I should have just replied to this and said I agree instead of letting Carl troll me. It is a shame he wears the moniker Carl Herrera. Even if we didn't have the talent, intangibles like effort, focus, and gameplan can make or break a series. The Clippers got up 3-1 by doing all these 3 effectively and being neck and neck with the Rockets in talent. The Rockets finally matched the Clippers intangibles and their talent finally started to show up while the Clippers faded. I do believe GSW are more talented than us but if we can be locked in early we have a chance to equalize and gain even more confidence. We have certain strengths that we can exploit but they have more strengths including depth which is important when you play a tough 7 game series with foul trouble, techs, injuries, matchups, etc. The Clippers didn't have that sustainable x-factor like the Rockets and GSW do.
How can anyone say the better team lost in a 7 GAME series that played out the 7 games? Do we need to play best of 11 games?
We played the Lakers 3 times and the Spurs 4 times because of that fake division, the Clippers played the Lakers 4 times and the Spurs 3 times. Everyone in our division got dragged down by its quality, ffs, look at the division records, 9-7, 8-8 x 3 and 7-9
lol so now the clippers got blown out in 4 out of 7 games, including the final 3, including a 49-18 thrashing going away on their homecourt -- because of luck! carl, you have devolved into a paper thin sham of the poster you once were. this is sad.
If you actually listen to the podcast, it's not as bad as people are making it out to be. His tone is apologetic, not dismissive of the Rockets.
Saying that the Clippers were the better team after we beat them in a 7 game series is going Full r****d and you should never go Full r****d; half or semi, but not Full. We aren't even playing with a full team! We are missing our starting PG and best Post option lolol The national media have been brainwashed by one another (whack on whack crime) they collectively don't know **** . They rely on the people that watched 9 Rocket games all year and decided to write about us. That's pretty much sums it up. The Rockets were labeled 1/4 into the season and we've been proving them wrong all year. The same people have been waiting for us to lose because that's what they've been lead to believe; we're not that good. Don't matter we lost Dwight and T Jones for HALF a season...don't matter that we played in the toughest division in the NBA where ALL its teams went to the playoffs....and it don't matter that we played in the West and were the 2nd seed. We were labeled by those 9 games the experts watched....Golden State were awarded the title 1/4 into the season....the Clippers were awarded it in the Pre-Season. If anyone believes the Clippers were a better team is a Ass Clown and a half.
Artificial advantage is bull crap, Clippers get to play LAL, SAC 4 times during the season and while Rockets played them 3 times each. Rockets had to play Dallas/NO 4 times while CLIPS only played them 3 times. Both teams played the Warriors 4 times. That argument is weak.
So if the Rockets were in the Clippers division, chances are their record is more like 58 - 24 and the clippers are something like 54-28. She is a dumb ass.
I think this is a forgotten point to the Rockets success as well. Of course, we have flaws. I am sure 95% of us know that while there are homes who think we are invincible. What is unique about our team, moreso when we had PBev and DMO, is our ability to defend multiple positions with multiple athletic, versatile players between 6' 3" and 6'9". All can handle the rock, shoot threes, get in the lane and finish on occassion, play the passing lanes, block some shots, etc. I am talking about Bev, Harden, Ariza, Brewer, Jones, Smith and to some extend DMO. Being able to defend and switch on pick and rolls with guys that have this much versatility is unique. Not that our defense is consistently good but we have shown flashes at being able to shutdown teams when our rotations are on point. On offense, you have multiple guys that can do different things with the ball with unique height/skill combinations that most teams can't contend with. Brewer, Smith, Ariza, and Jones. The only players that fit this mold on the Clippers are Matt Barnes (old and busted) and Blake Griffin. They just aren't very versatile which ended up costing them in the long run. Guys need to wear multiple hats in the playoffs and adapt and they couldn't do it over a 7 game series. Back to hiding from the trolls!
Ramona Shelburne is an LA shill and really doesn't know very much about basketball unless it involves Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul or an all you can eat buffet. Zach Lowe doesn't like the the Rockets and hasn't for a few years. He can say whatever the hell the wants. The Rockets made adjustments and the Clippers couldn't counter. The Rockets won the last three games of the series 356-310 which is pretty dominating.
or if we played WITH our starting center for most of the season we could have won 65+ games, who focuses on the positive "what ifs" lol
The rockets played basically four 50 win teams 4x each in our "fake division" while the clippers got to play the lakers, Sacramento, and Phoenix, all lottery teams in their "fake division" Obviously the Clippers deserved home court advantage over us. Zach Lowe with a load of bull****.
Understand what he means. The response is, due to the divisions, it isn't a balanced schedule. Each Western team plays 4 conference teams only 3 times as opposed to 4. The Rockets played the Lakers, Thunder, Kings, Trail Blazers 3 times. The Clippers played the Mavs, Pelicans, Thunder and TWolves 3 times. If I'm making a bull**** argument (like Lowe), I cross off the Thunder and then say the Rockets were able to play the Lakers, Kings and Blazers one more time, and the Mavs, Pelicans and TWolves one less time they might have an extra win. Certainly on paper, they would. In fact, the Clippers were a combined 17-4 against the Lakers, Kings, Blazers, Mavs, Pelicans and TWolves. These are the 7 teams that the Clippers and Rockets did NOT have a balanced schedule compared to each other. The Rockets were 15-6 against those teams. So if you EXCLUDE those teams from their records, and only count the performance against common opponents, including each other, their records are: Clippers = 39-21 Rockets = 41-19 If we're going to arbitrarily say get rid of divisions, which is fair, just get rid of it all, and in the absence of a common schedule, just use the common opponents approach - doesn't the NFL do this? So the Rockets had the better record against all common opponents, where common opponents is defined as teams they played the same number of games against across the season.
You do realize why they play SEVEN GAMES right? Q:You know who wins out of a SEVEN GAME SERIES? A: THE. BETTER. TEAM.
No.... the Clippers are NOT better than the Rockets. The Rockets have the better cumulative record and the Rockets beat them in the playoffs. Your excuse that the Clippers just didn't play better in a 3 game stretch and that their bench guys didn't play well is interesting.... considering I can turn it around and state that the Rockets bench players did not play well the beginning of the series.... and the Clippers were only better for a small sample size at the beginning of the series. Also the Rockets were without 40% of their starting line up. Please don't turn this into a 6 month sulk fest like Patterson or Adelman..... by the way both of them really tore it up after leaving.
