The Houston Rockets will lose in the First Round of the Playoffs.

One thing I don't understand is why people are going overboard after a loss to the SPURS. Yes the Rockets have their faults and injuries have crippled us all year, but as of now we should all know the matchups the team needs to advance. It's why the 2 seed is so important (currently). We'd avoid the Warriors or Spurs until the Conference Finals. The Spurs are hot and have been blowing teams out recently, including the Warriors. Let's see how this team responds Friday and see the final matchups for the playoffs. We didn't lose to the 76ers in a blowout. A lot still needs to be determined.

 

Not when OKC broke the Spurs 19 game winning streak in game #76.

Duncan,Leonard,Splitter, Parker and Green all played.

 

It's a shame that some of the issues we are facing today could have been prevented in the beginning of the season. acquiring a back up pg, and signing a C other than Joey Dorsey.

 

If we play the Mavs, then we will win the first round. We have a 60% chance to win if we face Blazers. This thread sucks.

 

Unfortunately, you're wrong. Completely... Like buddha said, "what you think, you become." If our fans keep thinkin first round exit, instead of thinking championship mentality... That's what we will keep getting. Obviously one man is one man, but collectively, our conciousness can affect outcomes of the game. I've noticed that our fans are sooooooo up and down... The Spurs lose and their fans understand stability, they know they are going to win a championship, that's why they always go far. Our fans have low expectations, starting useless p***y threads like this. I am sorry op, but a real fan would never start a dumbass thread like this.... It's just a useless waste of energy.

 

Its sad that a second round entrance is what most people were vying for to begin with.

MVP candidate on this team, and that's the highest some people were claiming for.

 

Who else believes that Friday is a MUST WIN. Yea yea we are in the playoffs regardless. But I believe Friday is a must win. If not for home court advantage then for psychological reasons. We have to believe in ourselves as a team. If SA comes in and re-sizes our assholes again on Friday these guys are going to start questioning their ability to win big games. That can be HUGE come playoff time. The best thing that could happen Friday is we win, maybe even win a close one. Winning a close one builds character. Hell I would love it if it was close and dingwhistle Joey hits a couple of free throws. All of these intangibles that build character we need. Losing Friday will be much more costly than simply a loss in the loss column.
My worse fear is we lose Friday. Then spiral down the crapper with losing HCA and then losing in the first round. I would not be shocked if Harden starts making noise about wanting to go elsewhere. Trade me and all that crap. Yea, this is his team. But he is going to want to taste some success. Something he has not tasted since leaving OKC.

 

If there's advanced analytical analysis that says that these two quantifiable things are acceptable, I call BS on the analysis. Nothing has changed in the three years since I started watching again. Same two problems.

No NBA player should be able to get away with the FT%s that our bigs have. You start working on your free throw shot when you're a child, because it's nearly as fundamental as dribbling in the game. The only NBA player that can shoot terribly from the FT line and do his job well is Deandre Jordan, because he doesn't let teams send him to the line. He uses his mass and strength to dunk the piss out of the ball if he's anywhere close to the rim, so he's got a guaranteed basket. He can do that, and that's what he does. Our guys are too small and/or too timid to do that. Our bigs should take a lesson from Nick Johnson who sometimes foolishly, but always ballsily tries to dunk the ball.

The turnovers thing CANNOT be explained away by saying that some teams that move fast and guys that handle the ball a lot just commit more turnovers, but it's okay, because they make up for it in scoring. That's because our turnovers are largely self-induced and preventable. There were a few nice strips by the Spurs last night, but most of our crap is bad passes. I blame A LOT of that on the obsession with threes. Guys pass up a half-guarded layup with foul potential constantly to wing the ball across court to an outside shooter. Or they try to shove a ball through four defenders clogging the paint to our guy who's pinned under the basket. Or they throw crappy outlet passes. It's partly the system's fault, but it's also just poor passing choices.

