WCQF | (3) Houston Rockets vs Oklahoma City Thunder (6) | HOU 2-1

Pillendreher · Post #41 » by **Pillendreher** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:12 am

Thunder in 6. In Russ we trust.

BlueLion · Post #42 » by **BlueLion** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 9:03 am

OKC in 6 or 7. Optimism

Post #43 » by **Young_Star11** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 9:39 am

Pressure will be on Harden and the Rockets. We won't know who has won MVP, but it seems clear that, rightly or wrongly, Russ will win it. Any other series there would be a lot of animosity, but we forget Harden and Russ were former teammates and have known each other since long before the NBA.

Rockets should win this series, but there is a high variability in their shooting percentages, which does worry me. As others have pointed out, after a hot start, the Rockets have cooled off in the second-half of the regular season. Still very worthy for a #3 seed.

Pillendreher · Post #44 » by **Pillendreher** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 9:55 am

gmoney411 wrote:Rockets in 5. Thunder don't defend well enough to make up for the difference in offenses.

The Thunder are low key elite defensively tho. Generally speaking, more minutes should go to our starters. Out of the 96 4-Man-Lineups with at least 500 mp this season, the Thunder have 5 lineups in the Top 15 (the only other teams in there: ATL 1x, LAC 4x, GSW 5x) in DRtG. Oladipo is 4th in DRPM for SGs (1st among those with 30 or more minutes a night), Roberson is 5th in DRPM for SFs (2nd among those with 30 or more minutes a night), Gibson and Sabonis are 11th and 14th in DRPM for PFs respectively, and Adams is 29th among Centers in DRPM, but we know what he's capable of (he's been slumping since January...he was 12th back in February; let's hope he can get it going).

Playing the starters more should help the defense immensely. But I'll give you that I doubt we'll be able to lock down the Rockets. We'll have to defend very well though and take advantage of the lack of defense by the Rockets.

Scott Hall · Post #45 » by **Scott Hall** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 10:10 am

This is a tough one...

Westbrook is my favorite player in the league and I love OKC's crowd...

But I like Houstons makeup, fit, bench and depth plus they got home court...

I'll take Houston in 6 or 7

They_Them_Hatin · Post #46 » by **They_Them_Hatin** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 12:11 pm

I have watched the first round in a few years but I'll watch this series. I think Houston sweeps but I wouldn't be surprised if they went to 5 games.

KiDdFrESh · Post #47 » by **KiDdFrESh** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 12:49 pm

Rockets in 5. We are too strong offensively. Harden going to step it up!

lilswift01 · Post #48 » by **lilswift01** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 12:54 pm

Goatbrook gunna average some stupid numbers

Sent from my LG-H831 using RealGM mobile app

RSCD3_ · Post #49 » by **RSCD3_** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 1:22 pm

Oklahoma City in 7

DROB27 · Post #50 » by **DROB27** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 1:26 pm

I think the thunder bigs will be the key to this series . They should destroy Houston on the boards

gmoney411 · Post #51 » by **gmoney411** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 1:55 pm

Pillendreher wrote:
gmoney411 wrote:Rockets in 5. Thunder don't defend well enough to make up for the difference in offenses.

The Thunder are low key elite defensively tho. Generally speaking, more minutes should go to our starters. Out of the 96 4-Man-Lineups with at least 500 mp this season, the Thunder have 5 lineups in the Top 15 (the only other teams in there: ATL 1x, LAC 4x, GSW 5x) in DRtG. Oladipo is 4th in DRPM for SGs (1st among those with 30 or more minutes a night), Roberson is 5th in DRPM for SFs (2nd among those with 30 or more minutes a night), Gibson and Sabonis are 11th and 14th in DRPM for PFs respectively, and Adams is 29th among Centers in DRPM, but we know what he's capable of (he's been slumping since January...he was 12th back in February; let's hope he can get it going).

