Imagine losing tonite without Dwight. That puts a TON of pressure on game 3. If rox bring back Howard gm 3 who will be presumably rusty and lose ---that would be crushing. Guess what, game 4 in Houston you are now facing elimination against a darling team playing on the road 8 on 5. Do you really want to risk getting swept? Do you really want to spend all summer 2nd guessing that move while hearing all experts say I told you rox would get swept (or I gave the rox 1 game out of respect and they got swept anyway). You don't want it getting in the rox head that they can't beat the Warriors. Make no mistake, game 2 is a must win or that's it. Feel free to quote me later. * disclaimer- should we lose tonite I would rather the rox not get swept/win the series AND be wrong and ridiculed rather than hoping the rox fail for my own selfish agenda.
I get what you are saying. However, tonite IS a must win. Must win games are technically only elimination games but there ARE close seconds. Tonite is one of those.
Dwight at shoot around today https://twitter.com/Chris_Broussard/status/601448069784145920/video/1 Seems like he might be ok..
capella should get 15mpg now. eat into jones' minutes if dwight is on fire. give dwight more than 10minutes rest.
That's one side of the argument. And a compelling one. But....the other side is, what if he aggravates the injury tonight by trying to play too soon? Then we lose him for the rest of the series and we're cooked. It's not like playing him tonight is a guaranteed win. Especially since he's not at 100%.
Tonight is not a must win. Plenty of teams have come back from 2-0 deficits heading back home, including James Harden's 2012 Thunder. I don't think the Rockets will be one of them given they'd have to beat the 67-win Warriors 4 out of 5 games, but let's not go into meltdown mode if the Rockets lose tonight(especially if Dwight sits out).
chron.com Jonathan Feigan feels Dwight will play Game 2: http://video.chron.com/?ndn.trackingGroup=90000&ndn.siteSection=houstonchron_spt_non_sec&ndn.videoId=29112435&freewheel=90000&sitesection=houstonchron_spt_non_sec&vid=29112435
If there was a threat of a serious knee injury then the docs would have ruled him out by now. The fact that he's even allowed to try says it's entirely a pain management thing. Not that I think Dwight needs to prove to anyone that he is a tough player, but he will sure have to be tough to make a big impact out there tonight.
I don't think the trainer really wants to keep Dwight out of the conference finals... I can almost guarantee you, a regular patient would have already been told no sports. They bend the rules because of the setting. He's also wearing a huge brace. It's not there just for pain management, but because his knee isn't 100% stable. There's definitely risk involved, but they're trying to minimize it.
Agreed, and count on this board going into meltdown mode if it happens. Way too many "fans" waiting on it so they can validate their pointed fingers. That said, I expect a W tonight. GS still looking past us, and they barely took game 1 with cards stacked against us. Kerr thinks they can get "Whatever shot they want" with one extra pass and Curry thinks we can't run with them. If we play like I know we can, and should, I say we win tonight with or without DH... but I'm funny like that.
If he is limited to rebounding and rim protection... maybe pnr - no postups - he will be effective. He would not have to be twisting around on that left knee. Ill be happy with him getting 10/25! We have proven that there are capable scorers on the team especially in the paint.
