Inside Look: Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Houston Rockets

The Oklahoma City Thunder stormed into the postseason with an impressive 60-22 record in the regular season that secured them home court throughout the Western Conference playoffs. They somehow managed to go unnoticed this year thanks to Miami's incredible 28 game win streak. Throw in the fact that the San Antonio Spurs were the 1 seed all year, the Lakers pushed the self destruct button and rose from the ashes, and everyone was questioning the Thunder management for trading James Harden; and you can understand why the Thunder managed to fly under the radar for a team that won 60 games and outscored it's opponent by 9.2 points/game.
The Houston Rockets took an entirely different path into the postseason. For most of the year they scratched and clawed their way to victories that many people had them losing. But with James Harden acquired in an off-season trade, the Rockets managed to take off and land themselves a spot in the post season. Although they had two chances to clinch the 6th and 7th seed, the season has to be viewed as a success because the team brought playoff basketball back to Houstonians that have been craving it since the Rockets were eliminated by the Lakers in the second round of the 2009 playoffs (Yao Ming was still playing at 100%, that's how long it has been). 
With Oklahoma City looking toward an (almost) inevitable rematch with the Heat in the NBA Finals, the Rockets will have to make history and pull off an upset for the ages if it wants to get past the first round. This is how the starting 5 for each team will match up against each other. 

Point Guard: Russell Westbrook vs. Jeremy Lin
This is the match up that Oklahoma City will exploit the most. Jeremy Lin is one of the faster players in the league, but he is nothing compared to the athletic ability of Russell Westbrook. I expect many shouts from Rockets fans to put in Patrick Beverely instead of Lin by the end of this series. Which I can understand, but Russell Westbrook may be the best point guard in the league and anyone will have a tough time stopping him in the post season. 
Advantage: Oklahoma City-Russell Westbrook

Shooting Guard: Thabo Sefolosha vs. James Harden
This is the match up that the Rockets need to exploit the most. Sefolosha is a great defender, but I think Harden's offensive skills will be able to overcome his defensive ones. For Houston to have a chance at even making this series reasonable, they need Harden to play smart basketball. Wednesday night in Los Angeles was not smart basketball. He can't afford to wind down the shot clock until there are 7 seconds left, try to make a move, and when it's not there kick it out to Lin or Parsons or Delfino for a desperation 3 point shot. If it's not there, he needs to pass the ball sooner and move around to create space and get the ball again for all I care. I just know that if I have to watch the Rockets blow a game because Harden wants to play hero ball against his former team I am going to lose it. 
Advantage: Houston Rockets-James Harden

Small Forward: Kevin Durant vs. Chandler Parsons
Kevin Durant is not nice. He is going to make Chandler Parsons wish he was still in college. If there wasn't a certain player called Lebron James in the league, Kevin Durant would definitely be accepting his first MVP award from David Stern during these playoffs. I could go on for days about how good Kevin Durant is, but I believe he will show us just how good is is over the next two months of playoff basketball. 
Houston fans will claim that Parsons is a great defender, and on most nights he is, but going up against Kevin Durant in a playoff series is far more difficult than going up against Kevin Durant in a regular season game.
Advantage: Oklahoma City-Kevin Durant

Does Kevin Durant look nice to you?

Power Forward: Serge Ibaka vs. Terrence Jones/Donatas Montiejunas/Thomas Robinson
I have no idea who Houston will be playing to start the games against Serge Ibaka, but my best guess is Terrence Jones because he was getting significant minutes in the final few games of the season and seemed to be gaining more confidence with every game he played. Regardless, Ibaka will wipe the floor with whoever Kevin McHale decides to sacrifice that night. Ibaka's shot blocking ability make him a dangerous match up not just for whoever is playing PF for the Rockets, but for the entire Rockets team. I expect Jeremy Lin and James Harden to be frustrated on multiple occasions every game by Ibaka's athleticism and shot blocking skills. 
Advantage: Oklahoma City-Serge Ibaka

