I know this has been said by me and some others in some of these recent threads. Look, losing on a last second shot in a game the team was trying to win is always heartbreaking. But if we can get past that, there's good reasons why the 4th seed makes sense. - CP3 is a playoff injury waiting to happen. It happens seemingly every year and especially deeper into the playoffs - OKC is not a great matchup for HOU. You can think what you want about it being regular season, or Utah playing great lately. The fact is PG has been going off against us. OKC runs a similar offense to Houston, in that its limited passing and just relying on Russ and PG. Well, with HOU's constant switching, its just tough for us to defend. - Good matchup or bad matchup, I just don't enjoy watching Rockets-Thunder games that much. Probably because of the similar styles. But Westbrook is also an annoying player to watch play ... somewhat in the same way that Harden is (to non Rockets fans). It's just too much. - We're 2-2 against Utah. Both losses were early. They run more of a motion offense where they aren't singling out individuals to attack as much and just running their offense. Switching works better against this. Conversely, Rockets always seem relatively capable of eliminating the value of Gobert. Honestly, in a HOU-UTAH matchup, Favors is the wild-card. Remember the early season game where Gobert got tossed early. Rockets got dominated. Favors dominated. - Here's a BIG one. Is Steph slightly injured? He left the game last night. They're definitely going to try and limit his action in the first round if possible. Give me GSW earlier with a maybe injured Steph. - Give me GSW earlier anyway. If they lose, they lose. The stigma of a 2nd round exit is worse then a WCF exit. And that's good, imo. They need to recognize how far away they are... if indeed they are far away. This year they came into the season as if they made some tweaks that made sense and could coast their way to 60 wins. - EDIT: per heyp, Capela has a $1 million incentive to make the WCF. Nothing against Capela, sorry it'd be a "harder" path for him to get money, but at a minimum its another motivator ----------------------- The downsides to the 4 seed are twofold for me. (i) Likely only one series with homecourt advantage... unless they meet OKC in the WCF. (ii) IF they were able to get by GSW, it's two series to have to stay focused and not get let down. It's not that hard to imagine getting past GSW only to blow it in the WCF or Finals. Anyway... I'm rooting for the 4th seed.
Yup, I'll take 4th. Also makes it easier to swallow if we lose the series. Cannot take another game 6 or 7 in the WCF.
You forget that facing GSW in 2nd round means Capela will have $1,000,000 riding on beating them vs facing them later *after* collecting it.
Aha!! Boom!!! ... though I don't think Capela has any extra gears. The FT incentive was achievable for him coming down the stretch... he just couldn't do it. He has been really good since returning though. In his 25 games since injury, he shot under 50% from the field once, and over 70% like 12 times. Double digit boards in every game but 3 (and 8,9,9 in those). Folks tend to like to complain about Clint not being "BIG" enough in the occasional game here or there. The truth is the rest of the team isn't big enough. Gobert plays next to Favors. Giannis plays next to Lopez (not a defensive stalwart or great rebounder, but a true big). Capela plays next to PJ Tucker.... who hustles!
Good effort..but for not...ur reason is cause Chris Paul gonna get hurt late so bring on warriors..u do know we cant beat 76ers bucks Boston raps without chris pual right. So if he gets hurt at any point we arent winning a championship
Whether that's true or not (potential, but definitely way way way way less true against other teams than GSW), you have to get by the 800 lb gorilla at some point. I don't think anyone would disagree with the fact that GSW is that gorilla and if you can't beat them its pointless anyway. If the Rockets get past GSW, and CP3 needs to rest a game in the WCF... well, it is what it is. Or play fewer minutes, or whatever. It's not the end of the world. CP3 with limited minutes or missing a game against GSW and there's absolutely no chance. But for the fact that the Rockets would have to be 8th, I'd be fine going against GSW in the first round. teams healthy, CP3 is healthy. Last night notwithstanding, the team is clicking. SO many things could happen in the 8-15 games before getting to a WCF. I mean 2 years ago the team got derailed by a Nene injury in the second round.
Celtics would absolutely not beat us w/o CP3. Sizers have no depth, no floor space, and a big Joel Embiid who is quietly a black hole on offense. I agree on Raps and Bucks.
Lol embid a black hole...yea a black hole of awesomeness. Bro he has basically the same stats as giannis. Embid if the most dominant force in the nba....more so then even Giannis. If not for injury he a mvp candidate
**** it, give me OKC in the 1st round. Took them a miracle to beat us in OKC. I see us beating them in a series 4-2.
Boom. Are you guys really worried about Utah?? If they can’t beat Utah - which isn’t a matchup problem - they’re not winning a ring. Rockets struggled against the Thunder this year and has MDA beat Pops in the playoffs yet? We take care of Utah and play GSW without home court advantage. Exact same situation.
Though we can't just look past Utah, I don't think anyone is worried about the Jazz. People are more worried about the Warriors.
