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OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER at HOUSTON ROCKETS
7:30PM CST |
Thunder: 35-19 | # in West
ROSTER:

Rockets: 32-22 | # in West
ROSTER:

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SUMMARY
Thunder Last 3

Thunder Upcoming 3

PLAYER OF THE GAME
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We beat them and continue our 115 ppg streak. Harden will have 34 on 35% shooting while being locked down by Ferguson. Schroder is going to outplay Eric Gordon and make a statement for 6MOY.

123/117

Pretty interesting to see Adams's impact on the game without Capela. Worried about Shumpert playing and hitting everything from 3.

Huge game. If we could pull this of, we'd be within a game behing the slumping Nuggets for the 2nd seed. Worst part off course is, there is huge possibility we could get Lebron in the first round being a top 2 seed.

TheGreatSatan wrote:Huge game. If we could pull this of, we'd be within a game behing the slumping Nuggets for the 2nd seed. Worst part off course is, there is huge possibility we could get Lebron in the first round being a top 2 seed.

We would obliterate this lakers squad.

SecondTake wrote:

TheGreatSatan wrote:Huge game. If we could pull this of, we'd be within a game behing the slumping Nuggets for the 2nd seed. Worst part off course is, there is huge possibility we could get Lebron in the first round being a top 2 seed.

We would obliterate this lakers squad.

Don't be so sure. Playoff Lebron is whole different animal.

TheGreatSatan wrote:

SecondTake wrote:

TheGreatSatan wrote:Huge game. If we could pull this of, we'd be within a game behing the slumping Nuggets for the 2nd seed. Worst part off course is, there is huge possibility we could get Lebron in the first round being a top 2 seed.

We would obliterate this lakers squad.

Don't be so sure. Playoff Lebron is whole different animal.

4th seed before Lebron got hurt and they were worst than they are right now (Chandler was not there in the beginning of the year, they got some shooters). Playoff Lebron is another animal, Rondo played very well last year playoffs, Chandler has experience, KCP still good shooter and the young guys can still provide some help.

TheGreatSatan wrote:

SecondTake wrote:

TheGreatSatan wrote:Huge game. If we could pull this of, we'd be within a game behing the slumping Nuggets for the 2nd seed. Worst part off course is, there is huge possibility we could get Lebron in the first round being a top 2 seed.

We would obliterate this lakers squad.

Don't be so sure. Playoff Lebron is whole different animal.

Sure, but I think the pieces around him wouldn't be enough. If I rank the players of both teams it would be;

1. Lebron
2. PG
3. Westbrook
4. Adams

And then I have Kuz/Ingram/Grant roughly equal, although I give the edge to Grant for defense. You can argue we have 4 of the 5 best guys on the court.

If Lebron had Kyrie, or a bunch of good shooters around him I could see it being a problem. But I just don't see a no-defense Lebron, surrounded by a bunch of subpar shooters and no real closer as a major threat this year.

I also think we probably have the best bodies to throw at him defensively of any team in the league and there's no one else there that can beat us.

I think the Lakers could beat any other team out West, including HOU, except for GSW and OKC. I just don't think they match up with us or obviously GS.

SecondTake wrote:Sure, but I think the pieces around him wouldn't be enough. If I rank the players of both teams it would be;

1. Lebron
2. PG
3. Westbrook
4. Adams

And then I have Kuz/Ingram/Grant roughly equal, although I give the edge to Grant for defense. You can argue we have 4 of the 5 best guys on the court.

But that's not how things work. Hell, from 1 to 5, we might have the second best team in the entire league behing GS. Does that mean we'll surely beat Houston, Denver, Sixers, Celtics or Raptors in a 7 game series? There are just too many other factors involved besides just comparing names...

If Lebron had Kyrie, or a bunch of good shooters around him I could see it being a problem. But I just don't see a no-defense Lebron, surrounded by a bunch of subpar shooters and no real closer as a major threat this year.

I also think we probably have the best bodies to throw at him defensively of any team in the league and there's no one else there that can beat us.

I think the Lakers could beat any other team out West, including HOU, except for GSW and OKC. I just don't think they match up with us or obviously GS.

I have a different opinion on this Lakers squad then the majority of people. That's a very potent team. They were a 4th seed before Lebron got injured. After him, almost entire starting five went down and then that AD thing got in the way and things just fell apart. But once healthy and without the drama, they could have been a top 3 seed by now. I would never underestimate a team with Lebron and bunch of young legs around him in a playoff series. Of all the potential teams in the first round, they are the last I would love to face. Would rather go against the Jazz, Blazers, SAS, Kings then the Lakers.

TheGreatSatan wrote:They were a 4th seed before Lebron got injured.

Oh, enough with this already. When James has been active (37 games mind you), the Lakers have been a +0.9 NetRtG team, which would currently rank 14th league wide. They're a slightly above mediocre team even with James healthy, period.

