WCF: P5 | (1) Houston Rockets vs (2) Golden State Warriors | HOU 3-2

[letsgorockets]

Game 6 could be a recipe for a huge Harden game, even if it's not a win. You know he feels due, and the law of averages agrees, there's less pressure because it's not the Rockets facing elimination, and the offense will flow almost exclusively through him. Now if this game can kick start Luc, and get him over the shoulder, that's be great too.

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[lambchop]

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would have been awesome to see the rockets advance. I really don't think they can do it without CP3. Then after the dubs win and curry scores 20 in 1 quarter while the dubs are up 25 already, the usual peeps will revert back to their "you see I told you CP3 choked and curry came up big when it mattered"

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

No Iggy, big problem.

Yeah tough break for the warriors. Just leaves them with Curry and Durant, two top 5 players in the NBA, and Green and Thompson two top 20 players in the league.

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

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They are not beating the warriors with Paul out. Then again rockets should always assume that Paul will go down at any moment because he is one of the least reliable players in the NBA.

[hongdayuan]

if paul is out, warriors win with/without iggy; if paul can still play, warriors really need iggy to win. It's gonna be a huge swing if paul is out and iggy comes back after a week rest. If iggy is still out for game 6, I'd like to see Livingston playing more with the big 4. Bell and West is serviceable in spurts but they also hinder the warriors from going on big runs. if kerr wants to play Quinn cook, it's gotta be early like beginning of q2 with klay and green as a secondary ball handler and floor spacer.

Durant's right elbow iso really needs to be cut down. difference between his iso vs harden/paul iso is that Houston operate at the top of the key, so there is enough space for their shooter to spread, allowing paul and harden to kick on the drive. When Durant isos at the elbow, he will need all the space from the corner to the wing, which takes out 40% of the floor space. that's not enough for their shooters to spread. also, when a smaller player is on kd, instead of trying to back his man down (he never shown great post skills), he should just face up and pull up. it has been working for him from g1-g3.

warriors chances are still looking good (hinge on pauls health), but so far this series they have had a very disappointing showing. steve kerr needs to stop trying to be cute and just call the f-ing timeout for their past possession. I'm convinced that he didn't want to call a timeout again last night after the ariza miss, only until green is falling out of bounds and couldn't get the fast break started that he decided to call the time out, which cost warriors the chance to advance the ball.

[ken6199]

You clearly did not watch the game. Offensively, Harden was struggling but defensively he was good.

Outside of his missed 3s, 5/10 FG with 9 FT, that's around 1.2 ppp which wasn't bad at all. His early dunk on Green set the tone for everyone.

He also set up Gordon for the go ahead 3, came back and recovered well after a late switch onto Curry, forcing him to throw a wild off balance bank shot which ended in a miss. Harden also took upon guarding Curry in game 4 late game situation during that wild sequence where Klay got smothered in the corner. Rather "unusual", he did those lowkey important stuff that wasn't obvious to box watchers.

Harden could play better, but if we eventually ended up losing this series, he is not the one to blame. No one actually, it's been a proud series already. As a fan, I cannot ask for more from any of them.

[Bruteque]

Warriors team is not inexperienced, my assumption is the rockets switching defense has forced them to alter their play style.

That is quite true, but it goes both ways.

The switch-on-everything defense which both of these teams run allows them to stay home on everybody, which they do unless it's to contest a point-blank shot. Both teams are letting even Harden/Paul/Durant/Curry go one-on-one unless they get near point-blank range of the basket. That makes almost every pass that isn't a hand-off a high risk maneuver unless somebody misses a switch, which only happens occasionally.

Basically, iso is what these defenses give you and most teams are terrible at iso (except TOR, which is competent at iso, but their inexperienced defense completely collapsed in LeBronto). GSW didn't just suddenly decide arbitrarily to run two to three times the iso plays they did the previous two series. That's what HOU is giving them. On the other hand, HOU knew this was the kind of defense they would have to beat to win the title, so iso is what they do.

It's kind of sad. If TOR defense didn't choke in LeBronto, they were the one team that could go against HOU/GSW defense that takes away everything effectively and leaves only the iso (which is not efficient, but when the defense can take away everything else, it's the most efficient thing you have left).