Both of these things are killers in individual games, and they should both be easily solvable. How on earth we have one of the greatest free throw shooters of all time closely and enthusiastically tied to the Rockets, but they haven't hired him to fix our FT travesty is beyond me. How they continue to make such sloppy passes at a professional level is beyond me. Maybe instead of watching tape of their own play and seeing what they did right and what they did wrong, they should be forced to watch every Spurs games and see what proper passing and court awareness looks like. Learn from your betters.

 

Yes, we the fans are to blame for all these first round exits! :grin:

Yes, the Spurs win championships because of their fans! :grin:

Not because they have a great coach, or 3 good-great players with a great supporting cast or a great front office.

Someone say something about stability? Spurs are that. Rockets just about the opposite. Are we looking at more roster upheaval in the offseason?

I'd love to tell you they're going to the Finals (or even WCF) but then I'd likely be lying to you.

Yes, otherwise "book it" for the 6th seed.

That would be 3 first round exits; if that continues for another 2 or all 3 years, yeah, he'll look around. But he's still under contract for 3 more years after this year. Let's not get crazy just yet.

 

Who are you . . . Brian Scalabrine?

I have come to hate that guy on XM NBA Radio . . he been dogging the Rockets since he been there
All you naysayers sounds exactly like him

It disgusts me

Rocket River

 

I know te rockets will make it to the finals, everyone who doesn't know, is just white noise in the background.

 

I'm calling your bluff, OP.

We WILL win the first round of our matchup this year, regardless of who it is. (Personally, I want Dallas or SideshowBob)

Why?

James Harden and Dwight Howard.

Please understand that both of these men have something huge to prove this year after last year's debacle. Dwight is getting "it" back and is coming back angry. He felt VERY responsible for us not advancing last year, and part of the reason he followed his rehab so closely,to avoid an unnecessary surgery, was to advance. Remember, Dwight HAS been to the finals, one time blocking nine shots and being dominant in other games.

James Harden hates losing more than anything. More than the defense jokes or people talking about Amber and the side-chick. James is not going to allow guys like Wesley Matthews (heal up, seriously, Wes) to destroy his confidence like last year. James MUST get Houston out of the first round, finally, to legitimize himself away from KD. We already know who James is and what he can do, arguably better at some things than KD, but he needs playoff redemption.

Both of these guys are the reason that we are not losing in the first round. Defensively, we'll have to fight, but thankfully, we have someone quicker and a bigger threat on offense in Josh Smith. Omer just wasn't a difference maker for us in the post-season, and Kevin McHale couldn't comprehend doubling LaMarcus until he dropped 75 points on us in less than 2 full games.

We're going to win the first round, also, because of a guy named Corey Brewer. Please recall that this man dropped 50 on us and is capable of big numbers quickly. He's the most underrated defender on our team, outside of Ariza, whom people don't see how well he defends everything. Brewer wants more minutes and is due for some killing.

We're also going to advance BECAUSE of Jason Terry. I'm calling it now. The loss of Bev was terrible, but Jason Terry is going to be a surprise, even at his age. Don't count him out. Those jumpers from the corners will be daggers. Pablo just needs to give him breathers and take care of the ball, which he has done well in his career.

TJ is going to step up in DMo's absence, and in my opinion, when he's on, he makes a bigger impact on both sides of the court. That's just my opinion though. I know other people believe DMo is the superior player because of his footwork, but I look beyond that. DMo has had an amazing year, and I was wrong about him, but TJ has shown to be one of our biggest difference makers. He and Dwight play well together, too.

We're going to win the first round this year, because unlike you and many, older players can be deadlier than the young bloods. Look at the Spurs and the Heat. I LIKE that we have some older guys who have been in the trenches of playoff hell (JT, Dwight, Josh, Ariza, well, and James). We aren't going to war with Stevie and Cat in the playoffs for the first time with Kelvin Cato as a starter. Veteran leadership is welcomed where I stand.

