The second they got rid of Chris Paul, I knew the Rockets organization was not who we thought they were.
Be sure to check out the last few seconds when you get around to watching it. Something cool happens but I won't spoil it for you.
OKC was the hottest team in Basketball down the stretch. They owned the best 5 man lineup in the NBA with an insane Net+/- : Of the 50 five-man lineups to play 150 or more minutes together this season, OKC's lineup of Chris Paul, Dennis Schröder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, and Steven Adams have a Net Rating of +29.9 (NBA Advanced Stats) On top of that, it was a Chris Paul revenge series and the Thunder had the best matchup possible (3 fast guards and a true Harden stopper in Dort plus a really difficult big in Adams). Its was a trap series if ever there was one. And the Rockets won four games. There was no "epic collapse" - they won against an excellent opponent and they won by playing better defense. They were in all 7 games right up till the end. The Thunder were only in four of those games and were lucky to win 3 of them (should never have won game 3). The Rockets were clearly the better team. If you think winning a playoff series is easy, you are a complete noob. As far as a team that struggles to advance not being championship caliber, go back and look at the Rockets 96 team that played 3 mega difficult series in the West against higher rated teams and ended up winning it all.
I appreciate the effort (even if you botched the championship year), but the larger point was missed -- yes of course playoffs are challenging, but this current squad is built to contend for championships. Unfortunately they ran into super teams and incurred ill-timed injuries. Further, the current series against the Lakers is showing that even if they play well, they just don't have enough tondefeat a more talented team. Yes matchups play a big role in determining championships (like the Rockets avoiding the Sonics in the mid-90s), but 2020 was/is a golden opportunity without the Warriors. I'm afraid this current team just doesn't have enough to truly take that next leap. That 2018 team was special and more talented than the current Rockets, but that year will be forgotten due to unforeseen injuries. Expectations are what's being discussed here. If this was a young[er] team (like the Nuggets) that still has "room to grow" then it would feel more like a "well we'll just work and get 'em next year." This Rockets team is playing about as well as they can -- and it's unfortunately just not good enough to win a title it seems. We'll see what happens this off season. Morey (assuming he's still around) has his work cut out for him. I can't see microball working over 82 games and the playoffs, do with limited assets, I think we should view the rest of this series as a showcase for Eric Gordon since he's most likely to be traded if Houston intends on running it back with Westbrook (likely at this point).