When the Rockets lose, my girlfriend knows to give me 5 minutes to fight my inner turmoil. After that is all good, but she learned the hard way in the beginning.
I told myself after the POR debacle last year, I won't get any ILP anymore since the Rockets keep disappointing me. But nah, I got it again this year. Maybe next season, I'll save some money by finally giving up on following the Rockets on ILP.
not yet but I might be inclined to subscribe to your newsletters. A weird part of me wants them to lose in the first round so I can get back to my life. I will be ENTRENCHED into this now coming up here and I don't think my mind and brain will be able to fathom anything past the first round. My tummy was satiated by the 2 chips and mario elie kiss of death. So Im good for this lifetime but dammit if a real playoff run might tax me. It's like a bad girlfriend you cant get enough of. So first round exit is not end of world. After that imagine we up and make it past first round then big whoop? We extend death? At that point we need to be prepared to dig in and ride until june. seems really unimaginable. Maybe we can capture that lightning like we did back in the day. Probably not since that was special. But remember what made it special is the tooth and nail that we fought and the glory of taking it all the way! then doing it again. but those who remember also remember we took our punches and lost our fair share during those runs. It will happen and we cant be some dramatic. A deep playoff run is awesome when it becomes special. I dont really feel that with this team and here we are 4 games left or 3 games or whatever it is, and havent integrated howard harden pick and roll for shi**t. we are basically up a creek with the paddle at this point and that is not mchales fault if there has been injury. Also a side story of rockets life. So by a mix of magic and the fact that harden and howard and pretty awesome might be able to power through. then it becomes other factors, who wants it most? who does the nba front office want? and can you stand the torture of a playoff run? can harden and howard? im not sure. we shall see but just like a drug Im in it right now but its like a cigarette too.. tastes like ass, pointless and yet here I am smoking on it. gross. so yeah first round exit shoot the cow in the back of head and give him death peacefully.
Rockets haven't had a chance to develop chemistry with the injuries. I hope that they can start stretching out those periods of play like the first 6 minutes of last nights game. Team looked focus and was playing great defense. Then we started getting careless with the ball and the Spurs were right back in the game.
IBTL, except it's not a peaceful death. The memory of Lillard's 0.9 dagger was mercilessly played over and over again this season on ILP. POR gloated when they won. Just like now, SAS (and other contenders?) are laughing at us because we can't make FTs. Rockets losses are torture, man.
Injuries have really hurt us this year, but I'm dumbfounded by the decisions both Morey & McHale have made. 1) Why is Dwight STILL on a minutes restriction? 2) Why does Morey employ the 3 & FT strategy with a plethora of guys shooting <50% on FTs and <35% on 3s? 3) WHY IS JET STILL PLAYING 20 MPG?!? The guy has clearly lost his legs and plays absolutely horrible defense. Just put Nick in there. 4) Why does McHale refuse to call a TO when Smith is missing 6 straight FTs? TJ is a far superior FT shooter (which isn't really saying much). In addition to this, Brewer has significantly fallen off over the last 2 weeks - he's been absolutely horrible. Missed layups, TOs, and bricked 3s. Please put in KJ if Brewer is going to continue shooting <35% from the FIELD.
its not as torture as it used to be for me. Im getting old and jaded. I now take it all with grain of salt especially when league comes out after games in portland series last year with 'my bad' and look at 2002 lakers kings. Sure I get stuck all in but that's only because I got suckered in the mid 80s.. coming up on olajuwon and ralph sampson. So Im like grandfathered into this shi**t but I dont believe it is not massaged by directives from the front office of the nba. Frankly I find it now to be a bit of a farce overall. A comedy of itself. Has a vague similarity to when we all knew mcgwire and sosa were roided out of their heads. So once you start to think of it, as what it really is, and that its as real as wrestling... It's not as torture filled. Dont take it personally kinda thing that its got some fakery/shady. its now definitely much more of a business anyway. Im not saying I wont be pained if we lose but I think of it as a skank trying to get my attention. Like sure I will fall for it, but Im not going to let it get me all teary eyed. That ship sailed a long time ago. Besides I dont think there has been enough time for howard and harden to mesh. Also there wont be a crappy first round team to play to get some momentum. So with that I think we will lose anyway to these teams - clips,memphis,warriors. Probably SA too. Regardless of getting crap calls as we always do. So let it go and enjoy an early summer on the brightside that you may not have to spend the next few months going nuts. get back to work and your life. on flipside if we make it all the way to end, then we get that treat and the excitement. Like a little extra cheese on the nachos free of charge.
Why can't I have anything when it comes to sports??? I was born a year after the Rockets won back to back championships. In my lifetime, all theyve been known as is that pretty good team that ALWAYS LOSES IN THE FIRST ROUND. The team that ALWAYS HAS DEVASTATING INJURIES (Looking at you, Keith Jones). And is currently the most hated team in the NBA even though WE HAVEN'T DONE JACK for 20 years now. Add on to the fact that the Texans have sucked for all but three years in 13 as a franchise. The fact that the Astros NL Pennant is the best moment I've had as a Houston sports fan, and we all know how they've been doing since 2005. And finally I'm a Notre Dame fanatic that has arguably only seen the worst 20 year period of football in program history.
I wish we had a young 7 foot power forward with a decent post game. Or a starting point guard who focused on defense and could hit the occasional three.
I don't think this gets enough credit, and I don't think a lot of people understand how much the Rockets have overachieved this year given all the stuff that's gone down. I'm okay with things right now. Really pissed off last night, but the Rockets are still in a good spot. The difference between 2/3/5/6 seeds is so small it really doesn't matter. Dwight's playing great and his minutes should increase. Honestly I think the Rockets win last night if not for that stupid minutes restriction. Harden needs to play better, but I'm confident he will. Ariza is coming alive offensively at the right time. The Rockets need to play well, but I don't think these last two games should be reason to jump off the ledge or anything.
first off, why wasn't Smith taken out earlier? Call a timeout. Or just foul their worst free throw shooter. Whatever it takes to get Smith off the court if he's missing that many Secondly, I think hacking strategies are BS and shouldn't be allowed. not good basketball at all. I had a friend who barely watches basketball ever watching with me, and this game made him never want to watch basketball again. It was bad. The easy fix would just be let the fouled team choose the free throw shooter if the foul is off ball. Or alternatively, whoever has the ball gets the free throw shot. Simple easy fix. I really think its kind of awful that a team can basically get punished for another team repeatedly breaking the rules (by that I mean, a foul is defined as "an infraction of the rules"). Like, for real, in this situation its not a PENALTY on the Spurs, its basically a penalty on us for something we can't control. Its stupid. Makes no sense. I've seen it happen to other teams too. Its annoying I did a quick search through r/nba to see if there were any threads about hacking. I found a couple, most from a year or two ago. Funny enough just about every thread had multiple comments from Spurs fans arguing in favor of allowing it.
First off this one hurts because it has implications on playoff seeding which is huge... McHale looked like a rookie coach out there.. I'm not sure why he wouldn't sub for Smith when they kept fouling.. I honestly put this loss solely on McHale... Harden... oh Harden... When we need you in big games you always seem to press.. Or for whatever reason can't seem to get your **** together.. Lets hope that come playoffs you find that mojo of yours.. Morey.... Please for the love of all that's Holy in this world sign players that actually can shoot freethrows.. that is all
Let it out, brother! At this point, what could the Rockets realistically do for us to deem this season a success and not have a sour taste in our mouths at the end? 2nd round exit? Conference finals?