As Clutch mentioned, the West is wide open. Nothing is going to be easy. Homecourt is ideal, but we've seen how quickly that doesn't mean a damn thing. It's plausible that Anthony Davis or a maniac Westbrook(yuck, my least favorite player in the league) destroy those good ol' boys in the Bay. Remember when Captain Jack, JRich and company beat the number one seed? It happens.

And, finally, we're advancing because we are not going to make the same final-minute errors that Jeremy Lin made. Yes, 2 games. Jason Terry and Pablo, even at their age, know better how to handle the ball when all that is required is to hold on to it, or give it to your franchise player.

We're going to win the first round. Be excited.


Disclaimer: All of this goes out the window if Kevin McHale is forced to think too analytically, or if he doesn't remember to double a guy who is torching us. (Hi, LaMarcus. Hi, Monta.)

 

haha Way to backtrack in the same post

Truth is we're not so optimistic after seeing the same old problems of the team crop up in such an important game.

In our hearts, we hope for the best, but the history of McHale and this team in the playoffs tell our heads it won't end well.

 

I don't know.. maybe it's because lots of our players are injured or have been injured all season? Maybe because Ariza needs to guard their best scorer which typically is a 2/3? Do you want JET guarding Kawhi Leonard? I agree that it's going to be really tough on the Rockets in the playoffs but it doesn't have anything to do with stats. We have who we have..

 

The thread title is very provocative, but the actual OP is pretty reasonable.

I have my doubts, but not because we I think we suck.... only because the West is SO tough this year.

The only positive I got from last night was Dwight's efficiency. 16 and 11 in only 22 minutes. Everything depends on him in the playoffs. If he gets back to playing full time in the playoffs, we won't have to worry about Dorsey and his free throws.

 

Douche bag alert

 

How? The dude is just stating facts and is keeping it real. It's what many here should learn to do

 

It's not so much that we lost to the Spurs. It is HOW we lost.

Failure to make adjustments in the 2nd half. Failure to control the game. Failure to run the right plays.

All of this lies with the head coach that is kevin mchale

 

Having enough playmakers has been our problem for probably 10 years. Remember when yao and tmac were surrounded by a bunch of oldies and spot up shooters? That didn't work out, no matter how great yao and tmac played. Mike james had to step up as a third guy one year against dallas...The same thing kinda happened to harden/howard last year...with parsons helping out, but not really good enough.

Late game execution is also a problem. but we all know that already. wasting clock and running iso basically will shrink your lead late in games 2/3rds of the time (just estimating based on observations).

I think the "analytic" approach is great for the regular season. Maybe it assures us getting to the playoffs every year and keeps us "competitive" and entertaining and makes more $$money$$ for the rockets. But it puts us in a good position to succeed, and I'm a fan of the moves DM makes. Let's tweak the formula to get us some better execution and when we get that gem of a player coming off our bench for a third scorer (like parsons almost was), we could have a chance.

 

That may be your perception but the facts don't back up that claim.

In the last 5 minutes of games with the score within 5 pts, the Rockets TS% is 57.8% which ranks #4 in the NBA (Behind ATL, MEM, DAL).

In the last 3 minutes of games with the score within 5 pts, the Rockets TS% is 60.6% which ranks #3 in the NBA (behind only ATL and DAL).

In the last 2 minutes of games with the score within 5 pts, the Rockets TS% is 61.3% which ranks #3 in the NBA ( behind only ATL and DAL).

In the last minute of the game with the score within 5 pts, the Rockets TS% is 65.6 which ranks #2 in the NBA (behind only ATL).

In the last minute of the game with the score within 3pts, the Rockets TS% is 67.2% which ranks #1 in the NBA.

Here's one more that can be attributed to Harden's clutchness:

In the last minute of games with the Rockets trailing by 3 or less the Rockets TS% is 66.8% which is #1 in the NBA.

There's other combinations that you can run but the Rockets are one of the best teams down the stretch in close games.