What's interesting there is the possession game. per 100, we score less than 2 field goals less than them, but 5 more 3s. seems rebounding will be key to the series as well.
No. They are not. The only way they beat us in 6 . . .is REF/LEAGUE aided or injury . . . PERIOD It has been shown this year . . they cannot beat the Rockets in a Semi Fair Fight Rocket River
of course we can, if those Pels' wings can hit those wide open threes here or there they would win last night in Oracle arena
That's just blind homerism, even Clutch doesn't think we would beat them...I hate the Warriors but understand how good they really are, hope I am wrong though
Disagree on Clint. He IS a major X-factor. He's had trouble staying on the floor vs the Warriors in the past. If he can play against them like he has vs Minnesota and Utah, that gives the Rockets a big edge when Golden State tries to go with their death lineup.
let's worry about that when we get there. That said Gordon will be the x-factor, he was driving at will against the Warriors during the regular season
The ONLY test for us this season is winning the first two against GSW. If we do that we win, if not we are in trouble. I think the Rockets win. Against ALL other teams they know they can go to sleep during games when they get bored. I think FOR ONCE that will not happen. They know the next series is the Finals.
Odds are stacked with them playing for real. I'll still take the rockets despite the odds if our shots fall, even with **** refs. Who says we can't turn it up a notch too? That would be the first real playoff series for us in twenty years. By that, i mean no excuses or what ifs in personnel. We have a solid chance. Durant made the warriors cheat code dominant, so it's amazing the rockets are even in the discussion. Let's see if Murray and the rockets big boy risks pay off. Cheer them on and have faith.
Should we even bother to show up or are the Wakanda Warriors to advanced for us to even pretend to play?
We need to be mentaly strong, cant let their 3s demoralize us and get frustrated, show some heart( specially Harden)
The thing I noticed over and over again with the Pels, at least offensively, is that they don't really create mismatches. AD was scoring over Draymond. Not over Steph, or Klay. He got points, but they are hard points. Holiday is nice and solid, but he's not a killer ISO player, and you're not going to really benefit that much by running PnR with him, unless its to get a mismatch say on AD. Or put it more succinctly... Curry was on fire, in his first game back, and not once did they think, let's just run a f'ing simple PnR and get Curry switch onto AD and take advantage of that. Either post AD, or work to post AD and as GSW switch so Curry isn't guarding him, take advantage of the defense in middle of trying to rotate like that. When Curry is playing, the other teams offense should really be 100% about attacking Curry to make him play defense. More than anything, because it makes him work and impacts him offensively. I'm not delusional mind you. With Curry/Klay/AI/KD/Draymond... Curry is really the only major defensively liability. Will the Harden-Capela PnR be as successful against that? Probably not as much. But attack Curry. Get Draymond on the perimeter if you can. Etc. I truly believe the key to it isn't just "outscoring" GSW, but doing it in a way that makes them work defensively and get flustered
Clutch is a great guy but not the definitive predictor of the future in sports. LOL We have beat them twice this year You can buy into narratives and media hype. . . i do not. Rocket River
This. We need to attack Curry every time down the floor to try tire him out on the defensive end. Recall the only team that gave GSW a run for their money was the Cavs and the big difference maker was Kyrie attacking Curry 1 on 1 every chance he got.
The Warriors did seem winded with the Pels in the 1st half. . . . . the 7 seconds of less offense had the Warriors gasping a bit Rocket River
This is why paying attention to round 1 and how we played was so important. We need to play consistent basketball and if we get a lead keep it, it won't be easy but it can be done. But Harden and Paul can't disappear and that's why I said what I said first round, we can't play the Warriors the way we played the TImberwolves.
Couple of thoughts: - Pels shot really poorly from 3 - but so did GSW. In other words, you could take the argument that Pels could shoot better and have won or kept it close and apply to GSW to say they could have blown NOP out of the arena - Warriors at their best have an insanely good offense. Their defense still looks attackable - Houston at our best have an insanely good offense. I think we may have a more versatile defense. - At the end of the day, we have a very real chance but we cannot take plays off or possessions off. We will need to be locked in like our lives depend on it. The last time I saw Houston that locked in was vs. GSW in December. - We have a real shot to beat GSW. We have the talent and we have the players. We just need to bring our best every game, because anything less is an L. This seems like a very wishy washy comment, but it's based on max potential of each team using differential efficiency as a surrogate. If we achieve our max potential, we can exceed the Warriors max potential. Despite a late season regression by both teams, we have the best differential efficiency in the league. It just depends on which version of the Rockets show up. Not all teams can say this - for example, even at their best, Utah and OKC have no shot against GSW.
I know this past years sample size was small, but did you see those games? We had a great comeback, held back one of their own, and did both while they were at full strength. The only beat against us was without Harden. And even then, GSW had to hit an above average 55%+ and 43%+ from the field and long distance, respectively, needing a 4th quarter surge to do it. We also finally demonstrated playoff grit in both those wins. So while I can’t say we’re definitely going to win, we def have more than a 4-2 chance outcome. The problem with GSW is that they still value the midrange (which I do as well, but not in that volume). But that means they, and their bench, better shoot those midrange at a higher than 1.5x rate we hit our threes, cumulatively. Otherwise Clint is decent in paint defense, and we switch everything on the perimeter to choke off their 3pt possibilities. In the three games we’ve played, GSW players are hitting ~42% from 10-19 ft away from the basket. And they take nearly 19 of those shots per game. We take 10. So not only do they need us to shoot 28% from three land to justify those midrange shots at that rate, but they also depend on it more when it’s a weaker option.
I don't think we have a more versatile defense necessarily. It's just, ironically enough, because of the completely different offenses the two teams run, it's actually a bit easier to hide Houston's defensive short-comings, so to speak. Both teams will switch almost everything. Both teams have some length, some solid defenders, some mini-bigs, a solid guard defender, and a bad guard defender. On the whole, GSW' defensive players that fit into those categories are better. Dray>Capela (or Tucker). AI> Ariza. KD (when he wants to be) > Tucker. CP3=Klay, but Klay has size, athleticism and youth. However, the Warriors offense doesn't look for mismatches. It looks to just create open shots with movements, screens, misdirections. They use some ISO, especially with KD, but on the whole, they're not going to just attack Harden over and over. Which is what the Rockets are absolutely going to do in reverse - attack Curry. It's this little unique twist in gamestyle that will be all the difference in the series, ultimately, outside of players just not playing up to potential.
