Hey Rockets! Just wanted to stop by and say nice job on the win. A lot of people aren't giving your team credit and just blaming the Clippers for "choking", but y'all were the better team. Your coach made a very good move inserting Josh Nowitzki Smith into the starting lineup and he just killed my beloved team over and over again. The Clippers couldn't keep up the pace for 4 quarters and played into your gameplan and your depth (even missing two starters... something the media barely mentioned) won out in the end. I am not a huge fan of Moreyball but there is no denying that this analytics approach -- 3s and drives -- is the future of the league until they tweak the rules more. All of the four remaining teams have a lineup built for this. While GSW is the clear favorite, I think you will give them a good series and, as I can't stand their "Warrior Nation" (largely because it is 50% Laker bandwagoners), I am the rare CA resident rooting for you. Was a fun (but devastating series). Best of luck in the WCF!
Thanks. Must be devastating for Clips fans to go down yet again. Don't think it was all down to choke, though. Just ran out of gas at the end.
thanks and likewise, it was a great series. i think the rockets surprised everyone, myself included. honestly, since the beginning of the season i picked the clippers to go to the finals because of the veterans, talent, and coaching on that team. although the rockets really came out in that game 6 and i think that was the moment they got over their nerves as a team. there is always next year, yall got an incredible squad really! the times you beat us were not pretty! best
It hurt but we are pretty used to this. Last year's OKC game 5 debacle was equally bad. It is weird just being the playoffs so I'm not too beat up about it. I think the real "choke" was in game 2 vs. San Antonio, because that loss ended up making the series go long and fatigue with so many games and Doc's lousy rotation really set in at the end. To be honest, the game 6 4th quarter comeback didn't surprise me that much because it seemed like your coach figured it out by the end. The Clippers were having to take timeouts during fast breaks in the 3rd just because they were so gassed, and you knew that Doc wouldn't give his starters a rest (and when he did, he'd sub in Baby Davis, who is too fat and short to have even played a single minute in this series against long athletes.. anyone could see that). I guess I feel like the media really disrespected you guys by making it look like the Clippers lost the series rather than the Rockets winning it. I mean, if you had switched the 3rd and 4th quarters in game 6, would it still be considered a "choke"? Fact is, the Clippers didn't even look like they belonged for most of the last three games, and that is credit to your rotations and the lack of depth. Only chance the Clippers had was to close it out early or to have rested more from the previous series.
Nice post, clippy Clippers actually earned more respect from me than I had for them before the series. As PROFESSIONALS. They're known as team of whiners/floppers/lob-city divas. But this series, and playoffs, they've played without much of that. Just playing hard, focused competitive basketball. Say what you want about Chris Paul, you can tell he WANTS it and is the last thing from a choker. Blake Griffin matured as a player. They're saying Anthony Davis is the future/present, but Blake is staking his claim that HE WAS that guy with that distinction before, and Unibrow has to wrestle the title from HIM I think fans and media deep down wanted to see better for the Clips in the Post-Donald era, for the nice story line. They still have a good nucleus to work around. Improve the bench and couple positions, and Clippers will be awfully tough.
Didn't follow the NBA much this year. The Spurs series was really good so I got excited again, only to get let down. Lost some money sports betting, oops. I hope you guys give GSW a chance since everyone things they will just sweep their way to the title. That team is full of dooshes but they are so beloved no one talks about it. Kerr will keep his starters in when they are up 20 with two minutes left. F that guy.
To be honest, the Clippers future isn't that bright unless they do something crazy or Doc shows some willingness to take chances on unproven Euros or rookies, like Pop. They are pretty handcuffed with their existing salaries, assuming they keep DJ (which they should.. he was fantastic and should improve if the league finally gets rid of that idiotic hackashaq rule). It's hard to compete with the Moreyball strategy but Griff isn't really a stretch 4 and we have no starting quality 3. Should've tried to swing something for Iggy or Pierce when they were available.
It's easy to improve the Clippers: 1. Hire a real GM. 2. Do whatever to keep Paul / Griffin / Jordan. 3. Get some good role players. Good role players are easy to find. Plus the new cap increase should make it easier.
Well, if you look at the Clippers lineup, those three guys (assuming DJ gets the max) take up pretty much all the salary. Maybe we could trade Redick or see if someone wants Crawford (hard to imagine after this year's playoffs), but there really aren't any assets. No draft picks, and a pretty bad track record with Doc's GMing (although I thought Hawes and Dudley were good pickups at the time). Definitely need to separate the GM from the coach though. With Ballmer it'd be nice not to have a salary cap! At least we aren't the Lakers. Those guy guys are *****cked!!
The Clippers I thought turned the corner as a team in that Spurs series and being up 3-1 against us only further proved it but, the Clippers brought great things out of the Rockets in the end. As an outsider, to me it seems like a huge step-back for the Clippers franchise, given all the hype they had coming into the series. Where do you think your team goes from here? Does DeAndre stay?
Props clippy for making an appearance. Sorry but I still hate your team and it's players. Especially that fake thug Barnes. I do like Blake though, he's a player!!!
Warriors and their coach are the most hypocritical bunch in the NBA. They think they are entitled to everything just because they had good regular season while other teams all had injuries to deal with. Rockets will take care of Warriors and reminds them that just perimeter shooting cannot win Championships.
You'd love Barnes if he were on your team. That guy is hilarious. That tweet where he told some former scrub to eat a dick had me in stitches. He's very candid in interviews and surprisingly well-spoken. But yeah, I can see how you'd hate him. I think some players are easy to hate on the court but are likeable off it. For instance, I don't like Harden's game on the court but I was really impressed by his attitude during game 6 when he was benched and genuinely excited for his teammates. A lot of stars (*cough*24*cough*) wouldn't be that way.
Yeah, I don't know if the Rockets can beat GSW-- they are pretty damn good-- but I do think y'all will give them a good series. I guarantee that Doosh Kerr will be pulling the hackashaq bs every single second because he is the kind of coach that wants to integrate himself into every aspect of the game. I hope mchale doesn't fall for it and keeps Howard in though. It is just not a successful strategy.
Just want to say, I was rooting for you guys if you had won. I think that team needs a lot more heart. CP3 played his heart out, hopefully one day he'll get his.
It is very sad that CP3 is getting this reputation as being a choker and I genuinely felt bad for him. You can tell he is one of the most competitive players in the league and a lot of his dooshbaggery is just trying to game the system to win. I don't think anyone on the team choked or gave up. They were just flat out exhausted because Doc doesn't use his bench outside of over the hill chucker Jamal and all of the key starters were playing like 45m a game. That is why they looked so much better in the earlier games. Also, McHale figured it out and Josh Smith turned into Larry Bird for some reason. WTF was that.
