NBA Playoffs 2017: 5 keys to Rockets vs. Thunder matchup

The third-seeded Houston Rockets (55-27) are set to do battle with the Oklahoma City Thunder (47-35) in the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs. Here are five keys to the series.

This series almost had to happen, didn’t it? James Harden and Russell Westbrook have been the focal point of every single NBA Most Valuable Player conversation for months now and the two now get a chance to battle it out on the court in the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs. Westbrook, of course, broke Oscar Robertson’s 55-year-old record by putting up 42 triple-doubles and became just the second player in history, the first of course being The Big O himself, to average a triple-double over the course of an entire season. He averaged 31.6 points, claiming his second scoring title, 10.4 assists and 10.7 rebounds per game. But James Harden put up 22 triple-doubles of his own and led the league in assists with 11.2 per night to go along with 8.1 rebounds and 29.1 points per game, second to only Westbrook in scoring. So I say again, this almost had to happen.

The Rockets took three of the four games against the Thunder but just about all of them were very close. The first game was decided by a bucket with Oklahoma City getting a 105-103 win back in November. The Rockets won the second game by three, 102-99, and the third game by two, 118-116, meaning that the first three games were decided by a total of seven points. It wasn’t until the fourth game that we got a double-digit win with Houston coming out on top 137-125 just a few weeks ago. So this certainly has the potential to be the most entertaining series of the eight first-round matchups we’ll see in these playoffs.

While Harden and Westbrook will get most of the press, there are a lot of other factors that will determine the outcome of this series, which starts on Sunday night at the Toyota Center in Houston at 9 p.m. ET on TNT. So let’s take a look at a few of those factors and yes, we’ll get into James Harden and Russell Westbrook as well.

5. Battle of the big boys

Westbrook and Harden aside, who likely won’t be guarding each other that much anyway, the biggest matchup in this series might just be Houston’s Clint Capela versus Oklahoma City’s Steven Adams. Rebounding is going to be crucial for the Thunder if they want to have a chance and while Westbrook will likely get his share, it’s imperative that Adams play a big part in that aspect of the game. He averaged 7.7 rebounds per night this season and may need to get into double-digits on a nightly basis. Houston is a better shooting team than Oklahoma City so offensive rebounds are going to be very important for the Thunder. Getting second chances is always important but even more so here as OKC doesn’t have all the weapons that the Rockets do. An advantage they do have is that they’re the highest-scoring team in the league in the paint.

As for Capela, he put up 12.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per night, both of which are better than Adams, who put up 11.3 points to go along with his 7.7 rebounds. Harden loves throwing lobs to Capela so Adams and backup center Enes Kanter, who was very good off the bench this season with 14.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, will need to clog the lane to keep Capela from getting in too deep. Houston backup Nene could also be a factor here as Harden loves to find him with bounce passes from the top of the key. The only problem with the Thunder clogging up the lane leads us right into the next big key in the series.