Clutchfans Game Thread: Rockets @ Thunder 8/31/2020 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 6)

Next game is the big one! Time to take care of business!! Will there be dirty plays? You betcha.

Will Paul elbow, knee, or grab someone in the nuts? If not him, somebody else will. Will the refs let them get away with blatant fouls and call a finger touch on Paul? Probably.

Time for Westbrook and EGO to get back on track. For all the b****ing and all the doubts just remember, Gordon and Westbrook's worst games weren't as bad as Paul's in game 2 when he was a pathetic -36.

Last two games
Gordon (+24 / -10), Westbrook (+21 / -9)
Paul (-28 / +20).

Reverse the curse and move on!
Go Rockets

 

Yeah cool take.

McGrady(healthy) has better stats in playoffs than Harden ever had, showed up and played with heart.

Did Rockets win then? no. But they didn't play Utah with Donovan Mitchel as their best players back then, paired with mvp teammate back then. They didn't play against 34 washed up CP with Danilo Gallinari as their second best player and Billy Donovan on the sidelines.

Tmac went against greats like Dirk Nowitzki, Jerry Sloan, Kirilenko, peak Detroit Pistons etc and I am 100000000% sure that if you swapped Harden into those Rockets or Magic, they won't advance either.

Not a ****ing chance he advances against those teams. Every time he plays some real competition that actually schemes agains Harden led offense like Miami(w OKC), Spurs, GSW, Blazers and now OKC he ****ing chokes in late game situations so while it is easy to hate for T-Mac that man never choked or dodged the ball.

Westbrook is getting hate too but 10/10 I prefer Westbrook that tries than James that hides

 

When CP3 was traded, my first thought was "watch him stay healthy and be great for another team."

I didn't think:
- that team would have the same record as us.
- that we'd play him in the 1st round.
- that the star we traded him for would be injured when the round started.
- that the series would go 7.
- that our returning start would choke while CP3 thrived.
- that CP3 would show up where Harden AND Russ could not.

I want us to win, I will watch and root for them, but f me of it doesn't seem like the gods of irony have set everything up to strike down upon us with a fury of painful comedy. My brain says we can take care of this. My heart needs this sht because I am so tired of playoff letdown (lol any HIMYM fans? Marshall screaming "not like this!!!!" hahahha), but my gut says that I know whats coming, because its all too perfect, and its going to be more than my heart and head can bear dammit.

 

Marshall is lawyer'd, Harden and Westy abide by the Breh Code and take turns.

Harden is more like Al Bundy than one of the HIMYMs, when did he get the pretty gal?

 

Still incredibly frustrating this morning the way the rockets loss last night

 

i can't predict a blowout loss. but i do foresee foster being assigned to game 7, which will likely break the spirit of the team even before tipoff, including morey and the coaching staff. mda's stubborness/laziness in games 3 and 6 are unforgivable. westbrook coming back from both corona & injury was obviously out of rhythm all game, and this fuking fool not only kept him in till the end but also decided to run the entire offense through him smh. i really believe if house had closed out the game instead of westbrook, we prepare for game 1 fakers today.

 

This is no different then years past, Harden gets his 30+ average and the teams second and third options literally help the other team win. It's proven already Harden can't win games alone, he is just not that guy and never will be. At least WB took blame, critical turnovers gave this one away with an airball for good measure. I can't for the life of me figure out what has happened to EG either, he balled the last couple years in the playoffs. Hater's can't blame Harden for this one, he has been efficient, but they still do. MDA should have drawn up plays that put the ball in Hardens hands not a rusty WB. We were certainly out-coached. A loss to OKC will be a disaster, there are no more excuses, MDA is gone if we lose and I don't care.

 

Green, McLemore, Austin.

When the Rockets really get it rolling, these guys are involved and knocking down shots.

When Harden, Westbrook, and Gordon are missing threes and turning the ball over, I wish we would get other people involved.

 

Its painful to lose but i have confidence in the world in which all this is possible...its fantastic world to live in....

 

If we lose this series, I think Harden's legacy is cemented: Charles Barkley 2.0. A supremely talented one-time MVP who could not get past the super team of his time and choked against lesser teams again and again in the playoffs.

 

if we lose this next game, its like when Paul's clippers lost to us when we came back from 3-1 with josh smith. The irony. Stick a fork in them, they're finished.

 

Well, it'll be interesting to see how it's blown up if we lose. Nobody is trading for Russ' contract. I've been dreading the day when Morey walks away from Tilman and the Galveston Mafia sets up in the front office. All signs point to us being Knicks South under full Fertitta control.

 

we will indeed be the knicks south. no real reason to watch. we are going to have to watch these guys play out there contracts. The only true way to rebuild would be to trade harden. but we know they will never do that.

tucker will be gone. rivers gone. stuck with gordon, westbrook.

we are going to have to root for chris clemons turning into stephen curry.

 

I don't quite remember the context, or who was asking the question, but there is public tape in the past couple days of Harden saying "(RWB) is our leader..."
"Our leader" treated those last couple tie-score possessions like he was Custer at Little Big Horn, with similar results.
It's sad, but can anyone say that it's not expected of this team at this point? The one player they need DESPERATELY to be the alpha dog just can't bring himself to lead the pack. It falls to players of lesser talent/ability/IQ to try to fill the gap and the Rockets become the 80s New Coke... something about them just ain't the same as Classic Coke and the results prove it, to their detriment.
In a similar vein... AD should be thanking Divine Providence that he's LBJ's running buddy. Similar problem to Harden in that he grades a 95% as an NBA superstar, but it's the missing 5% that would make him transcendent. He bridges that 5 point gap by playing with LeBron.
Harden is not so lucky, and if he has even a mote of competitiveness in him, he would move heaven and earth to play with a megastar who embraces being THE MAN.
Wonder what would happen if you could bring him and Lillard together... scary.

 

Thats why I still watch.

 

We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. If we go out in game 7, I think the question of "What can you get for Harden" has to be asked within the next year or two. We have no draft capital. We have no cap room. There is no path to improvement as he ages. We have no idea who our coach will be (and we know it won't be D'Antoni). We do have a cheap owner who bought the structure of a competitive organization and has given every indication that he will slam the championship window shut himself if he stops feeling a breeze.

 

I’m not doing a back and forth about Harden vs Tmac. It’s a ridiculous argument.

 

Tell me your secret one day or the stuff you're smoking.