So you honestly think that teams were NOT tanking in the bubble for seeding and setting up preferred matchups? ESPN came right out and said teams were doing this. LOL
Like I said, doubling Harden means passing to 4 of our best 3P shooters. And Donovan already prefers not to double. Harden - EGo- House - RoCo - Green Or Harden - McLemore - RoCo - PJ - Green Or Harden - House/EGo - PJ - RoCo - Green (best D) Either of these lineups would raining 3's on an OKC offense that is not very prolific. Getting into a shooting match for a team that has no fear in launching 60 3's, makes or not, will not bode well for Thunder. Sub Rivers out for Harden or EGo, same no win situation. I am really looking forward to this matchup.
Ah, nice. I see that every one of the game is scheduled to be played during work hours. Reminds me of decades of Astros playoffs where I never knew if they actually played the games or just adjudicated them as losses.
Yeah.... can we hit our 3's though? Tucker has been awol. Eg hits 1 out 80 shots.... Hopefully Austin Rivers and Eric Gordon start hitting their shots!
Then it evens itself out for everyone. The tanking as you call it didn't affect as much because most teams were deep. The role players mostly competed their hearts out other than the 2 Rockets losses. All 4 teams, Blazers, Grizz, Spurs and Suns wanted the Play In. All 4 teams had opponents resting their star players. Portland won and lost tons of games within 2-5 points. Their last game by 1. The Play In was determined by half a game in the W/L column.
Make up your mind, were teams tanking or not, you are all over the place. And no, not every team was purposefully losing games for seeding purposes so there is no "evening out".
I honestly don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing that Westbrick is out. He’s that mercurial. 3 first round exits each of the last 3 years with horrendous percentages. We aren’t winning **** with or without him.
For all the work the Houston Rockets had done since September, including the four-month hiatus and the restarted season in the Orlando bubble, the true measure of success—or lack thereof—would come in the form of postseason basketball. Russell Westbrook is many things to the organization—an offensive force, a leader, a brother—but the truth is the real reason the Rockets went small wasn’t just to gain a hypothetical leg up on the competition or because it was head coach Mike D’Antoni’s dreams finally coming true. All of this, every move that was made by the front office, was to amplify Westbrook’s unique skillset. Just looking it from a macro perspective, the removal of a traditional big (Clint Capela) to yield as much space as possible, the desire to play even faster, and the surrounding of the perimeter with weapons was all done in part by Westbrook’s gravity. During Wednesday’s game against the Indiana Pacers, the team announced that Westbrook had undergone an MRI in Orlando for a quadriceps injury, which further revealed a strained right muscle. Today, sources confirmed to The Athletic that Westbrook would indeed miss a period of time as he begins recovery. This was initially reported by the Houston Chronicle. “With Russell, we hope [he’ll be fine],” D’Antoni said. “We’ll reevaluate him in a couple of days. He’s not gonna play Friday. We’ll see how he responds and everything but we’ll see next week. I don’t know right now.” It was the latest setback in a season restart that hadn’t quite been as up to snuff as Houston would have hoped—certainly not the level he had played at prior to the hiatus. Westbrook had been dealing with soreness in his quad since last week, causing him to sit out of games against the Lakers and Kings. He was able to return and play 28 minutes against the Spurs on Tuesday, but D’Antoni doesn’t believe Tuesday’s game had anything to do with the injury occurring. “I don’t think he aggravated it,” D’Antoni said. “During the game and after the game, he was fine. He woke up the next day kind of sore so they’re checking it out so he can respond to treatment. We don’t know 100% right now but he’s definitely going to be out Friday and then we’ll see.” Quad injuries aren’t something to play around with and Westbrook’s style of play puts it at an even greater importance. It’ll be of upmost importance not to rush him back into the fold, no matter how much he will be itching to get on the floor. “There’s some variance here because we don’t know the specific quad muscle injured or the severity,’ Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT and Sports Scientist said, “But the most commonly injured is the rectus femoris muscle (which crosses both the hip & knee joint) and a Grade 1 tear will typically take 10-14 days to return from on average. That being said, it’s going to be touch and go for Russ and the physio staff because these can be sensitive injuries and there will be increased risk for re-injury, especially for a player like Russ who relies on explosive