'95 Rockets are one of the greatest playoff teams in NBA history.

I already addressed that Laker team, see above. So the Jazz are 'serious competition' when the Bulls beat them, but not when the Rockets beat them?

Does this question make sense? I don't know what you're trying to say.

This is relevant how?

 

I was talking about the Pistons. We are talking about the complete championship run, the Bulls beat the Pistons on their way to their first championship. I wasn't referring to the Lakers.


And you can disparage the Sonics all you want, the Rockets never beat them. They are team they couldn't beat in 93 and the team they couldn't beat in 96. We have as close example as we can to the Rockets and the Bulls facing the same competition with the Sonics. Those Bulls teams always beat the Knicks, they beat the Suns, and they beat the Jazz, the only team they lost to was the Magic, and that was Jordan's comeback year.

 

As I said, I don't consider the Jazz serious competition. My question was that if you think the Rockets were THAT GOOD, wouldn't that make them competition for the Bulls?

But let's even simply accept that the Bulls never faced any competition, the difference between them and the Rockets are the Bulls can beat anybody (with the exception of the years Jordan retired, coincidence huh). We couldn't. That's why the Bulls are a dynasty, that's why they ARE the better playoff team. Oh and btw, Shaq was starting to come to his own in the second Bulls team too, along with Penny. I don't remember who said the Jazz were coming to their championship form, well, they WERE in their championship form when they faced the Bulls.

 

In which case I choose to respectively disagree. I won't try to change your opinion because that of both of us are already set.

 

MFW, u r not seriously letting us know any reasons for us to believe u. If u dont think the Rocks are one of the greatest, or actually any other arguement, like u said the current Spurs are better than the 95 Spurs, then why dont u come up w/ some good BASKETBALL reasons?? how about some stats, offense/defense/ fast break reasons, or even match up reason????

 

If the Rockets 95 Team wasn't one of the Greatest, then neither are the Bulls of the 90's.

The Rockets in '95 and '94 went through Utah (against which the Bulls won two titles) more in their prime then when they took the bulls to six, against Phoenix who took the Bulls to 6 two years earlier, against Portland who the bulls beat in '92. Then in the finals we beat the Knicks, who the Bulls always beat (in glory) to get to the finals and then the Magic who had beaten the bulls.

To discount the glory of '95 is to discount the 90's championships.

 

Okay, I said I'd stop, but you're right...people that are this fun to bash don't come along too often, so...

r****d

 

The Pistons only won 50 games that year.

So basically the Bulls beat the exact same teams the Rockets did, except for Seattle, which the Rockets didn't even play in their championship years. If you want to say the Rockets didn't play legitimate competition (I realize this wasn't you, pg), then neither did Chicago 5 out of 6 years (we'll say Seattle is legitimate, I guess ).

 

Good point. Besides, i dont consider Seattle legitimate if they are gonna go losing to 7th and 8th seeds 2 years in a row.

 

Two years in a row is significant enough to suggest Seattle couldn't hack it, but I never liked the 5 game series in the first round anyway. (BTW...I can't remember if the loss to 7th seed came in the 1st round, but I'm pretty sure it did...and I don't remember who that was. I know the 8th seed loss came to Denver in the 1st.)

 

revisionist history is fun!

how out of shape did you think he was when he returned to hang 55 on the Knicks in New York?? he either was one of the greatest players to play the game, or he was not...he didn't magically erode and then all of a sudden come back the next year to become the greatest ever.

 

No argument here.....

 

Yes, he also was the same guy who shot 41.1% that year, which is about about 9% lower than his career average and 17% lower than his career high (I should remind you I'm talking about the full season here so it's not an one game fluke). Isn't that interesting?

 

Yes, how fun it is. Btw, you're a moron and a-train is an ass.

 

Well, the rockets always won the season series against the Bulls and one reason was a fantastic defender in Vernon Maxwell whom Jordan said was the only player he didn't look forward to playing against.

 

damn thats gota be one of the best compliments a basketball player can get

 

I always laugh when the Jordan apologists try and run their "he was out-of-shape" BS. The fact is that baseball kept him in shape and he had something like 17 games to get back into game shape. And what they invariably fail to acknowledge is that while everybody else in those playoffs had to slog through an 82 game season, Jordan was well rested. It just makes the Magic's series win all the more impressive.

Shaq and Orlando beat a healthy, well rested Jordan in his prime and then the Rockets crush them. Say what you want about the Rockets as a team, but that was simply one of, if not THE, greatest playoff run in history.

 

Colt -- agreed....what stands out in my mind is how matchups didn't seem to matter...how will the Rockets defend Barkley? how will the Rockets stop Penny? in every series, on paper, it appeared they would have matchup problems...but instead they gave the other teams matchup problems. guys played at levels they never touched again in their careers during the 95 playoffs (horry, kenny, elie come to mind immediately).

we've seen great teams take out the league in the regular season and then just march through the playoffs...but rarely do you see a team put it together slowly and then fliip a switch during the playoffs. game 1 against utah was absolutely the most perfect game of basketball i've ever seen.

my point is...when a team gets on a roll like that, you can throw matchups out the window...they don't matter anymore. the rockets, particularly after coming back from a 3-1 deficit, thought they were unbeatable...you could see that swagger in them by they time they hit san antonio...and then we saw it big time in game 1 of the Orlando series, coming back from a 22 point deficit.