NBA Playoffs: 5 reasons Rockets can upset Warriors
By John Buhler
1. It’s a new season
This will take an insane amount of focus, but if the Rockets can put their mediocre .500 2015-16 NBA regular season woes to bed, they could present an interesting obstacle for the Warriors to overcome in round one. Keep in mind that outside of the change at head coach, much of this year’s Rockets team was on the squad that went to the Western Conference Finals last year.
While there is a 32-win discrepancy between the 73-win Warriors and the 41-win Rockets, both teams will start the 2016 NBA Playoffs with identical 0-0 records. Turning on the switch is absolutely more likely for Golden State than with Houston, but all it may take to get Houston in the right mind is one fiery speech from Bickerstaff going with the “no one believes in us” schtick.
Should Houston pull off the upset, it wouldn’t be the first time a No. 1 seed fell to a No. 8 seed in recent history. Mutombo’s Nuggets did in in the mid-1990s. The 2006-07 Warriors knocked off the No. 1 seed Dallas Mavericks.
Twice as a No. 8 seed have the Atlanta Hawks forced a superior first round opponent to seven games in the last nine seasons. Atlanta forced eventually 2007-08 champions Boston to seven games and did the same thing with the top-seeded 2013-14 Indiana Pacers.
It’s not impossible, it’s just not likely. Houston may have underwhelmed all year to find themselves in this predicament, but if the Rockets can find the power within and play with the same vigor that they did in 2014-15, Houston could conceivably do it.
Expect Golden State to win in four or five games, but there is a path that the Rockets can go down to knock off the top-seeded Warriors in the first round of the 2016 Western Conference Playoffs. It’s razor thin, but it’s certainly there.
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