Unless there is some playoff format rule that I don't know about, I feel like the Nuggets are taking that 3 seed. If that happens, call me crazy, but I would rather take the 7 seed and face the Thunder. I don't think we can beat either in a 7 game series, but we have at least beaten the Thunder once. The Nuggets are young, athletic and like running, so no chance we can gas them in a series. They play better D and they are DEEP. I think out starting 5 matches up pretty well against them (although Manimal would destroy whoever we threw at him), but their bench mob would eviscerate ours. They are not getting any attention now because the Heat's streak is just crazy, but I honestly think they are the only team that could beat the Heat. Their bench is just so good and God gave them a serious home-court advantage. That's assuming we can even get the 6 seed though, because we got that nasty 4 game run coming up. I don't see Utah rallying though, so I think we're safe concerning the playoffs. Even still, I can't wait to see how this season ends. Go Rockets!
I will take ANY team in the WC over the Thunder as our matchup. Only a Hakeem vs. Robinson type of an effort from Harden will prevent us from getting smoked. Basically for me, hardest to easiest, 1. Thunder 2. Spurs 3. Clippers(CP3 factor) 4. Nuggets 5. Grizzlies
this. I don't know what people are smoking when they are like "OH NOES DENVER NUGGETS!" Yea maybe not an ideal matchup, but in comparison to OKC that will pick us apart and bring out of the broom easily...comeon. The thunder aren't as good of a team against other elite teams this year, but they can still beat the crap out of teams like us, not to mention that they have so many different weapons on any given night...it is just way too difficult to beat them. The spurs don't have the same arsenal, but they are the spurs which makes them so deadly. Everybody else is a whole tier below these two teams. Anybody that thinks otherwise hasn't seen too many games by them or is smoking something.
Also, regular season matchups are completely useless at prediciting playoff success. A 7 game series is a grueling process where matchups are exposed/exploited and adjusted. When it comes to OKC, we won an extremely Fluky game over them just in the regular season. Over a 7 game series your are looking at a 20+ point beatdown every night. Watching that same game we won, I ironically understood that apart from that miracle we really have no hope of beating them. It was picking our poison everytime with their front line in durant/westbrook/ibaka/thabo/martin. They moved the ball so well on top of that. To give you an example, the Lakers swept us in the regular season in 09' but by watching the games you could tell that matchup wise we faired pretty well against them. Despite Yao giong down we still took it to 7 games. We keyed in on Brooks exploiting the opposing teams' PG and used that to open everybody else's game.
Not sure what i'm smoking, but the Nuggets are the last team that I would want the Rockets to face in the playoffs. They play our style better than we do They play our style AND they play defense They have depth all the way to the 12th man They're athleticism is through the roof, and definitely trumps ours Kenneth Faried's non-stop motor George Karl Thunder would be the preferred matchup if only for the Westbrook factor of him losing his head, and K-Mart's disappearing act.
It doesn't matter if they play the same style as us, thats completely irrelevent in a scenario where you have playoff seasoned teams that run offenses that have been deadly for any teams they face. The spurs play a completely different style and wipe the floor with us easily. While I did say the playoffs are completely different from regular season outcomes our games in Denver were pretty winnable. The games with the thunder? That was ridiculous how outmatched we were. For the game we won. Kevin Durant pretty much had the worst game he's had all season. Westbrook had a mediocre game. Thabo was the only player on their team that actually played well. With all that we had to go INSANE to squeek that one out. The thunder could have still won that game, I don't understand why they went into r****d mode because the way they were getting looks they were unstoppable. The thunder are more athletic than the nuggets btw, they have one of the most athletic PGs to ever play the game. Collectively with Ibaka, Thabo, and Durant, they tank above the nuggets. The thunder have the 2nd most unstoppable player in the NBA. Durant is going to get his looks no matter what. When he does, it opens up for westbrook. -With that both are also the highest FT shooting tandem. -The thunder are VERY good at containing Harden..harden is the reason that we are even able to talk about the playoffs...notice how he looked like a scrub the earlier games we played them? -Ibaka and Perkins give Omer and Dmo a lot of problems, they will be getting good looks when KD and WB try to create. -Their slashers and spot up shooters in KMart and Thabo are spot on. They will drill their open looks and we know how good our perimeter D is...
I seriously think that Denver is the team right beihind Heat,OKC and Spurs They are the dark horse to win the champion
That'd be funny, 1. Denver wins a championship while Melo got sweeped in the first round; 2. McGee with a championship ring, what is he gona do? eat it? But its not gona happen.
I'm not saying you guys are wrong in thinking the Thunder are a VERY good team, but I think you guys need to give the Nuggets more respect. Again if not for the Heat, everybody would be talking about the Nuggets right now. They're peaking at the right time. They've won 14 in a row with 8 wins against playoffs teams, including 1 blowout over the Clips and 2 over the Thunder (one coming on the second half of an away/away B2B). They are playing fantastic basketball right now and finding all kinds of ways to win. Right now a Heat/Nuggets game would be my fantasy game to watch. It's very difficult to predict the Western playoffs, but I wouldn't be surprised if Denver made it out of the West. I would still bet on the Thunder, (think an OKC-SA series would play out pretty similarly to last year's, unless Pop made some big adjustments I don't know about, but I don't watch many Spurs games, so I really don't know) but the Nuggets are getting slept on by everyone.
OKC hasn't been playing well lately. Dropped back to back against Denver and Memphis. Durant playing below his high standards. If they don't work out of this funk soon, they may be the sitting duck.
Denver is a scary, scary matchup for us. I don't want to face them in the first round at all. I could see us getting swept.
Exactly. Thunder is the last team I want to see in the playoffs. We can't expect a career performance from Harden every night in a 7 game series or for Lin to go crazy from 3. And tbh I can see Harden becoming a little overwhelmed at facing his old team in the playoffs and laying a stinker here or there. In reality we have no chance against any of the top teams. Not even the Grizz despite what a lot of people think.
I would want to avoid the Spurs at the start, they have experience from everywhere. I take the Thunder over those teams. It will be hard to beat the Thunder when they are warmed up and they are young. The Spurs will be easier to beat because the mileage on Duncan and injury to Parker. If we get swept by Thunder, it will be a good thing. In the off-season, they will work harder instead of being complacent.
In the playoffs where you have to beat a team four times the nuggets may be a easier matchup versus right now at this point in the season. Playoffs are more star driven then season play plus you really get to study your opponent more. It will be a learning experience for the rockets anyway.
Regardless of who we face, it will be a struggle and that's the fact. We have to face the truth today that the team is still lagging a lot from behind the top tier teams. There are still a lot of things to do during the off-season. Saying that, I'd still wish for some luck. Nothing's impossible. Who knows, Rockets as they are right now might overachieve again. We've seen it a lot this season. Let's just give encouragement to our guys.
I agree with this, I also think McFail will be outcoached very badly in the playoffs...I hope we can pull out at least 2 wins (of course ideally an upset would be ideal) but I want to be realistic. Round one will give the rockets a taste of the playoffs so next year they can be even more hungry.
Totally agree - plus it took Linsanity type performance from other PG just get win from at home. The other games where blow-outs I think Rockets have better chance against Denver.
Rockets can beat everyone* if Lin + Harden have twin performances and Asik gets his rebounds. When both our G's can light it up at the same time we usually roll to victory no matter the opponent. *except the Spurs, Thunder, Clippers or Heat.
