Lakers vs. Thunder: Don't compare it to last year's Rockets series

For sure, I can't wait for next season to see these two squad go at each other. My prediction is that the Thunder, Lakers and Rox will battle for #1 in the West next season while the Mavs, Suns and Spurs will take a step back.

 

Scola Dominates Green every game.. Green consistently has terrible games when he plays Houston

 

Spurs seem to never take a step back.. Pop just rests everyone for 75% of the season and laughs when media say they are "too old" last quarter of the season one solitary individual steps up and puts the team on their back.. this year it was Manu.. then they walk into the playoff as usual.

 

Last year's rockets without Yao arent better than the Thunder...if they were we would have made the playoffs too since our team this year, also without Yao, is better than last year's playoff team.

However, it's one thing to say one team is better in general, meaning how it stacks up with the rest of the league, but head to head is a different story. We beat them 3-1 in the season series, with the only loss coming with hill, jeffries and battier out. Head to head i'd say its a toss up between ths year's rockets and thunder, but that's different than how they each matchup against LA. Like the link said, it's all about matchups.

 

Just because the rockets match up well with the thunder doesn't make us a better team. Otherwise the bobcats would be better than LA.

 

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Next year, we will dominate. That's all I have to say tonight.

 

This year's Thunder team is not better than last year's Rockets team with Yao. That is an absurd statement. Without Yao it is debatable, seeing as how this year's team is quite different from last year's team and we only saw a Yao-less Rockets team play a *better* Lakers team to a 7 game stand-still, but with him... it's not even a question.

 

See, this is what posters are missing and probably don't understand. The lakers beat the rockets by an average of 13 ppg during the regular season last year with yao playing. In the playoffs, they won 1 game with yao. This is not to blame yao for the losses vs the lakers, but when you can play quick, you can beat la. You can't play quick with yao. So what happened, the rocket won 2 more games minus Yao. Playing quick also works against la because they have mobility issues.

I don't expect the thunder to beat la just as i didn't expect the rockets to beat them.The rockets can probably beat ok city previously, but with durant and the others getting better, that clock is runing out quickly.

 

I think most posters here tend to forget how young the Thunder are and how quickly they are growing. Their average age is 24... You add a big to their team this off season and you have a contender on your hands. We had their number the past three years but that's going to change unless we make another move.

I love AB but Westbrook will be better than him. Durant is better than Martin. Whenever Scotty Brooks puts Harden at the SG position, you're going to see a deadly team. Harden is a pure SG and he's proving that now as we watch the LA and OKC series. They need Bosh, Boozer or Lee at the C/PF position. If they can get a player at that level, the West is going to get a lot harder.

 

This is spot on, with Yao we would destroy them on the inside and they would constantly be in foul trouble. IMO the Lakers should win this series but if they continue to ignore their size advantage it could get dam interesting.

 

Speed kills and the Thunder are using their speed against the Lakers. Size is important but you can't use it to your advantage if your backcourt can't keep up. Foul trouble has forced Bynum and Gasol to sit down.

 

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Speed is great but if you have domininant bigs and actually use them it should be game set and match. A front line of Yao, Bosh and Ariza would destroy OKC and nuetralize their speed by pounding it inside which is what the Lakers should be doing.

 

thunder better than the rockets? lol

they all played 82 games this year and only one 8 more games than a depleted rockets squad.

 

You guys have got to be Homers... The Rockets with or without Yao are streaky in getting blow outs but when things don't work out and our offense is literally sealed off. Consider this, the Thunder always manages to keep it close and make decent comebacks against the Lakers... Have any of you guys been watching the series between LA and OKC? Durant literally stops Kobe in his track better than any defender Kobe has ever played against. Durant has a supporting cast that works with him in every possible way. I think our team at best got lucky 1 or 2 wins against OKC but when it really matters we have no chance.

 

Thunder is not only better than Rockets w/o yao, it's already on a contender level. The scary part which people don't understand is they are the youngest(healthiest) team and are playing better every day. Even if they lose this year, they have all the cap space and picks and will be the ideal destination for Dwade/Bosh.

IMO, they have 5 all stars or future all stars on the team right now including Green(R Lewis II), Ibaka(Mutombo II), Harden(B. Davis II). Green and Harden didn't get that much opportunity this year given how great Durant and Westbrook played, but they can average 20pts easily on any team as 1st or 2nd option.

Thunders in 7.

 

One common denominator is the Lakers don't bring it every night. They play around with you and let a series get extended when it shouldn't. Then they take it to another level and throttle you.

 

During yesterdays halftime show Jon Barry said not to compare this series to the Rockets Lakers series of last year because they're better than we were.

For real Jon, that's how you do us???

 

Pretty much. They have focus issues from everyone not named kobe. Odom should be working this squad and he's not as usual.