NBA Playoffs 2017: 5 things we learned from the Rockets beating the Thunder
By Luke Norris
1. The Rockets are going to be a tough out
The Houston Rockets have a potential Coach of the Year candidate in Mike D’Antoni, the potential Most Valuable Player in James Harden, two potential Sixth Man of the Year candidates in Lou Williams and Eric Gordon. They also have a two-headed monster in the paint featuring Clint Capela, who didn’t play his greatest in this series but still managed 7.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game, and Nene, whose effectiveness we’ve already covered. Layered on top of that are great role players in Patrick Beverley, who played outstanding in three of the five games in this series and can disrupt an offense with his annoyance on the defensive end, Ryan Anderson and Trevor Ariza, who both didn’t play great but made some nice contributions away from the ball throughout the series.
The Rockets will play the winner of the Spurs-Grizzlies series and while their win-loss record against those two teams wasn’t the greatest at 3-5 (2-2 vs. Memphis, 1-3 vs. San Antonio), a few of those games were played early in the season when the Rockets were still working out their new offense with James Harden running the point. Houston now gets to rest up for a few days as they watch the Spurs and Grizzlies continue to beat up on each other and should be well-rested when their second-round series gets underway.
IHouston could win either one of those series. It would obviously be much more difficult without home-court advantage, which they wouldn’t have if the Spurs end up winning, but Houston’s only win against the Spurs this season came in San Antonio and they only lost the other game at the AT&T Center by two. The Rockets would have home-court against the seventh-seeded Grizzlies. If by chance Houston does make it to the Western Conference Finals, they’d likely get another crack at the Golden State Warriors, who bounced them from the playoffs a year ago with a 4-1 first-round series win. While that would be an extremely daunting task, especially with how Golden State is looking right now, it’s not impossible. If Houston is knocking down their outside shots, they can hang with anybody. I’m not going to go all the way out on a limb and say that the Rockets are going to go to the NBA Finals, but they’re going to be a tough out.
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