Playing the starters more should help the defense immensely. But I'll give you that I doubt we'll be able to lock down the Rockets. We'll have to defend very well though and take advantage of the lack of defense by the Rockets.

Good points. But you have to factor in that those guys playing extra minutes will likely make them worse defensively as the game goes on. Plus the Rockets will likely shorten their bench and go with their best offensive lineups.

Pillendreher · Post #52 » by **Pillendreher** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 2:02 pm

gmoney411 wrote:
Pillendreher wrote:
gmoney411 wrote:Rockets in 5. Thunder don't defend well enough to make up for the difference in offenses.

The Thunder are low key elite defensively tho. Generally speaking, more minutes should go to our starters. Out of the 96 4-Man-Lineups with at least 500 mp this season, the Thunder have 5 lineups in the Top 15 (the only other teams in there: ATL 1x, LAC 4x, GSW 5x) in DRtG. Oladipo is 4th in DRPM for SGs (1st among those with 30 or more minutes a night), Roberson is 5th in DRPM for SFs (2nd among those with 30 or more minutes a night), Gibson and Sabonis are 11th and 14th in DRPM for PFs respectively, and Adams is 29th among Centers in DRPM, but we know what he's capable of (he's been slumping since January...he was 12th back in February; let's hope he can get it going).

Playing the starters more should help the defense immensely. But I'll give you that I doubt we'll be able to lock down the Rockets. We'll have to defend very well though and take advantage of the lack of defense by the Rockets.

Good points. But you have to factor in that those guys playing extra minutes will likely make them worse defensively as the game goes on. Plus the Rockets will likely shorten their bench and go with their best offensive lineups.

It will be interesting for sure. We have the pieces to match up with them defensively (although another decent defender coming off the bench like Waiters last season would be nice), but the more important thing will be consistency. In the Regular Season, we managed to defend the 3pt line well after getting burned initially against the Rockets, but we left the paint wide open and Nene e.g. could feast (he's got a 77 FG% or something like that against us). We have to do our best to defend both as best as possible. Will be tough. I still trust my guys tho.

Patches Perry · Post #53 » by **Patches Perry** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 2:46 pm

I'm a Thunder fan, but Rockets in 6 seems right.

Split the first 2.
Split the second 2.
Rockets game 5.
Rockets game 6.

If Westbrook pulls this off, he is literally god.

Pillendreher · Post #54 » by **Pillendreher** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 3:49 pm

Patches Perry wrote:If Westbrook pulls this off, he is literally god.

There'll be at least one game where he goes bananas and makes 10 3s.

Screenshot this.

HotTubMike · Post #55 » by **HotTubMike** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 3:51 pm

Patches Perry wrote:I'm a Thunder fan, but Rockets in 6 seems right.

Split the first 2.
Split the second 2.
Rockets game 5.
Rockets game 6.

If Westbrook pulls this off, he is literally god.

It would be an upset but c'mon now.

Patches Perry · Post #56 » by **Patches Perry** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 4:00 pm

HotTubMike wrote:
Patches Perry wrote:I'm a Thunder fan, but Rockets in 6 seems right.

Split the first 2.
Split the second 2.
Rockets game 5.
Rockets game 6.

If Westbrook pulls this off, he is literally god.

It would be an upset but c'mon now.

I'm exaggerating, but it would be amazing.

Post #57 » by **jazzfan1971** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 4:45 pm

I'm going with the Thunder. I've always thought that Dantoni is a regular season coach. And I think the upset in the first round will just further cement that opinion.

Freefloater · Post #58 » by **Freefloater** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 4:46 pm

It would be hillariously interesting if harden and westbrook should suffer minor injuries and we get to watch 2 mvp-less squads go at it for a couple of games

13th Man · Post #59 » by **13th Man** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 4:48 pm

This is a sick 1st round matchup, battle of the leading MVP candidates!

witnessraps · Post #60 » by **witnessraps** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 4:55 pm

Westbrook in 6

Series Prediction