[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

If the rockets are going to upset the warriors (and yes I would consider it be an upset even though they are the higher seeded team) I truly believe Clint Capela is going to have to play a major role. The warriors are inevitably going to go small as much as possible and Capela needs to find a way to make them pay.

Capela is going to need to be something of a 2016 Tristan Thompson on steroids for Houston in this series. Since he is not the type of player that you can dump the ball into the post to to exploit a mismatch he is going to need to dominate in other ways with his activity. He needs to punish the warriors on the offensive glass and on rolls to the basket. He is going to have to hold own defensively on switches onto curry or Durant and defend them without fouling. On offense, he is going to make proper reads out of the pick and roll when Paul and harden inevitability get trapped. Does he have the playmaking skills to do that?

This series will likely test Capela in a way he’s never really been before. If he can’t be effective and Golden State plays him off the floor and forces Houston to downsize, I think the rockets will in trouble. But if he can force Golden State to put one of their less mobile and effective bigs on the floor to counter him, I think it will significantly increase the rockets chances.

 

   

[HobbyOGParticipant]

 I think he needs to just play his game. Eveyone will need to step up for the Rockets to win but Clint is one of the best bigs in the league that runs the floor. Continue to protect the rim and run the floor, pick and roll with his guards, stay out of foul trouble and he will be ok. 

[BeastMode716Participant]

 on the floor. 

I understand that + / – often simplifies very complicated situations – this is a team sport afterall 

But Houston will have to figure out how to effectlively deploy Capella against Golden State b/c Capella is a crucial chess piece for the Rocket’s head coach Mike D’Antoni

 

 

[whiteflashParticipant]

 Not normally into analytics, but that’s a pretty crazy stat. Don’t think McGee saw the floor tonight, they isolated Looney out top on the switch and still got smoked.  

[whiteflashParticipant]

 I’m interested to see if they run Looney and/or McGee at him or or if they stay with their smaller lineup, mostly because I’m interested in what big’s guarding the ball on the switch out front.

[r377Participant]

 Capela is a great player and is still underrated.  I think he WILL have a good series – while harden and cp3 will be filling up the stats sheet Capela will be the anchor on defense

[OhCanada-Participant]

 Capela defenitely has to have a big series here. He’s basically the pressure valve for this offense, when they can run through him smoothly and he is being a menace on the offensive glass it frees everything up for them. Theres a good chance he gets neutralized in this series though. GSW’s whole system is based on setting screens on offense and defending screens/pick and rolls and switching on defense and alot of the time they do it borderline illegally by being very physical and continuing to move but the refs seem to let it slide because lets be honest you cant just whistle them down on every play for an illegal screen. The game would be 4 hours long and everyone would foul out.  Im interested to see how effective Houston is when they are playing a team that can get into passing lanes, attack the ballhandler and force them out of their sets consistently.

[TRC1991Participant]

Rockets wont win, they have a substantial disadvantage at both forward positions

[The GoatParticipant]

Harden had 40, CP3 had 20-10, Capela only missed one FG and the Warriors won in Houston despite less than 20 from Curry and early foul trouble from Draymond.

Warriors in 4. 

[whiteflashParticipant]

 Bet a buddy before yesterday that they’d win in 5, and sticking with that.

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

Harden’s advanced ball handling, footwork, change of pace, counters, step-back, shot making ability, etc are all amazing, but HOU is one of the more boring teams to watch. All they do is ISO and play hero ball while guys stand around and watch. Yea, Harden and CP3 will get their numbers playing that way, but you can’t beat great teams.

“I definitely would like to get the ball more for me to be aggressive and get good looks,” said Gordon, who took 13 shots. “Offensively with everybody, we really don’t get real good looks. … We can’t isolate as much against a good defensive team. I don’t care who you are. We have some of the best isolation players out there. But against a team like that, it’s going to be too tough.” – Eric Gordon

Also . . . A lot of people on social media were roasting Curry’s defense, but at least he was giving effort and fighting. I lost count of how many times Harden got caught ball watching and let his man cut to the basket or how many times somebody blew by him.

The Rockets will be lucky to get 1 win in this series. I hope GSW wraps this up quick. Sick of watching this lame ass basketball that HOU plays. Same with CLE. 

 

[whiteflashParticipant]

 As a native Houstonian I agree with all of this. I also firmly believe that you can’t win with Harden as your number one option, and he’s too arrogant to be the second option on a legitimate title contender.

[Author]

Posts