movements.” Westbrook’s importance to Houston—while able to be placed into different categories—falls under the umbrella of variance and unpredictability. He just presented a different angle to Houston’s game, of which is lacking now without him. The NBA playoffs are not an exact science. You can have all the breakdowns and analysis you want, but there’s always an unknown factor in every series. There are things that simply aren’t accounted for. Westbrook was supposed to be the buffer that filled in those gaps for Houston. For all the hoopla that has been made about the Rockets’ new wrinkles, Westbrook was the most important one. He goes hand in hand with everything Houston wants to do—play faster, be more aggressive with the ball, and overall more dangerous. “We gotta continue to get better,” Harden said. “Guys that have an opportunity to step up, gotta take advantage of the minutes. We all know how huge Russ is to everything we’re trying to accomplish. The faster he can get his body right and get back on the court, the better we’ll be.” It’s been discussed at length in the NBA world, but the level Westbrook was playing at since last December up until the hiatus was simply put, out of this world. You just don’t scoff at 31.2 points a game, 8.1 rebounds, and 6.8 assists on 51 percent shooting. You just don’t. Not to talk of an efficiency level never seen before and taking full control of a game which was once deemed out of control. All achieved by constantly putting pressure on opposing defenses, putting defenders on their back heels, and causing schemes to warp to account for such a new threat. For once, Harden could afford to go through shooting slumps and the team wouldn’t be lost at sea. Westbrook’s dominance was so prominent at one point that Harden became the world’s best sidekick, able to at least work through his struggles because defenses were keyed in on Westbrook. So what happens now? Fortunately, for Houston, D’Antoni’s staggering has given them enough of a data set to project life without their talented point guard for as long as he’ll be out. There’s still a significant difference in the time Houston has played with both Harden and Westbrook compared to without—1434 minutes to 986 minutes—but the latter is still a sizable amount of data to give some sort of outlook. Because they did make a switch to small ball during the season, we’ll only look at those minutes (from late January onwards).
Life Without Russ ______________Offensive Rating | Defensive Rating | AST/TO | REB% | PACE | 3PA Westbrook ON | 111.6 | 106.5 | 1.82 | 44.2 | 105.2 | 24.8 Westbrook OFF | 116.5 | 109 | 1.67 | 46 | 101.2 | 18.2 As with Chris Paul’s time here, there are just certain aspects on the floor that improve with Westbrook on, just as there are some that actually get better with him off the floor. This isn’t to say that his presence alone simply causes those efficiency shifts, but they certainly play a factor. For starters, this season, the Rockets were the 10th-most frequent transition team in the league (15% of plays, per Cleaning the Glass). They also scored the 8th-most of such points per game (113.1), but without Westbrook on the floor, that number plummets by 4.3 points. Their pace, as you would guess, also drops as the graph shows. Harden tends to bring the ball up the floor at his own gait, while Westbrook likes to push it early and often. It’s a dynamic the both spoke to prior to the season and one that showed signs of progress but old habits die hard. Without having Westbrook on the floor, look for Houston’s pace to come down a tad in the first round. “We gotta continue to play at our pace and of course, we wanna play as fast as possible to where we create open opportunities for everyone,” Gordon said. D’Antoni hates this—and is one of the major reasons he credits the Portland loss—but a strictly Harden-run team will naturally play slow, which could come at their own detriment. The Rockets are most dangerous when they get out in the open floor, pushing the pace and forcing the defense to react quickly while scrambling. Harden’s usage will go up, but how high is too high. Meaning, at what point is it detrimental to his endurance and own health? This hiatus, he took great steps to ensuring that this isn’t a problem but it’s one thing to look sharp in the regular season and a whole different ball game in the playoffs. This season, when Westbrook is off the floor, Harden’s usage jumps to 38.2. For context, this season, he was at 35.5. Last season, with Paul out for a lengthy period of time (coinciding with his historic offensive run), Harden’s usage skyrocketed to 39.6. It’s not too far off to suggest we could see something similar starting next week. “For me, nothing changes no matter who’s on the court,” Harden said. “My aggressive mentality no matter who’s on the floor. What’s missed is his ability to get to the basket, draw defenders in and create opportunities for our team. Not only him but House, Eric is