Warriors have been sleepwalking 1st halfes for the entire year. Yea they can be quite good, but they need their guards to have career nights to hang with us and it’s not too likely. But tbh no team has a good case for a win against us right now other than the warriors maybe (RS not PO)
What about all the games we won without Chris Paul? Your Cleveland and Boston examples illustrate that those teams can win without their 2nd-best player- just like we proved without Paul, our 2nd-best player. And one game is not going to be an accurate gauge of how good we are, anymore than Orlando's 27-point defeat of the Spurs illustrates that the Spurs aren't contenders. It's certainly not going to indicate that we don't deserve to be in 1st place- that's ridiculous.
They beat the Spurs by 17 (although it was 2 weeks ago), and they defeated the Nuggets, Blazers, and 76ers recently. Not terrible teams. There's just no way, though, that I'm going to say we're not deserving of the #1 seed if we lose one game to the Pelicans after having won 9 in a row. Perspective- it could be a concern, but that's really over the top. All teams have bad nights. Hopefully tonight isn't ours.
those wins without Cp3 ARE with Harden so we're all still dependent on him GSW, Cavs, Spurs losses don't count because those are championship teams with championship coaches and rosters but the issue with the Rockets for their lack of success in the playoffs is the whole team including MDA being totally dependent on Harden all I'm saying is if Harden does sit then this game will be a good guage for Cp3, Tucker, LMA, MDA, and the rest of the rockets team a win is great, a close loss is not bad, but a blowout loss means the team outside of harden is not any different from last year the ideal is we're number one because not only Harden has turned into super saiyan but the whole team & system around him has just got a whole lot better
I actually think it would be fun to see what the Rockets do without Harden. I want him to play so we don't risk losing but also would like to see what happens without him.
He better play I’m going to this one. Does anyone know when the doors open? I’m in line for the bobble heads now..
He better show up for this game. Nobody will cut Harden any slack, if he shoots like 3/17 like last year when he hurt his wrist.
I think we should rest Harden. I know he's listed as probable and so likely not that hurt, but rest games are smart regardless. Look how much rest the Spurs players get. Even fully healthy, Kawhi gets to sit one game out of ten. Harden has been balling hard. We want to keep all of our players fresh. Not only that, but the rest of the team should learn how to try and be competitive without him if possible. We're already good this year when he sits due to CP3, a huge improvement over last season. I think we can try it for a full game.
Good points. I take it back- the Rockets better win, damnit. But especially Saturday- b/c I'm going to that one- they damn well better beat Giannis and the Bucks.
too bad I was kind of curious what MDA, Cp3, Ryno, and Ego can do without Harden but they better be sure Harden is 120% because if some injury arises because he's not 120% ready and it's on the Rockets org
maybe because Harden's not perfectly fine/100% and having Harden around makes everyone play without a sense of urgency