I'm trying to keep this as an upbeat thread. We're all pissed and disappointed with the 4-game losing streak, but the Rockets are in a position to right the ship and salvage this stretch of the season heading into the All-Star Break. @min - T'Wolves are on a B2B(albeit with 2 home games) and have struggled lately losing at home to the Wizards and Fox-less Kings. @DAL - This could go either way. The Mavs and their fans are an emotional wreck right now and this will be their first home game post-Luka trade. They could either rally around that and come out firing on all cylinders or sleepwalk their way through the game. TOR - The Raptors suck, but they have played better lately and this is a B2B and an afternoon start for the Rockets. Still, a very winnable game. PHX - The Rockets (finally) get 2 days off before playing, the Suns will be on a B2B, and who knows who'll be in their lineup after the trade deadline? GSW - A B2B for the Rockets, but also one for the Warriors. So maybe they sit some guys. Plus, their team may not look the same after the trade deadline. If the Rockets show up in all of these and limit the stupid mistakes, this should be at least a 3-2 stretch and possibly even 4-1 if they catch a few breaks. That would keep them well within reach of the 2nd seed and they'll be getting everyone back after the All-Star Break. Plus there are mercifully only 5 more B2Bs after that.
The biggest enemy these next 5 games is fatigue. They've battled valiantly all season and those injuries just took the legs from under them. Affecting the shooting even further obviously. I think it's really important Ime trusts some extra people on the bench, we need 1 or 2 more people taking minutes off the main rotation right now. I would be very happy with 3-2 for these last 5 games. Post ASB we'll again have one of the best records in the West so that's fine.
I don't trust this team to win any games if Fred is out. That's a sad indication of our future, our backup PG position and the importance of Fred.
I agree about fatigue, but that should be evened out mostly in these games. The Rockets will be the rested team vs Minnesota and especially Phoenix. It'll be even vs Dallas with that 2 PM Saturday start after both teams play Thursday night. And both the Rockets and Warriors will be on a B2B. The only time the Rockets are at a rest disadvantage is at home against Toronto. And one would hope they at least don't take the Raptors lightly after the two losses to the Nets and the near loss at Toronto in late December. And I agree, 3-2 would be fine. 4-1 would honestly put them right where I thought they'd be if you'd asked me a few weeks ago.
Running on fumes. Going to need these other teams to load manage one of their stars until FzvV comes back. Apparently they can't even execute a simple PnR consistently without Fred