getting into his rhythm, P.J. didn’t play an entire game—it’s our entire group. We’re fully healthy, which we were these first few games, we’re a really dangerous team. We gotta get guys healthy and get them back on the court as soon as possible.” Harden’s been great in the bubble—35.3 points, 9.2 rebounds, 8.7 assists, and 3.0 steals on 53.7% shooting from the field and 36.9% from three, but he alone can’t keep Houston above water. The committee approach is sometimes a fallacy in sports, but in the Rockets’ case, Westbrook’s duties should be divided up between the rest of the core. The obvious approach is to point to players like Austin Rivers and Eric Gordon to pick up the slack, with Gordon in particular becoming extremely important now. It’s been a poor year for Gordon, being injured and unproductive when he was on the floor, but he was able to return from an ankle injury on Wednesday and showed flashes of a potential return to that level. He wasn’t able to get going from deep, missing 8 of his 9 attempts and 10 of his 15 shots overall. There were also times when he just looked a step off, losing balls on drives and mishandling on others. It’ll take some time before he gets going, which is what the Rockets hope to achieve in Friday’s final regular season game. “Well he’s rusty,” D’Antoni said. “I think it’s good that he hit the floor today and will hit it Friday. He needs that work and a couple of practices so he’ll be fine.” “Yea I felt pretty good,” Gordon said. “I knew I was going to be on a minute restriction but I felt pretty good out there. I was able to execute. I still gotta get my timing back, gotta get into the mechanics of getting to my shot and doing other things. That will come with time but it was good to get to the basket, show explosiveness and all that.” Since the trade went down in July and perhaps for the rest of their individual playing careers, Westbrook and Paul will be tied together. Paul was lauded during his Houston tenure for his innate ability to create something out of nothing, warping defenses and creating opportunities for others flawlessly. Westbrook, while taking a different route, has done a great job of using his pull to draw defenses in and create potential assists for his teammates ( Houston ranks 5th in the league—49.8 potential assists). That playmaking will be gone now, but some of it can be recouped. The real question now becomes who starts in place of Westbrook and who finishes out the starting lineup. A starting five of Harden, McLemore, Tucker, Covington, and House poses an interesting combination of size, switching, and skill. During the season, this group only played 46 minutes together but posted an offensive rating of 109.7 and a defensive rating of 98.0. There’s something there, regardless of whether you give credence to sample size or not. Bringing Gordon and Rivers off the bench allows Gordon to find his rhythm, especially in the minutes Harden has to sit, and also allows Rivers to express himself offensively. Having House in the starting lineup allows for his continued run of strong play since the restart and can highlight his playmaking ability. McLemore has shot well in Orlando and will be counted on to keep a Thunder defense honest that figures to be aggressive from the onset. Part of the reason for this thinking is not only should the Rockets worry about themselves, you also have to anticipate what your opponent will do. These games are chess matches, and every move counts. If the Thunder decide to double Harden, which they will at some point, you need players who are capable of moving the ball and hitting outside shots. The failure to do so gives the other team more oomph to pressure, which leads to offensive discombobulation. The Thunder also should anticipate Hero Harden, to which the Rockets can effectively counter by continuing to build on their restart progress in ball movement which has looked exquisite at times, but not nearly frequent enough (28th in passes made). “We’ve dealt with adversity before,” Harden said. “I missed the last game, D.House missed the last few games, Eric is just now coming back, Russ is out but we gotta fight through adversity. We just keep pushing for it, have each other’s back and keep competing on the floor.”
Statistical evidence showed that this trade was going to be bad for the team. Statistical evidence throughout most the year confirmed that the trade was bad for the team. But, statistical evidence also showed that our absolute peak performance was with Westbrook. Not a long peak, but our peak nonetheless. I would argue that, that’s exactly what a guy like Westbrook brings. Amazing, unreal peaks, but way too many valleys. These playoffs will be interesting.
When Coach plays you almost every second of the game, you better pace yourself! Someone has to be able to step up when Harden is not playing!
That’s terrible! Fight Rockets! Fight! You’ve got nothing to lose and all to gain! Play for Russ! Don’t wait for him.