Center: Kendrick Perkins vs Omer Asik
This is the closest match up on the court in my opinion. Perkins is a great defender and thrives on making the opposing centers life a living hell, but Asik has a surprising amount of offensive skill that will give Perkins one or two headaches throughout the course of this series. Couple that with the likelihood of Perkins sitting out the entire 4th quarter because he is such an offensive liability, and I could easily see Asik having a very good series. That could all crumble though if he gets in foul trouble early and forces McHale to sub in one of the young guns on the bench, which would then result in Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant taking it to rim on every single offensive possession (at least that's what I would tell them to do if I was Scott Brooks).
Advantage: Houston-Omer Asik

Teams: Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Houston RocketsHouston won't roll over easily, but Oklahoma City won't let this get to six games. Their starting five is just so much better than Houston's at the moment and it will not be hard for them to send James Harden and the boys on a early vacation. Don't count out James Harden to win a game by himself with a crazy 50/10/10 night though because he will want to show off his talents on a national stage and prove that he can lead a team by himself to the Oklahoma City management that thought they could cash in on him and not lose a step in the quest to get back to the NBA Finals.
FINAL PREDICTION: Thunder in 5

CRAZY HOUSTON HOMER CONSPIRACY THEORY ALERT!!!
Scott Brooks decides that he would rather lead a team with James Harden and good role players, than wait for the inevitable doom that is the Russell Westbrook vs. Kevin Durant situation. He tanks the first round and gets fired on the spot, where he is greeted by Leslie Alexander who automatically offers him a return to the team he won an NBA Championship with in 1994. 

Hey, a guy can dream right?

NBA Playoff Predictions: Western Conference Round 1

We've been waiting 82 games for this, and finally the NBA Playoffs are here. So many story lines to be written, so many rivalries to be created, and so many questions to be answered. 
I will be predicting the playoffs round by round with a little bit of reasoning behind each pick.

1. Oklahoma City Thunder vs. 8. Houston Rockets
Why must you do this to me Houston? After having the 6th seed within their grasp and a chance to advance to the second round, the Rockets lost their last two games and fell to the 8th seed to face a dreadful match-up against the Thunder. I will have a more in-depth look at this series in another post, but it's ridiculous to think the Rockets will win this.
Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka will destroy the Rockets and it will be a merciful death. Don't count out James Harden to win a game by himself though with a crazy 50 point night or something along those lines.
Prediction: Thunder in 5 (Only because I'm a giant homer for the Rockets)

2. San Antonio Spurs vs. 7. Los Angeles Lakers
Everyone thinks the Lakers new found offense with Pau and Dwight will mkae them a nightmare for San Antonio. That could be possible I suppose, but the biggest advantages I see more San Antonio are the match-ups they have with Tony Parker vs. Steve Blake, and Greg Popovich vs. Mike D'Antoni. 
D'Antoni is an idiot who couldn't coach a YMCA team to a championship. This is a man that has gone from failing in Phoenix, to failing in New York, to now failing in Los Angeles. At this rate he will have coached the Thunder and Heat by the end of his career. How this man has a job is beyond me, and once the Spurs silence the Lakers he will no longer have one. 
Prediction: Spurs in 5  

3. Denver Nuggets vs. 6. Golden State Warriors
With Denver without some essential players in their lineup, I could see an upset brewing here. Steph Curry is on fire and David Lee is learning how to play defense (about damn time) and that makes the Warriors a dangerous team. If the home crowd can give them the boost like their 2008 upset of the Mavericks, then I'm giving the edge to the Warriors.
Prediction: Warriors in 6

4. Los Angeles Clippers vs. 5. Memphis Grizzlies
 These two dueled it out for a 7 game series last year and a repeat performance could be on the cards. The Clippers have gotten deeper since last year and Vinny Del Negro has learned how not to be the worst coach in the league, so I have to give the Clippers a good shot to make it past this round. 
Z-Bo, Marc Gasol, and Mike Conley may have something to say about that, but as a team they don't scare me. Without Rudy Gay they lack someone that can create their own shot in the 4th quarter, which is vital in the playoffs when everything slows down.
The Clippers have been looking forward to the playoffs for about 3 months now and Chris Paul has been on cruise control for the majority of that time. Expect him to ramp it up and take over the 4th quarter like we all know he can.
Prediction: Clippers in 7
 

NBA Playoff Predicitions: Eastern Conference Round 1

We've been waiting 82 games for this, and finally the NBA Playoffs are here. So many story lines to be written, so many rivalries to be created, and so many questions to be answered. 
I will be predicting the playoffs round by round with a little bit of reasoning behind each pick.