Pillendreher wrote:Oh, enough with this already. When James has been active (37 games mind you), the Lakers have been a +0.9 NetRtG team, which would currently rank 14th league wide. They're a slightly above mediocre team even with James healthy, period.

You are too obssesive with this whole NetRtg thing or whatever nonsense nerds are throwing at us these days. There is just so much more to the game then all this bullcrap.

TheGreatSatan wrote:

Pillendreher wrote:Oh, enough with this already. When James has been active (37 games mind you), the Lakers have been a +0.9 NetRtG team, which would currently rank 14th league wide. They're a slightly above mediocre team even with James healthy, period.

You are too obssesive with this whole NetRtg thing or whatever nonsense nerds are throwing at us these days. There is just so much more to the game then all this bullcrap.

Do you always mock what you don't understand?

Pillendreher wrote:
Do you always mock what you don't understand?

Do you always ignore the facts when they don't support your opinion? Were the Lakers a 4th seed with healthy Lebron or not?

TheGreatSatan wrote:

Pillendreher wrote:
Do you always mock what you don't understand?

Do you always ignore the facts when they don't support your opinion? Were the Lakers a 4th seed with healthy Lebron or not?

I just told you why repeating that over and over again does not raise a valid point. When James went down, this is what the WC looked like:



Seeding at that point of the season doesn't matter, at all. The whole conference was so close, they literally could have been out of the Playoff picture simply due to a couple of possessions changing in close games. That's why look at point differential. That's what matters, not wether you got a couple of lucky bounces here or there.

Pillendreher wrote:

TheGreatSatan wrote:

Pillendreher wrote:Oh, enough with this already. When James has been active (37 games mind you), the Lakers have been a +0.9 NetRtG team, which would currently rank 14th league wide. They're a slightly above mediocre team even with James healthy, period.

You are too obssesive with this whole NetRtg thing or whatever nonsense nerds are throwing at us these days. There is just so much more to the game then all this bullcrap.

Do you always mock what you don't understand?

Think it's stupid to call NetRtg ''bullcrap'' but it's not enough to see what Lebron can bring to a team comes playoff time. You are mentioning 37 games of a team trying to get some chemistry while in most of those games they didn't have Chandler (who is their best C). Cleveland was terrible last year during the regular season (and even in the beginning of the playoffs) then Lebron played out of his mind. Rondo is also able to play very well comes playoff time. We will see how they play for the rest of the year but I wouldn't be surprised if they upset any team not named Gs in a playoff series.

Pillendreher wrote:
Seeding at that point of the season doesn't matter, at all. The whole conference was so close, they literally could have been out of the Playoff picture simply due to a couple of possessions changing in close games. That's why look at point differential. That's what matters, not wether you got a couple of lucky bounces here or there.

Um...no. They were clearly on the rise and it was obvious (at least to me) that they'll only get better and better. They were just heating up and finally found some identity before injuries and AD drama occured. I am pretty sure they would only get better.

It's absurd to point down everything at point differential. Many champions in the past did not have the greatest point differential and yet they were the champs. Or take a look at the last year eastern playoffs. I'm too lazy to check, but i am pretty sure the Pacers, the Raptors and the Celtics or had better point differential then the Cavs (who played like crap for the half of the season) and yet Lebron beat them all.

TheGreatSatan wrote:

Pillendreher wrote:
Seeding at that point of the season doesn't matter, at all. The whole conference was so close, they literally could have been out of the Playoff picture simply due to a couple of possessions changing in close games. That's why look at point differential. That's what matters, not wether you got a couple of lucky bounces here or there.

Um...no. They were clearly on the rise and it was obvious (at least to me) that they'll only get better and better. They were just heating up and finally found some identity before injuries and AD drama occured. I am pretty sure they would only get better.

It's absurd to point down everything at point differential. Many champions in the past did not have the greatest point differential and yet they were the champs. Or take a look at the last year eastern playoffs. I'm too lazy to check, but i am pretty sure the Pacers, the Raptors and the Celtics or had better point differential then the Cavs (who played like crap for the half of the season) and yet Lebron beat them all.

Net Rating of the single best predictor of success as far as I know. It's certainly better than 'i think they're really good.'

spearsy23 wrote:Net Rating of the single best predictor of success as far as I know. It's certainly better than 'i think they're really good.'

Sorry, i don't think that is true.

In one of the post above, it is said that the Lakers had 14th best NetRtG before Lebron's injurie. And since we are talking about playoffs, according to that there are 13 teams in this league that would beat Lebron & Lakers in a 7 games series. Do you belive that is true?

I think it's impossible to know what they playoff performance will be based on Net rating of 37 games in the beginning of the season with a new team playing for the first team together (without Chandler for the most part and without Bullock and Muskula (not that I think that they will help the Lakers a lot)).

Let's see how they perform over the next 27 games and then we will know better about how good or bad they are. Even more now that Lebron is saying that he's almost 100% and that Lonzo is injured so they won't have to play him.