Yeah, that was amazing, lol @ anyone thinking Portland had **** here. The Warriors are too good. I seriously hope the Bucks have a shot but I seriously doubt it (I mean I hope I'm wrong but damn... It's like the Warriors then the Rockets/Bucks and then ****). This league is so lopsided, they might as well rename the league the Warriors ymca invite
The only man to take down GS was LeBron. If anyone can talk about what it takes to beat them it's him. He actually did it. He didnt just speculate and hypothesize about what type of system might one day dethrone this dynasty. Everyone else, including Morey is still just guessing what might work. Morey has even gone so far as to tweet about how even though we lost to GS for the 4th time, at least we are closer than everyone else. Calling out the man who succeeded in knocking off the team with the best record ever is crazy. Questioning the system that came closer than everyone else, but still lost every series against GS, isn't.
The only thing though is Lebron did not beat these Warriors, with Durant. It took 7 games for him to beat Curry-led Warriors...Durant+Curry Warriors are just plainly unfair. No one is beating them. We all better hope Durant goes to New York.
yes, we've been the closest team to beat the post KD warriors but even then we still can't beat them without getting lucky. Bigger moves need to happen this off-season unless KD actually leaves (I doubt it)
Lebron lost in 2015 once Kyrie went down. Kyrie hit the series clincher in 2016 (against Curry to boot). Kyrie was the only reason they didn't get swept in 2017, which they did in 2018 when he left.
Warriors didnt even have Durant back then. Bogut was out. Green was suspended. There is absolutely no way Lebron is beating that Warriors team with either Green or Durant on it. Green = Warrior's defense.
While the Blazers guards are getting their asses kicked, let me remind you guys in case you failed to notice.... James Harden single handidly carried the Rockets team against the Warriors through 6 games with every game ending a couple of buckets apart or less. Chris Paul did not even bother to show up until Game 6 when it was too late. It's very simple. Harden isnt the problem. GET MORE TALENT AROUND HARDEN!
Funny thing is the Cavs beat the Warriors playing ugly iso ball. They slowed the tempo down, had Lebron and Kyrie take turns going 1 on 1, spaced the floor with shooters, with Tristan playing the Capela role in being an athletic rim running 5 and rebounding. The biggest shot in game 7? Kyrie ISO stepback 3. Lebron had a all-star scorer in Kyrie Irving while Harden had a washed CP3 that went 3-14 in game 5. Kyrie in game 5? You give Harden that and the Rockets beat the Warriors in 5 and there is no criticism about the rockets “analytics”.
The worst ever sidekick Lebron won with is Kyrie Irving. The worst ever sidekick Durant has won with is Steph Curry. Harden's best ever sidekick was a 34 year old Chris Paul who went down to injury when they were up 3-2 on the Warriors. No one else has ever put Durant's Warriors in an elimination game. James Harden has chosen the harder path. He can force his way onto a team with superstar teammates and unlimited spending. He chose a harder path than those other 2 guys. It's the path of loyalty. If you can't respect the difficulty and purity of the path he's chosen, you are hardly a Rockets fan.
Harden gets sht on by basketball fans who hate iso ball, are probably the same people who revered Kobe and Jordan for having the same but more inefficient playstyle. This thread is dumb as fk, the blazers are down 3-0, why does harden/rocket org need to watch this?
Rockets need to take lessons from a vastly inferior team and what they managed to do in a game 7 against Denver, a team that the Rockets would’ve smoked in 5 HOU has been by far the most competitive team against a historically stacked team, and here we are spending hours talking about offense when the Rockets main problems were getting key stops, bad defensive rebounding, CP0 being trash, and the pathetic play of Clint who was getting big minutes as people were killing Harden in game 5 and game 6, they completely ignored how GS was just racking up buckets on the other end... we even had a thread advocating for the likes of EG who’s a career 34% shooter from midrange, Austin Rivers, and even PJ Tucker to start taking midrange shots as if trying to match GS midrange jumper for midrange jumper would ever work let’s please focus on the main issues...
Not only have we been more competitive against the Warriors than anyone else, but we downright ****ing beat them if one of Chris Paul injury or Tony Brothers doesn’t happen. People talk about the Rockets like the Warriors keep beating our ass but thats just not factual. If we run this series with the same rosters 10 times we get at least 4 of them. They’ve just gotten 2 of their 6 already. We’re still looking at an incredibly small sample size as it stands. Tweak the roster and hope that Chris Paul doesn’t drop any further and you have another legit chance to advance. This window is not closed.
well said. harden is not the problem. he had more success against the warriors than any other superstar. he lead his team to more wins, fewer blowout losses, and (I believe) has one of the highest if not highest playoff PPG average against them in the Kerr era. you know why he falters down the stretch? because he's playing 1 on 4 all stars. because the warriors know to just wear him out by throwing 5 different defenders with fresh legs at him all game, and to make him work on defense all game. the games that he doesn't falter down the stretch is when Paul and ego had good games. but they aren't superstars, or even all stars. their production is too inconsistent. I agree with you 100% and I've been saying this for some time, make the big moves to bring in another superstar. James only needs one more guy. imagine if we made that ego/tucker/pick for butler trade before the season started? when James was playing with 4 rec center guys for a stretch of the season it would've helped to have another superstar. we could've won a few more games, finished #1 in the west and had home court against the warriors with butler to take over when James is off. yes, we would've missed tucker's defense, but he's no jimmy butler.
That’s the hilarious part of it. People continue to focus on scoring when we lost because of fundamental mistakes. You rebound protect the rim (Capela) and don’t turn the ball over we’re good. Great post.