1. Miami Heat vs. 8. Milwaukee Bucks
I only need one reason to pick the Miami Heat to win this series, and that reason is Lebron James. When you have a single player on your team that is probably better than the opposing 5 starters combined (sorry Ellis, Jennings, Sanders, Ilyasova, and Dunleavy) then you have a great chance at advancing through the first round.
Prediction: Heat in 4

2. New York Knicks vs. 7. Boston Celtics
Carmelo Anthony is on fire. J.R. Smith can light it up when he's in the right frame of mind. This will be a sexy sleeper pick with most people, kind of like the Trail Blazers over the Mavericks in 2011, but Boston is old and running out of time.
IT DON'T MATTER.
Boston will win this. It won't be pretty and it won't be without controversy, but I don't believe in Carmelo Anthony. The only year he managed to get past the first round was with Chauncey Billups at the helm and Raymond Felton/Iman Shumpert are not turning into Chauncey Billups anytime soon. 
Prediction: Boston in 6

Kevin Garnett hasn't given up on his Celtics yet, and either have I.

3. Indiana Pacers vs. 6. Atlanta Hawks
Indiana is a team that has 3 of the top 4 defensive players in the league with Roy Hibbert, David West, and Paul George. Atlanta is a team that has been daydreaming for months about potentially landing Dwight Howard in the off season and not at all interested in the playoffs. This will be the NBA TV series of the first round.
Prediction: Pacers in 5

4. Brooklyn Nets vs. 5. Chicago Bulls
Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, and the artist formerly known as Gerald Wallace will take the floor against Noah, Deng, and (maybe?) D-Rose. I don't like either of these teams chances of advancing past the second round, but someone has to win. I think Tom Thibodeau has the coaching match-up won, and I think the Bulls are pissed off that no one (including me) gives them a shot to do anything in the postseason. 
Prediction: Bulls in 6

Doop Curse Explained

I live in a duplex with three other guys. They are just as obsessed with sports as I am. We have lived here since July 2011 and have witnessed some ridiculous reverse jinxes since we moved in. Therefore, we coined a term "doop curse" as it seemed to happen too often to be just a coincidence. 

Memorable Doop Curses:

1) I traded Josh Hamilton in fantasy baseball on April 31st last year. Josh Hamilton hit 4 home runs on May 9th.
2) One roommate said in the Texans 2013 AFC Divisional Playoff game against the Patriots that Devier Posey would become the #2 WR behind Andre Johnson. Devier Posey tore his Achilles' tendon that game.
3) One roommate noticed that another roommates car was the only one that had never been involved in an accident because of our absurdly busy parking lot. Within two and a half hours a Dodge truck had backed into the roommates car causing over $1500 in damage. His car has also gone through three flat tires in the 6 weeks since the doop curse was initiated. 

Josh Hamilton did not like my early season trade in fantasy last year.

So if I refer to the doop curse again, I will post a link to this post in order to explain the phenomena. And since this curse is now public knowledge, I will be keeping a record of all the doop curses that happen for the rest of my time in the duplex.

Doop Curse List

1. Write blog post about Rockets being professional and looking like a solid bet to lock up the 6th seed. Next night lose to the Phoenix Suns, the worst team in the West. (April 15th, 2013)

Black Mamba Down

As Kobe Bryant sat on the floor Friday night grimacing in pain, every Lakers fans nightmare became a reality. The extended minutes and physical effort of this rollercoaster season had finally gotten to the Black Mamba and hit him with a knockout punch.
With the Lakers in the thick of a race for the 8th seed in the West, Kobe was obviously going to have to play more if the Lakers wanted to keep their postseason hopes alive. However, I feel that someone on the Lakers medical staff should have remembered the he (Kobe) was in his 17th NBA season and maybe playing an average of 45.7 minutes over a 7 game stretch would put some physical strain on his 34 year old body. Now the minutes may not have been the direct cause to the injury, but I will not believe that the increase in minutes was not at least a factor that left him more susceptible to this type of injury.

