at NBA than the Rockets are

Clippers and GS have always been our worst matchups.

The West is tough.

I truly am happy we beat the Mavs.

 

Lol. Yes, at some point you just can't deny the data. Lol.

Obviously the new era clips have never been a good matchup for Houston, but that's a far cry from saying they are a better team and Houston is doomed, which is essentially what Carl said.

Data, huh? Like us being 3-3 against them this year in the regular season? Data!

No Carl you are not objective. You are a straight up hater. all you do is look for new ways to bash the Rockets. Objective means fair and balanced. So I guess you are the Fox News of the NBA.

 

What are you talking about??? We have, in my mind, the 4th best roster in the NBA, after GSW, OKC and CLE.

We got one of the best centers in the NBA. We have THE best SG in the NBA. We have an All-NBA 2nd Defensive PG (didn't do that well this year). We have a lockdown guy on the wing in Ariza. We got a low-post AND stretch-4 players in D-Mo and Jones.

Out bench consists of a 1-man fast break in Brewer, a good passing big-man who can defend pretty well as well in Smith (incredibly inconsistent though). We got veterans in this team, who should lead. We got championship-pedigree players on this roster, guys who've gone the distance. What more do you want??

Face it; this team is stacked. We just happen to have fools on the sidelines (not just McHale). Yes, injuries hit us hard this year, but NO way should we be beat by Austin Rivers.

 

Exactly, give this same team to Popovich, Rivers, Kerr or Thibs and watch out!!

 

Yes they are better but we should not get blown out twice

 

Honestly has harden played like the best sg in the nba

 

Realistically with a good playmaking PG, Harden would be deadly off the ball!! To me the rockets turnovers are still their biggest problem outside their defense. People have been saying the rockets don't need a playmaking PG because they want the ball in Hardens hands at all times, will that work long term when opposing teams crowd him especially in the playoffs? LaMarcus Aldridge is not the answer IMO and if this team had a Dragic type PG they at least would be in Western Conference Finals in my humble opinion.

 

I agree. We need a perimeter attacker of some type.

Something.

Dragic would have been amazing and sadly it was all set up perfectly for the taking but he didn't want to come here.

 

Truly missed the time Caveman Kaman was in the middle.

We beat that team rather easily...

 

As long as a defender doesn't fall for Harden's little dribbles that to nowhere, as long as a defender just keeps his hands up or by his side and doesn't swipe at Harden's arms, it feels like he becomes a very ordinary basketball player. How else can players like JJ Redick or that one player from the Spurs (Cory Joseph, IIRC) guard him so effectively? The Clippers are right. Harden's big games all come with absolute huge numbers from the FT line. Rarely does he have a game where he is just yammin on fools, like Game 3 in Dallas.

 

true

this beckons the question why did the Rox gave away the only true PG they have, Jeremy Lin

 

Probably trolling, but please stop either way. That's water under the bridge and you will just bring up a TON of bad bile. You know this.

I don't totally agree with the OP, but the Clips are coming together and peaking at the right time, while our crew is in a deep funk. The defensive rotations, how we move the ball, the elusive "energy." You can only give the Clippers so much of the credit.

 

Personally I didn't have the Rockets as doing much better against the Spurs. What the Spurs lack in athleticism, they make up for in execution and experience. They're just different sides of the same coin.

We can't match up effectively against Griffin or Paul positionally, but our rotations and defensive awareness isn't good enough to match up against the Spurs ball and body movement either.

The only real reason that Houston would have fared marginally better against the Spurs was the fact that Parker has been injured throughout the post-season. However, we have no idea how much Parker would have improved over the series, and the Spurs are crazy deep so they have the ability to kill us with their bench even without Parker. Parker played like crap for the Clipper series, yet they still took the Clippers to 7.

As for Herrera's posts, I sympathize. I've actually stayed out of threads for the most part this year as I've been trying to stick more to the "if you can't say something nice" mantra.

The Rockets have had mediocre defense the last half of the year. They've suffered inconsistent defense for 3 years. Their defensive awareness hasn't improved substantially. Their defensive intensity fell off a cliff after mid-season. And Harden was an engaged defender for all of 3 months.

Missed rotations, lazy close outs, loss of contact with cutters and not getting back on defense in transition... these didn't just appear in the play offs. The Rockets have been doing this on and off for 3 years now with only marginal improvements.

It's all pretty simple. Without defensive improvement, this team isn't going near a chip. And expecting to get past the Clippers or the Spurs when defense is optional is a pipe dream.

124 points in regulation. That's 31 points per quarter. They might as well just have forfeited the game and rested instead of letting the Clippers do them like that.

 

It's hard to play the "drive to the rim and hit 3's" offense when the only guy that can reliably drive to the rim and hit 3's is having a bad (by his standards) series.

 

Internet agrees with you and If you read it on the internet must be true.

Clippers were ranked #2 in the regular season and Rockets #20.



http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/team/_/stat/offense-per-game/sort/fieldGoalPct/seasontype/2


I think what bugs me the most are the turnovers. These arent hard fought out turnovers, these are turnovers that are just Bushleague and stupid. Trying to roll a pass, getting a rebound and the guy takes it away from behind you, Panicking and not holding on to the ball and making a pass no one but the other team could make. Would have looked GREAT on ESPN highlights if the pass was successful but these are the playoffs. You gotta bring your game. Clippers have a higher basketball IQ on where to be.

If they would SLOW DOWN and not play to the pace the Clippers want them too they may ties this thing up, Seems they have got away from playing Rockets ball.

 

harden isn't playing like an mvp and his cast are like scrubs. so many bricks. no adjustments. don't feel we can win.

 

That Houston kid is showing me something.

 

People also smoke pot.

 

Hacking, no hacking, Chris Paul, no Chris Paul, DID.NOT.MATTER. Credit to the Clippers. Better team. (Team I wanted over SA)

That worthless Clippers bench? Turns out Houston had the worthless bench.