at this point i'd rather play the lakers than the blazers

Bradley is a bum.

 

Zach Collins is out indefinitely.

 

Even WITH Bradley and Rondo, Rockets handled the Lakers.

 

Even if Lebron and A.D. score 50 points each we would still beat the Lakers.

 

As long as rest of team scores zero.

But that's a lot of points, Lakers do not play fast enough to do this.

 

Yeah, no. Rockets have the best chance of anyone to beat the Lakers, but the NBA might as well burst the bubble without LeBron and the Lakers. Rockets would have a fair chance of beating them in a long WCFs.

 

Lakers game gonna bring us a lot of fun, thou Lebron n AD definitely hard to defense.
Blazers is giving Lakers tough 1st rnd games, worn Lebron out. Once blazers survived from the grind, they could change into a real contender.

But, the chances of meeting the blazers are slim, (the gold n purple is always a golden egg) no mention they growing to be a real threat to us.

 

Another Rox hater who wanna retaliate n prove us wrongly sack him or trade him…but this story gonna be a little bit weak as well as boring to replay in 2nd rnd.
Just take on the Lakers.

 

I feel like the Rockets have the math advantage against the Lakers, can play their bigs off of the court and the Lakers don’t have strong enough guard play to make Harden or Westbrook work. They don’t have the same advantages against the Blazers and that’s why they worry me more than the Lakers.

 

California dreaming

 

At this point, nobody wants to play the Rockets.!!!

 

Their team D sucks, but their guards are too quick to defend.
Besides, Russ can't stay chill whenever he meet dame.

 

C'mon man, i was expecting to you to channel MDA and go with "We dont match up to them - they match up to us!"
lol!

True, with the existing lineup other teams do not matchup well defending against us - but the concern is who can best offensively exploit the tradeoffs we have made to go this route - that would be rim protection, ptip defense in general and rebounding... I think the Lakers are built to hammer us inside... Now if we are hitting our 3s then the point becomes moot bc 3>2 - but if we go cold for a few minutes then they can continue to move the scoreboard - unlike OKC that didnt seize the opportunity when we went cold for a bit...

 

Careful what you ask for, people.

 

Please David Bowie

Sorry I couldn’t resist

 

it doesnt matter if you ask for. none of this is in our control, you get what you get. both teams come with different challenges but I think we will be up to the task even if its is the mighty king james.

 

just food for thought: Blazers have lost Collins for the rest of the playoffs. Lillard dislocated finger on non shooting
hand & will take away from his offensive attack intensity from this point on. I believe the Lakers win on out with this
1st rd series.

Having said that, here are some interesting tidbits:
Less than 6 feet team defense:
https://stats.nba.com/teams/defense-dash-lt6/
30) Clippers...............64.3% (DFG%)............21.0 FGA (Mavs < 6 ft)

29) Rockets...............62.0% (DFG%)............25.0 FGA (< 6 ft) vs the great inside game of S Adams. Chuck Barkley
said he is elite inside power player that would torch the Rockets for 20 points and 20 rebounds. Rockets
need to keep teams under 70% in this stat (in greater than 15 attempts) to win majority of playoff games imo.

28) Bucks...................61.5% (DFG%).............19.5 FGA (< 6 ft) great interior defense because they pack the lane.
27) Blazers.................61.3% (DFG%)............37.5 FGA ( < 6 ft) Lakers attacking Nurkic/Melo/Whiteside
26) Nuggets................60.9% (DFG%)............32.0 FGA ( < 6 ft)
25) OKC......................60.3% (DFG%)............29.0 FGA ( < 6 ft) Rockets without WB
24) Lakers..................59.6% (DFG%)............23.5 FGA ( < 6 ft)
for context...
2) Mavs.......................56.6% (DFG%)............26.5 FGA ( < 6 ft) vs Clippers
1) Jazz........................46.2% (DFG%)............26.0 FGA ( < 6 ft) Nuggets staying away from Gobert.


Team Defense vs opponent 3-pt shooting
https://stats.nba.com/teams/defense-dash-3pt/?sort=FG3_PCT&dir=1
8) Rockets.....................35.8% (D3FG%)...........33.8 opponent 3PA (OKC)

6) Lakers.......................33.3% (D3FG%)...........31.5 opponent 3PA (Blazers)
3) Bucks........................31.1% (for context) they seem flipped from reg season on def3P and interior Def.
1) Blazers.....................27.1% D3FG%).............35.0 opponent 3PA (Lakers are not that great a 3-pt shooting restart team.

 

Will a hands down win in 1st rnd be good to this team? Will that make us layback n lost some intensity?

When we showdown w/ Lakers, who they gonna attack?
To attack the Beard n Brodie, n try to set traps bringing our score leaders into fault troubles as well as testing refs (the league) bottom line?

I'm just wondering

 

with the current state of the blazers, i much rather them, then having to worry about lebron and AD flipping the switch and going mad against us. At least with portland you just have dame to worry about. but you have two players on a good day that are significantly better than dame. not to take away from dame of course.