- - -

You can see the adjustment GSW made to hide Curry in the switch-on-everything defense. They are keeping Curry as far away from Harden/Paul as possible, and when Curry's man tries to go set a pick for them to force a Curry switch, a GSW player in the path switches preemptively with Curry to guard the pick man, keeping Curry away from the action. This made it troublesome for HOU to get the iso match up against Curry that they wanted, and Harden got impatient a lot in game 5 and just decided to attack strong GSW iso defenders instead, to terrible results.

However, GSW could only hide one player effectively this way. Without Iguodala, HOU is attacking Looney whenever he's on the floor with Curry (the same was happening with Young/Looney and Young/Curry, which I assume is why Young is out of the rotation now). Also, when Harden and CP3 are both on the floor, GSW cannot hide Curry effectively.

Whichever team that's going to play the better iso ball is going to win this. They can blame Durant for GSW falling short all they want, but without Durant GSW would have lost this in 5 already.

[BeibsInTheTrap]

Game 6 could be a recipe for a huge Harden game, even if it's not a win. You know he feels due, and the law of averages agrees, there's less pressure because it's not the Rockets facing elimination, and the offense will flow almost exclusively through him. Now if this game can kick start Luc, and get him over the shoulder, that's be great too.

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lol harden will play like ass again

[letsgorockets]

Game 6 could be a recipe for a huge Harden game, even if it's not a win. You know he feels due, and the law of averages agrees, there's less pressure because it's not the Rockets facing elimination, and the offense will flow almost exclusively through him. Now if this game can kick start Luc, and get him over the shoulder, that's be great too.

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lol harden will play like ass again

What an intelligent, well thought response. Muted troglodyte.

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[BeibsInTheTrap]

warriors in 7 paul will be at about 60% smh i hate this warriors team

[Krodis]

So if the Rockets beat "the best team in history" does that mean the Rockets hold that title now? Lol

They would not.

Here's a question: why not?

They won 65 games. They won at a 77 win pace when Paul/Harden/Capela were healthy. If they were to shut down the most talented offensive team ever on the way to a title... why not? Their resume would be impeccable.

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[BeibsInTheTrap]

Harden needs to give up more of his shots to ariza and pj tucker

[inquisitive]

My guess is cp3 will play though he will have to pick his spots offensively. Defensively it will be tough chasing Curry. Cp3 might have to be that decoy for the most part

[zshawn10]

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[enigmatics]

They are not beating the warriors with Paul out. Then again rockets should always assume that Paul will go down at any moment because he is one of the least reliable players in the NBA.

Chris Paul definitely has some Derrick Rose blood in him.

[DowJones]

Round 1: Kawhi Leonard
Round 2: Demarcus Cousins
Round 3: Chris Paul

How does this always happen for Golden State?

[og15]

In the locker room after the game, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green were discussing how this series reminds them of one in 2015 against the Grizzlies when they were trailing 2-1 before winning three straight.

When told by ESPN that these Rockets are not the Grizzlies, Green responded assertively: "We'll be back here for Game 7."

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/249977/Chris-Paul-Could-Miss-Game-6-With-Hamstring-Injury

An injury to one of the opposing best players also is a common thing, but it can definitely give more confidence with Paul's injury, but I'd expect Warriors to have that confidence anyways, but a possible injury can give a boost.

[Patches Perry]

Hopefully Paul can go game 7. Injuries at the most inopportune times is basically the story of Chris Paul's career. One of the all-time great point guards, but his playoff failures have been related to injuries far more than performance.

[10DayContract]

Round 1: Kawhi Leonard
Round 2: Demarcus Cousins
Round 3: Chris Paul

How does this always happen for Golden State?

I think it's 2 things...

1. The league's playing style these days. Faster pace, more opportunities for injuries. Being in great shape is paramount now.

2. The Warriors play very fast and hard, and I think they actually depend on their playing style causing other teams to just fall apart. They depend on wearing down other teams, and those players breaking down.

[inquisitive]

It would be interesting to see if he suddenly did play at the last minute before game started despite the report