Kobe Bryant's left Achilles' tendon popped, and with it went the Lakers chances at a post season run.

The torn Achilles' tendon in his left foot will sideline Bryant for the rest of the season and until at least Christmas. Many athletes have suffered this type of injury and it has been know to be one of the most frustrating injuries that can occur in a pro career because, besides the physical recovery,  the mental recovery to trust that the tendon won't pop again whenever they need to jump or cut on the court or field is hard to overcome.
So when will we see Kobe Bryant back at full strength again? At 34 years old and with a career that spans the equivalent of 20 NBA seasons (including postseason and international duty) it is hard to imagine ever seeing him back to 100 percent fully fit. And if we know Kobe Bryant as well as we like to think we do, then he won't allow himself to come back until he is convinced that he can perform at an elite level and live up to the high standards that he has set for himself the past 17 years in his basketball career.
And if all else fails, at least he could try to reignite his rap career.

Rockets Get the Job Done

Sunday night at the Toyota Center was the last time the Houston Rockets would play at home before games three and four of whatever playoff series they are involved in, whether that be the 2-7 or 3-6 matchup. 
What the 45-35 Houston Rockets delivered was a professional and encouraging performance that showed exactly how far this team has come since the James Harden trade in October. 
In the previous three, non-playoff basketball seasons, the Rockets have had crucial games, exactly like Sunday nights game against the Kings, and inexplicably crumbled to leave them on the outside looking in when the playoffs began in mid-April.
BUT NOT THIS YEAR!
James Harden has brought a winning and confident mentality to this team as a leader and as a forth quarter closer, both of which the Rockets have desperately needed in the past three years. 
The Kings never threatened the Rockets except for a brief moment in the second quarter, and the 121-100 final score reflected how dominant James Harden and the boys were over the Sacramento, soon to be Seattle based, team.

Superstars get the foul calls. Harden averages 10.2 FT/game. The most in the NBA this season.

With two games left on the road against the Suns and Kobe-less Lakers I fully expect the Rockets to win out and clinch the sixth seed to face Denver in the first round of the playoffs. 
I'll admit I'm putting on my homer hat and saying that the Rockets would win that series. With Lawson, Gallinari, and Faried all out it's not crazy to say the Rockets could win. I'm not shaking in my boots at the prospect of Harden, Parsons, and Lin going up against Corey Brewer, Wilson Chandler, and Andre Miller. 
Then with a second round matchup against a Manu-less Spurs...okay, I'm getting carried away now. I'll hold off on second round optimism until they get past the first round at least.

Tiger Woods Gets Screwed On the Course For Once

Another story from Augusta was the Tiger Woods penalty stroke debacle. I believe that the correct call was made, Tiger took an illegal drop and was correctly assessed a two-stroke penalty instead of the ridiculous disqualification that was apparently possible. That two-stroke penalty put a wrench in the momentum he had been building all Friday afternoon, preparing himself for what seemed like a typical Tiger-Saturday charge up the leaderboard. Ultimately, the charge never came and we will be left to wonder what might have been.

Tiger wasn't the only one that dropped the ball on Friday afternoon.

Now while I say the correct call was made, I don't think there should have been a call to make in the first place! There is no way that a television viewer should be able to call in and affect a major golf championship. Can you imagine if the NFL or NBA allowed people to call in and tell them whether it was a pass interference penalty or a charging foul? It bothers me a lot that someone sitting at home has potentially robbed us of seeing Tiger Woods back to his major contending ways.
That should not be possible, and I am pleased to hear that the PGA has already adjusted the rule in order to protect players from situations like this in the future.