Agreed. In fact, with the way travel is these days, conferences are lame too. The NBA should just have the top 8 teams in the whole league making the playoffs so that the regular season means more and we can do away with this monthlong first round that rarely leads to anything useful.
Based on what? Getting demolished 3-0 last year by the Clippers and swept for the first time in your franchises long history by the Clippers? Or the fact that this year we demolished you twice and had a fluke blowout loss where Harden didn't play and our guys didn't show up? That's 5-1 vs the Rockets the last two years and the Clippers are fighting for a 3 seed while you guys fight for a 6. So it's beyond stupid to talk like this. The Clippers are one of the only teams who has no problem running with the Rockets and outgunning them but also is much bigger as a team and MUCH better defensively. In other words.. the Rockets may outrun most teams but not the Clippers or Nuggets in a series. One fluke win doesn't mean you match up well. I love the Rockets team and the Rockets fans here.. but this ignorance and arrofance had to be addressed.
Why are you sure of this? Looking at the schedules it seems more likely that the Rockets get the 6th seed than GSW to me. If the Rockets win out they get it and if GSW loses to the Spurs or Blazers the Rockets just have to take two of three from the Suns, Kings, Lakers. I think its about 60/40 in favor of the Rockets for the 6th right now.
The GSW/Spurs game is on a back to back for the Spurs, and Pop already is resting his guys (it is unlikely the Thunder lose any more games and as such the Spurs are locked into #7). So GSW will probably win that. They will also probably win the Blazer game since the Blazers are pretty much tanking at this point. Meanwhile, the Rockets hopes hinge on the Lakers (assuming they beat the Suns & Kings as they should). This will come down to if the Lakers have anything to play for (which depends on Utah, which depends on Memphis, so it gets complicated). If the Lakers do have seeding to play for, there is a 0% chance that the league will let them lose after having come this far. If they don't, then yeah, the Rockets have a good chance. So after thinking about this, it's probably more like a coinflip. That said, I think the Rockets are a heck of a lot better off taking on the injured Spurs than either the Nuggets, Grizz, or Clippers. Not sure how McHale feels though.
I know, my god he is so bad. But at least he has come to his senses (or maybe revealed his ace in the hole) and started playing Bledsoe with Paul. That is one of the best backcourts in the league.
Part of me thinks it might be better to play the Spurs but I still think I'd rather take our chances against the Nuggets. At least in that series we have the best player and aren't ridiculously over matched when it comes to playoff experience. I will probably regret hoping that by half time of game 1 though.
On paper I have no idea why Denver is so good since it seems like they aren't all that deep now that Lawson & Gallo are out. But they are basically unbeatable at home so I would def. not want to play them without HCA. Also, Karl is prob. the best coach in the West outside of Pop.
Umm, he's not saying the Rockets can beat the Clippers. He's saying that it's the best possible matchup (not that I agree with that though). I'd rather face the Spurs. Mentioning last year's results is completely useless also because the team is totally different.
The Clippers beat the Rockets in 2 regular season games. That's something to be proud of. However, we did start the season with the youngest roster in the league combined with some of the highest turn-over in the league. Hopefully, we'll only continue to get better - as we have. I can see you already know that the Rockets won the most recent matchup between the two teams. You said something about last season, but I'm not sure that is relevant. I know it can be hard to get diverse news & information in LA so I thought I'd help with some research materials. In particular, we acquired a new point-guard, shooting guard and center. You can read more about that here: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-thunder-trades-james-harden-to-houston/article/3723183 http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...120721_1_omer-asik-tom-thibodeau-derrick-rose http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/sto...-jeremy-lin-houston-rockets-offer-report-says
Score 1 for heypartner pissing off two Las Angeles fans. Oh, did I misspell Los Angelas. sorry Sorry, ...that's rude of me...I'm sure you know how to spell T E X A S
LOL Clippers fans aren't as bad as the Lakers fans here. They are more humble in comparison. That team had been mismanaged by their owner for so long. If Rockets were to be eliminated by another team early, Clippers would be one of the teams I wish can go all the way, not for the bandwagoners but for their long time sufferring fans.
Actually Heypartner DID say the Rockets match up well, not that the Clippers were merely the preferred matchup. The context of his post was arrogant as if the Clippers will pose no problem for the Rockets. Which as I said it's quite the opposite. The Clippers are the only team in the league along with the Nuggets probably that can handle the Rockets tempo but ALSO play defense at a high enough level to take over the games. In the first two Clippers vs Rockets games this year you had a close game through the first half pretty much. Then the Clippers cranked the defense a notch and Houston folds. I doubt it will be much different in a playoff series. I understand Houston wanting to avoid Denver so as somebody else said in here, ideally you guys draw Memphis.
