Tell me why Rockets can't. beat L.A.!

[Who]

The Rockets have a horrific offense. Stagnant, lacks both player and ball movement. They have hardly any dribble penetration, and when they get that they have nobody who can act as a playmaker to create a shot for someone else. There's no creativity to their offense. It's too predictable and easy to flummox.

The Lakers will beat Houston and they'll do so comfortably -- if Tracy McGrady was healthy, the Rockets could beat LA, but he isn't and they can't.

[Cman]

if Tracy McGrady was healthy

This is about as close to an oxymoron as you get in the sports world.
About the only thing that might beat it is "Tiger Woods" and "choke" in the same sentence.

[Hoops]

The Rockets have a horrific offense. Stagnant, lacks both player and ball movement. They have hardly any dribble penetration, and when they get that they have nobody who can act as a playmaker to create a shot for someone else. There's no creativity to their offense. It's too predictable and easy to flummox.

The Lakers will beat Houston and they'll do so comfortably -- if Tracy McGrady was healthy, the Rockets could beat LA, but he isn't and they can't.

Man, I saw Aaron Brooks and Von Wafer do a lot of dribble penetrating against the Blazers. Brooks isn't a playmaker? Maybe he's no Rondo, but Brooks is playmaker.

[PosImpos]

They can, it's just not likely.

It would be like the Magic beating Cleveland.

Surprising and unlikely but not shocking or seemingly impossible.

I think the Rockets odds of beating LA are much better than the Magic odds of beating Cleveland (if Orlando were to beat Boston and face Cleveland). The Rockets beating LA would be surprising but not shocking. The Magic beating the Cavs would be downright shocking.

Not really, considering the Magic smacked down the Cavs pretty badly in a couple games this season.  I wouldn't be that surprised.  I'm not saying it wouldn't be surprising, but I think the two situations (Rockets > Lakers and Magic > Cavs) are comparable.

[johnnyrondo]

if Tracy McGrady was healthy

This is about as close to an oxymoron as you get in the sports world.
About the only thing that might beat it is "Tiger Woods" and "choke" in the same sentence.

What are you talking about? Tracy McGrady would have no trouble getting out of the 2nd round. It's just the 1st round that gives him trouble.

[celticmaestro]

No T-Mac, no belief.

A healthy T-Mac would give them something to match LA with offensively. Artest will have to have the series of his life for Houston to stand a chance.

My pick is LA in 4 or 5.

[Drucci]

Lakers in 5 or 6, the Rockets usually stay in the game for long and choke in the 4th quarter. Plus, Artest is a good defender but he almost always gets embarrassed by Kobe. The series hasn't even started and still Artest has already criticized Kobe, saying that he started playing defense 3 years ago. He must think it's a clever mind game but he's only getting Kobe mad and he will probably pay the price for it.

However, if the Rockets can give a tough series to the Lakers, it'll be all good for Denver in the WCF.

[ManUp]

The Rockets defense can't stop the Lake show from running through it, and their offense just isn't good enough to keep the pace.

The Lakers are the better team.

[Bankshot]

No T-Mac, no belief.

A healthy T-Mac would give them something to match LA with offensively. Artest will have to have the series of his life for Houston to stand a chance.

My pick is LA in 4 or 5.

If T-mac were healthy they wouldn't have made it out of the first round.  They are better without T-Mac and they have a better chance against the Lakers without him.

[Ed Teach]

The Rockets are better off with out Tracy.  With Tracy the offense goes through Tracy, He is still thinks it is 1999 and much of the time runs an iso and settles for a tough jump shot (think Paul Pierce but 100 times worse).  I agree that if Tracy could accept a role where he is not the 1st option on offense he could make the Rockets a contender.  But as Tracy is today, the Rockets without Tracy are a tougher team.  Houston will pound the ball to Yao and if Artest plays with in himself (not get into a personal battle with Kobe) the Rockets will give the Lakers more of challange then people are expecting.

[Who]

The Houston Rockets are better off without an injured Tracy McGrady. When he's injured, he's no use to him.

[Who]

The Rockets have a horrific offense. Stagnant, lacks both player and ball movement. They have hardly any dribble penetration, and when they get that they have nobody who can act as a playmaker to create a shot for someone else. There's no creativity to their offense. It's too predictable and easy to flummox.

Man, I saw Aaron Brooks and Von Wafer do a lot of dribble penetrating against the Blazers. Brooks isn't a playmaker? Maybe he's no Rondo, but Brooks is playmaker.

If you were rating Brooks as a playmaker (scorer+passer+creative+penetration) amongst starting point guards, where would he rank? Near the top? Near the bottom? Near the middle?

If you were ranking Brooks as the top playmaker on a team in the playoffs, where would he rank? Near the top? Near the bottom? How much worse is he versus Kobe or LeBron for example?

There's too much weight on his shoulders, and he simply isn't good enough to pull it off.

[angryguy77]

refs are broke back for kobe

Did you say the same for Wade before he got eliminated? Or do you save such comments for mismatches so that you can blame the refs when the better team wins?

Beacuse start treatment doesnt exist right? We must be crazy to think so

[Redz]

No T-Mac, no belief.

A healthy T-Mac would give them something to match LA with offensively. Artest will have to have the series of his life for Houston to stand a chance.

My pick is LA in 4 or 5.

If T-mac were healthy they wouldn't have made it out of the first round.  They are better without T-Mac and they have a better chance against the Lakers without him.

Agreed.

I don't know that the Rockets have the better team, but they have some unique parts and it wouldn't shock me if me they took the Lakers deep, or won the series.

[cordobes]

Once in awhile (it's more rare nowadays) Artest has one of those games where he tries to impersonate Kobe and takes an obscene amount of off-balance 20 footers off the dribble. Most of the times his team ends up losing the game. Very rarely he gets hot and succeeds. If he (or Von Wafer) has 4 of those very rare games out of 7, the Rockets may win.

Why are people assuming the Nuggets can be competitive versus the Lakers, btw? I mean, they can pull an upset, but it's rather improbable. Once Manu went down, McGrady went down and Webster didn't come back + Oden didn't start moving quicker, the Lakers had a highway to the finals.