When the Rockets were in the midst of their doldrums, I thought they were a lottery team. I was one of the doubters; I never thought they would be in the post season. When Yao went down, I thought they only had a slim chance of making the playoffs despite the winning streak. Boy was I wrong. The Rockets showed grit, team work and determination. They won an amazing 22 games in a row half of which were without Yao. They clinched a playoff spot tonight despite not having Yao, having a gimpy TMac, not having Alston, and having a clearly injured Landry. My hats off to them! Given the tough (and healthy) competition that the Rockets will likely face in the playoffs, I don't really see us getting past the first round; however, I've been wrong before about this Rockets team! PS, I owe hatemavs4life $20 too!
paging Brooks. There is no if, buts, the door is slammed shut for you even though it has been pretty clear for about a month now.
I had them in the lottery too. My bad. I don't think anyone can hold it against me that I was unable to predict that this team would go on to have the second longest winning streak of all time and would still be in the lottery had that not happened.
Leave Brooksball alone. HE's not the only one who thought we were not gonna make the play offs, just that he had the guts to make a thread about it...
i thought the team was pretty much done when we were 15-17 and mcgrady was injured.... i felt they would improve and make a push, but never did i think they would get passed 50 games.... truly amazing i am very proud of this team. i look at a team like the denver nuggets, who blew a game to the sonics tonight... they are completely healthy, and right now, without yao we probably don't have HALF the talent that they do, yet we are still winning games we are supposed to win, and are heading to the playoffs for sure. i didnt think we could do it, and im happy to say i was wrong.
I felt the same way when we lost to Philly.I was surprised when we won 12 games in a row with Yao. When he went down,I thought our chances were slim but I believed that the guys would make it to the playoffs which the experts said was not possible. I'm proud of the team for making it to the post season. I don't see us getting past the 1st round either but I hope they will give their all.
Hell, I kind of wish they were in the lottery. Call me what you will, but I can't imagine them doing much in the playoffs without Yao. That being the case, I think I'd prefer the lottery pick. Now I'll gladly eat those words if they prove me wrong and advance to at least the Western Conference finals. Because between the 22 game winning streak and a serious playoff run, the free agents will be lined up to take a chunk of our MLE and compete for a ring next year. Again, I'm not optimistic about our chances and would just as soon see us add a lottery pick to the roster. But seeing as it doesn't seem we have any chance of falling out of the playoffs and into the lottery at this point, there isn't much left to do but hope for the best. Go Rockets!
In a general sense, I agree with this. But you have to imagine what "being in the lottery" associates with. Even when Yao went down, the Rockets were pretty high in the standings, at least enough so that had they ended up in the lottery, it would've meant total crap play from the rest of the players. We may disagree, but there's enough potential on this team that I'd rather see them get valuable experience over being total stiffs. Seeing Brooks being able to potentially be our bench PG next year, Scola/Landry getting playoff experience, is more important that 5 or 6 spots up the draft next year.
Um, say Novak misses the 3. 51-26 right now.(6th seed) Say we get 2 losses during the streak. 50-27 right now(6th seed) Say we get 3 losses during the streak. 49-28 right now.(still the 6th seed) Say we get 4 losses during the streak. 48-29 right now(7th seed as Dallas has TB) 5 losses during the streak. 47-30 right now(still 7th seed) 16-6 instead of 22-0?? 46-31 and in 7th(we have TB over Denver) No, the streak didnt keep Houston out of the lottery. It gave them a better play-off position. This team was a play-off team with or without the streak. They just had a rough start to the season.
The rough schedule didn't help our start either: The first 20 games of the season we played: San Antonio three times New Orleans Dallas three times LAL twice Utah Phoenix That's 11 games against clubs which will win 50 games this season. Tie that in with 3 losses to Memphis in those same 20 games and we were under the pump from the start...
i was wrong too. but i still think it's going to be another first round exit. i hope i'm wrong again. but if not, i won't start a i was correct thread about it.
We need Brooksball to start a new thread "We can not pass the 1st round." It has been proven that his misguided confidence and stubornness is the best anti jinx to the Rockets team.
I know, but that's all the more reason to be excited to see what we could get with a late lottery pick.
