The NBA has their perfect scenario and it's not good for the Rockets

The Lakers beating the Clippers holds no special allure... either way an LA team is in the finals and an LA team loses...

However, the Lakers (and the memory of Kobe) beating down the villains from Houston despite having 2 former MVPs...

Thats a script the NBA would love to promote...

imo...

 

Simple question,

Who guards these Clippers? Green and Carroll are “kind of Washed”.
Kawhi
George
Morris
Harrell
Lou Williams

 

LA vs LA, Lakers vs Celtics, Kobe Bryant hologram tour. Doesn't matter. Nobody is going to watch the NBA either way.

 

True, except for when the Jazz tried it in a series, it seemed to be a massive fail.

 

You would want the 2nd largest and 3rd largest viewing markets tuning in. They would lose out with an all LA affair. Plus the Clippers are a bunch of whiners from Doc down to Ball Boys...Calls start going against them it's a wrap, it impacts everyone except Kwahi

 

Man, we got the Astros and the Rockets. If anyone outside of Houston gave a ***t about the Texans, we'd have the Tri-Fecta of Hate. The Gulf Coast Triangle.

 

Kawhi - Green length gives Kwahi trouble (Thabo's length bothers him)
Harrell - PJ
George - House
Morris - James
Lou - Russ

The better question is who guards James and Russ one on one. Kwahi maybe and George isn't reliable. You can't hide Lou on the defensive end, the rockets screening will hunt him out. Our pace would also run this group off the floor...

 

tbh it doesn't really matter much when there's going to be cross matches across the board all game long

 

let's be real, even without kobe's tragic death, the lakers were going to get every call go their way. just like those durant-led warriors.

we pretty much beat that warriors team in 2018 if it weren't for cp3's injury. and that gsw team is infinitely better and near unguardable compared to this lakers team. right now the lakers have only one playmaker in lebron, and only 2 legit scoring threats (lebron, AD). that warriors team had an all-time defense. this lakers team has only one legit 3d wing (avery bradley... i know they have danny green but he looks washed this season). this doesn't even take into account that lakers just don't have the personnel to keep up with our pace whatsoever. they stacked up on traditional bigs... whereas d'antoni and morey are making a point to the league that traditional bigs are now out of order.

let the lakers have their calls. we'll still stomp on their throats.

also, kobe probably doesn't want some pity trophy won just for him. deep down, you know kobe would rather not have lebron match up to his own laker legacy. kobe has always been more of a harden-westbrook guy than lebron. his basketball idol growing up was mike d'antoni. we have just as much pull from above as the lakers do.

 

Because I think they'd benefit more from a more diverse market. All they need is one LA team to get the LA market and LA attention. Having two LA teams doesn't double viewership and interest.

The Media may want to always hype LA as the destination for all stars, but that doesn't mean actual fans want to see it. We constantly talk about how the media overhypes certain teams and players and ignores actual fan views. This is one of those times.

 

The idea that the NBA is controlling the disposition of the playoffs is idiotic. There is no world in which a finals that includes Toronto (last year) or Milwaukee (possibly this year) is their “ideal”.

Lakers v. Boston or Lakers v. Knicks is the “ideal” from a ratings standpoint.

Oakland / Oklahoma City versus Cleveland / Toronto / Miami for half a decade? Not so much.

In fact a STRONG argument that the Rockets would be the most attractive team to the NBA to appear in the finals can be made because up till this year, the Rockets were the most popular NBA in Asia by a long shot. A Yao Ming finals victory would have been a huge money maker for the league. Never happened because they don’t control that stuff.

This ain’t pro wrestling. Can we stop this nonsense plz?

 

The rockets need to stop making it easy for the refs to rig the games with the limited offense. Refs will swallow their whistle in the paint and make it easier for us to be guarded. It happens every playoffs but I expect it to be much worse this year. Shoot a damn midrange.

 

The small ball Rockets beating the Lakers and facing the Bucks in the finals would be by far the most compelling storyline. There is nothing particularly special about the Lakers relative to other finals teams in the past. LeBron / Davis? Meet Kobe / Shaq.

But small ball making the finals would send shockwaves throughout the basketball world at every level and in every country. It would be the most compelling finals of our time because of the implications a small ball championship would have on the NBA in the future.

LeBron v. Giannis is small time relative to Small ball v. The entire history of Basketball to this point.

 

Maybe you should go back and watch the Lakers vs Kings again. 100% rigged WWE pro wrestling BS.

Go watch the way the refs handled our series with GS again.

Research Tim Donaghy.

Yes- the NBA does selectively “influence” winners and losers via the way they tell refs to call the game. This was proven by a ref who, pun intended, blew the whistle.

 

"How fitting would it be to have 2 LA teams battle it out in honor of the late great, Kobe Bryant." - says every ESPN outlet and Chris Broussard - "This is not just for the local LA fanbases, but for the entire NBA community."

Before I forget, the media is evil and corrupt.

 

Yeah, I think our collective focus has been on beating the Lakers and Clips because we're still underdogs to them. As for the Bucks, they are the team whose length would have a marked advantage over our small ball lineup. Russ in the post ain't going to bully Giannis. The only advantage would be Harden isos on anybody except Giannis, but Bledsoe has had his number since he's been there.

 

Bucks are going to dominate every single series
No team has even a remote shot, the bucks without giannis can beat almost every team in the league
They are on a different level than the next best team which is the lakers. Everyone's playing for second place

 

Enough of this pity party. The rockets are the most high profile team in the West besides the la teams.

 

I don’t believe that. I think a few teams are capable of beating them. Teams that aren’t capable of beating us could still have a chance at them. It’s all about match ups. Philly Toronto and Miami can all give them a tough series in the East.

 

They will dominate every single team like they are in the regular season on route to ~70 wins
Sure they may drop 1 or 2 to philly