First of all, I am super excited that Rockets ended up as division champions and #2 seed. It really is a big achievement with all the injuries that they had to deal with. I think we really have a good chance to make a deep playoff run despite some of the concerns(?) that are being brought up in the Clutchfans forums. Now to respond to the concerns... 1. Rockets will be vulnerable to hack-a-Josh/hack-a-Dorsey/hack-a-Capela strategy. I agree that Capela/Dorsey are poor free throw shooters, but I think this was more of an issue when Dwight was out or when Dwight was playing limited minutes. Now that Dwight is healthy, we will not need to play Capela or Dorsey more than 15 minutes max (or even less should we run a small line-up with Josh). Teams like to hack in the mid-late 4th quarter the most, and I don't think we will see either Capela or Dorsey all that much during the prime(?) hacking periods. Moreover, I think Capela's shooting form is not bad, and he has potential to shoot better once he overcomes nervousness. Going on to Josh, he is a career 63.3% free throw shooter and shot 50% from the line this season. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if teams use hack-a-josh strategy. You could say it worked for Spurs the last game, but I think that was an aberration. In addition, 12/26 is still not terrible, and I think we lost that game more so because of turnovers. 2. Since Spurs ended up #6, Rockets path to WCF got much tougher. Of course I was cheering for Pacers tonight so that Spurs would be #5 but that was more so because I wanted Spurs to face Warriors in the 2nd round, so that Warriors can possibly be eliminated. But from the Rockets standpoint, I think 2nd round match-up will not be that much more difficult. I think Grizzlies and Clippers are just as tough as Spurs, but at the same time, Rockets are capable of beating all three teams. With healthy Dwight and guaranteed home court advantage, we can beat Spurs!! People may point to back-to-back loss against them, but we lost by only 1 point at home, even though we played like crap. We should be much better in the playoffs and we play 4 times at our home court. I understand that we shouldn't take any opponents lightly, but I think we have a really good shot to make a deep playoff run. It could've been better with healthy D-mo and Bev, but even with our current roster, we are pretty darn good team. Thanks for reading and GO ROCKETS!!
At least today, Capela was the first big man off the bench. Hopefully McHale sticks to that rotation.
I don't understand the notion that since SAS are 6th their path to the WCF will be much harder. Grizzles were never gonna get past the Clippers. Grizzlies are falling apart while the Clips are the hottest team right now. SAS and Clippers pick your poison. Both are amazing teams but if you are telling me the Rockets have no chance against these teams in a 7 game series I'd lose all respect for you.
The biggest concern is that two 37-year-olds PG will not be able to keep up with the likes of Chris Paul/Tony Parker night in and night out.
Same problem as ever: Harden is the only perimeter player who generates anything off the dribble. A smart and talented defensive team (maybe not the Mavs, but someone like the Spurs or Warriors) will focus on taking Harden away and daring the rest of the guys to step up. Will they? Also, what's Dwight's situation?
If we play the same defensive intensity and basically go deep to the greyhound strategy - we will win. Even the old dudes played pretty good defense tonight. Harden basically played decoy tonight everyone else basically stepped the ef up.
Who are we going to play in the playoffs? It doesn't matter who we play in the playoffs! Whatcha gonna do when all the little Houstonmaniacs get together in the Yota center and the largest pythons in the world go wild on you!!! WE. GOT. THIS.
Our biggest concern is Harden. We will go only as far as he takes us. He is not only our primary scorer, he is also our primary ball handler, Not only is he our primary scorer and ball handler, he creates for everyone. If Harden has a bad night, it usually doesn't end well for us. Another concern.... McHale really needs to figure something out about when teams start shutting Harden down. Aka double and triple teaming. Sometimes Harden looks confused and sometimes the team does too when it happens. There needs to be an actual plan, a go to play everytime this happens.
This. The only upside to either PG is their cageyness at their age and smarts in closing out games. My 3 keys are Defense, Defense and more Defense. And keeping turnovers low and knocking down the open 3s. Everyone is going to intentionally hack Josh Smith, Howard, Capela and especially Dorsey so have to get used to it. DMO and especially the 26 year old firey Beverly will be sorely missed.
