The only give me game is against the Jazz. The rest against solid playoff teams, 4 of them on the road. Hopefully Rockets can get at least 3 or more wins.
The bad news is OKC won't be able to clinch home court over the Cavs before the Rockets play them Friday.
First and foremost, beat Jazz and clinch a playoff spot. We are back! The last five games, #1 priority should be avoiding injury. Play a deeper rotation and rest starters. 2-3 or even 1-4 should be enough for finishing top 4. Home-court advantage gonna be a huge boost for our playoff rookie young core, also we have a better home record (.71 vs .57). btw: Hey guys, a message from China. Has been a Rockets fan since Yao Ming's days. Used to be a mod on (unofficial) Chinese Rockets forum for a couple years. Discover this place only recently lol.
But you want OKC to have something to play for against Lakers. Ideally they beat the Pistons, given them I think an 11 game winning streak and 18-1 in their last 19. I could see them get a little satisfied because that would be their longest winning streak of the season and best 19 game stretch of the year. Hopefully that allows the Rockets to steal that game. So then the Thunder have to play their starters vs Lakers and at least split that twofer.
Good point. It would be huge if the Rockets beat OKC here on Friday to possibly force them to beat the Lakers twice in their B2B at OKC next Sun/Tue.
I have heard from some OKC reporters that they wish to rest half of the starters to avoid injury, they heard Tari and Amen take no prisoners. Coach Mark is against resting. #Physicality
I said it before what will keep them from winning is how they defend high screens/roll. They usually find success jumping out trapping or hedging or switching on high screens. Dropping back or passively defending it wont do it. Also Stop collapsing on Lebron or any star driving to the lane. OKC and these other teams with great shooting will kill us. We saw Vincent killed us last night. Going into the playoffs we need to stop being passive on high screens and collapsing.
First of all, they unfortunately will have the best record in the league and home court in the Finals left to play for. Second, it's not all good if they're not motivated to win that game. Cuz their next two after that are back to back home games against the Lakers. We need them to be fully engaged in those.
