Great win tonight, first of all. But as most should know, Kawhi Leonard suffered a similar hand injury that kept Patrick out for significant time. Patrick was supposed to be out at least 4-6 weeks, but somehow he came back just before the 4 weeks. Anyway, if Kawhi misses significant time, can the Rockets catch up to the Spurs in the playoff race? With the win tonight, we go 29-15 compared to the Spurs' 32-10, 4 games behind them. While it is going to be tough considering how the Spurs never seem to miss a beat, even with player missing significant time, and usually turn up the intensity around this time of year, I think if there was a chance for us to catch up and overtake the Spurs, it will be now. Kawhi hasn't been as great as many thought, but he is still a huge part to that team as he guards the best opposing perimeter player every game. And the Rockets have already a 2-0 lead in the season series with the remaining 2 games at home. I say there is a valid chance. Being the division winner, guarantees home court advantage, which was the main goal for this Rockets team as well as making the WCF. I do think we can and will pass the Blazers and the Clippers, eventually. I saw this team at most a third seed with OKC and the Spurs ahead of us, but now with this injury to Leonard, I can see us getting the 2nd seed which would go a long way into helping us get at least a WCF appearance. Thoughts?
I'm not overly concerned with catching the Spurs. IF the Rockets can pass Portland and LAC then we'd be a top 3 seed, and this team can get to the WCF as a top 3 seed (beat GS/Dallas type, then SA).
Spurs will still be top seed even if they lose their big 3. A more realistic scenario is Rockets overtaking Blazers, since the Blazers' schedule gets tremendously tougher in the 2nd half of the season.
hate to sound redundant, but the spurs are a finely tuned, well oiled machine. rockets the rockets may have a ferrarri frame, but until we see any sort of consistency from this bunch, I wont bet on it
Go look at the Spurs minute totals. Literally one player is playing over 30mpg. There is no way we will catch them.
Looking at the Blazers, their schedule picks up and it looks like they are finally slowing down just a bit.
They have capable players to take Leonard's minutes. Only injuries to Duncan or Parker would really have an impact.
Our only hope to getting a 4 seed is being better than either POR or OKC. Portland seems like the only reasonable one, but I still think we'll be 5th seed with HC avantage over the Clips. Which ****ing sucks cause the Clips got our number smh
We're 4 losses behind Blazers who are at 32-11. Their schedule gets a lot harder and plus the Rockets have played 2 more games than them. Think catching them is more realistic than the steady Spurs.
If we get everyone healthy and Asik accepts his role and plays with his head on straight, sure, it's possible.
The problem is that despite the Spurs losing against top tier threats, they still beat the crud out of teams they're supposed to.
In my universe the teams that win the battles around the basket have an advantage over teams that don't. Tim Duncan as great as he is isn't willing to fight around the basket. If Tiago Splitter gets injured and doesn't play the tone of the Spurs will become trailblazer soft and they will be very beatable.
