Man if Yao wouldn’t got injured during the 2009 playoffs, we had a decent chance going all the way. We managed to extend the SF vs Lakers to a 7 game series without him from game 4 (and he played injured in games 2+3). fter the Lakers series, we would face Nuggets and Magic - we were better from both of them that year.
I said 17-18, but that team that won 22 in a row was something special. I don't necessarily need a trophy to remember how much fun it was.
'96-'97. Barkley, Drexler, Olajuwon. The big three. Chuck's best chance for a ring (either that or with the Suns when they went to the finals). Maybe my favorite team of all time. The sad part is that when all three were healthy, that was a world beating team. Chales missed 29 games, Clyde missed 20 games. They had three 20 PER players (okay, Clyde was technically 19.9). All that, and then there was a clear as day moving screen by Karl Malone in the go ahead play in the WCF to eliminate the Rockets. If ever a team lost that should have won, that was the team.
97 Rockets should have made the finals. On paper it was a better team than Utah. F the j*zz. Not confident about beating the Bulls but could have been an interesting series. 08 Rockets before Yao went out for the year were the best team in basketball and would have beat the Lakers and Celtics. 09 Rockets T Mac was never healthy and Yao’s career ended in front our eyes. Sad AF but you gotta think if that team was healthy and performing at peak level, they would have won a ship easily that season. Yao, Scola, Artest, Battier, TMac, Brooks, Lowry, Landry, Wafer, Motombo (RIP). Team was effing loaded on paper. 18 Rockets is the most heart breaking bc the warriors looked neutralized. All the momentum was on the Rockets side but CP3 hammy. 20 Rockets if only management didnt pull that idiotic trade for Westbrook, CP3 came back strong that season and with Warriors out of the picture, Rockets would have absolutely steamrolled the rest of the league.
09 made me cry had the lakers we were the better team we lost deke in the first series against portland and still beat the blazers easily then we lost yao in the third game against the lakers and still took them to 7 games that was a championship team with yao and deke healthy
lol Yao and Mcgrady didn't win a series together, lets be real. A championship is a far cry Easily 17-18, people here forget how good that team was in the regular season. There was something synergistic about having Ariza in that lineup that wasn't the case the next year, their defense was insane and they were blowing teams out left and right. I never watched a game where I didn't think we could win, if we didn't it was clearly an off night. CP3 also reigned in harden's dumb tendencies to the point that he was playing like a ****ing GOAT. That team is top 3 best teams to never win a title, and defeinitely better than A LOT of teams that did win a title
