Pillendreher wrote:K_chile22 wrote:Best2EverDoIt wrote:I think its funny that you just assume the Rockets are going to win this series. Houston could easily be down 2-1 right now. The Thunder controlled games 2 and 3 until the 4th qtr. I don't see why you're optimistic that the Rockets are just going to turn it on at any moment. The Thunder are a superior defensive team. All they have to do is lock down the perimiter and rebound.
The Thunder won, and were winning game 2, by out shooting the Rockets. Ryan Anderson and Ariza are 2-25 and Roberson is 6-12. Outside of Harden, it's gone about as poorly as it could for the Rockets the past two games, and they won by 4 and lost by 2. Maybe the Thunder will continue to shoot the Rockets out of games, but I doubt it
The Thunder shot 41 % from the field in Game 2 and had nobody else besides Westbrook scoring more than 12 points. The only guys in double digits were Roberson (12), Dipo (11) and DMD (11). Meanwhile the Rockets got huge games by both Gordon and Williams off the bench and James Harden shot 20 FTA. The Rockets shot 48 % from the field and 38 % from 3 in that game. I think you can hardly call that 'about as poorly as it could'.
And then there's game 3. Yes, the Thunder supporting cast outperformed their normal level for the most part. But the Rockets didn't exactly **** the bed either scoring 113 points and getting good to very good games from Anderson, Williams, Gordon and Harden. Sure, they didn't hit their 3s all that well, but that's the Rockets way tho, isn't it? Shooting many 3s while having a high variance on them. I mean they're 24th in 3P% since 1/1, just two spots better than the Thunder over the same stretch. It happens. They could shoot 35 and make 21 today.
Finally I would like to point out the adjustments the Thunder made after Game 1. We started covering the PnR much, much better. We stopped turning the ball over (11 tov total). We rebounded much better (winning the 2nd chance points battle every game). We've taken the fast break away for the Rockets (11 fast break points total).
The Thunder have had the lead over the last two games for roughly 7 out of 8 quarters. I don't think that's just a coincidence. They adjusted and played their hearts out. Now it might not be enough to advance, but at least they're fighting and got better after getting their asses handed to them.
The Thunder were shooting much better before that chuck fest and when the Rockets got hot toward the end of the third, finally made a couple 3s to cut it to 3, that's why I said that's why they Were winning in game 2,once they stopped hitting and the Rockets started, they jumped out to a ten point lead with like a minute to go
