OKC, San Antonio or the Clippers. I especially don't want to see the Clippers. We can't stop Chris Paul no matter who we throw at him, not to mention Reddick and Crawford, who seem to always go off on the Rockets.
This. If we get a good wing defender for guarding Durant, OKC would become a lot less threatening. Not sure why we match up so poorly vs the Clips, it might have just been early in the season when the Howard/Asik combo was being attempted is why we got killed. I'd like to see some later matchups when Rockets are healthy and Clips get CP3 back.
Undoubtedly the Clippers. They are this decades Sonics to our Rockets. Avoid at all cost. I think, as waffles said above, if we can get another good wing defender, we can hold our own against OKC and potentially beat them.
tbh it wouldnt matter once they get in for sure they start playing for real and wont be half assing games and I think they would be able to beat both OKC and SA
I know we have a good record against them the past two years, but I think the Warriors are a tough matchup for us as well. We haven't played them with Iguodala (he was hurt when we played them earlier), and I think that Iggy would have the potential to shut Harden down and make that a bad matchup. Although, when you look at it, the West is just stacked and every matchup is going to be a tough one.
The clippers are a bad matchup for us. Their strengths at the 1 and 4 really hurt our team. Also JJ Reddick will make Harden move around so much defensively. OKC is the 2nd worst. unfortunately they just own us I would love to play against the blazers first and then San Antonio(gregg popovich in the playoffs can be scary)
Lol... there's no "if". We're going to make the playoffs. We're so assured of it that I can't even jinx it by saying this. No. Eff you guys. I can't.
OKC/LAC. OKC is self-explanatory. The Rockets don't match up well against the Clips right now because they are elite at defending transition baskets and the 3 ball(post Doc at least). Running isn't really effective against them because they are also a good running team. The Rockets kill the Blazers cause they are terrible at guarding the 3 ball, not good at transition defense and have poor interior defense. I think the Rockets also fare pretty well against the Warriors. Ideally its Portland/GSWs in the first round and Spurs/Blazers/Warriors in the second round.
I'm not going to say Clippers. Honestly, I'm not terrified of them like some of you guys are. Yeah, we have two bad losses against them but they were early in the season. I would like to think we are much better now than then. CP3 is worrying though but if Bev is healthy and Lin is confident and aggressive, we can hope to stay close in that match up. Actually Dallas scares me almost as much. OKC is probably the team I would hate to face the most. KD seems to play lights out against us and James almost the opposite when he sees his old team. Sure James has had some big games against them but unless his three is failing early and often, he has struggled. OKC is built to hinder us as well. Explosive point guards in Westbrook and Jackson, defensive shooting guard in Tabo, the best perimeter scorer in the NBA in KD, a fearless shot blocker in Ibaka and tons of guys to throw at Dwight in Perkins, Ibaka, Collison, Adams. Only way we beat them is by getting extremely hot from 3 and Dwight turns superman and dominates Spurs and Portland don't scare me too much. Spurs always turn it on during the playoffs as Pop will have his full compliment of players all healthy and ready to go. But I don't think they can stop our offense, especially not Portland. Teams I want to see in the playoffs: 1st: Portland 2nd: Warriors (we always punk them even thought they try to punk us with BS) 3rd: Spurs
Only "great" team we want to face is the Blazers. Spurs we're done in 5 or 6, Clips the same, and Thunder the same if not in 4. Of the other lower seeds, Dallas would be able to challenge us and perhaps beat us but I wouldn't bet on that. I'd be scared to bet in general, Carlisle switches his strategy at half-time and kills us. A lot also depends on the return for Asik, if he is traded, or if he stays. We're a different team then, much different.
We own this team. They are a complete phony team, just a jump shooting team with a horrible coach. I'd go as far as to say Mark Elfman Jackson is on par with McHale as the dumbest coach around. Their addition of Crawford, for the bench, makes them even easier to stop and even dumber on the court. This is a team that garners too much hype. They are a bad team, still.
I have a feeling we'll be stuck at the 5th position playing the Pacific leader in the first round, which mostly likely is the Clippers. Definitely not a good matchup.
