It’s the second consecutive season the Jazz lost in this round after being swept by Golden State last season. The new Rockets have Chris Paul.
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Whenever it started, however it started, it’s clear that this is the series that the NBA-watching world wanted.
The Houston Rockets have home-court advantage in the Western Conference finals, but they’re still underdogs to the defending champion Golden State Warriors.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen them, but we know they are a great team”, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of the Rockets, who triumphed 2-1 against his team in the regular season.
And there is also no way D’Antoni will let Capela get caught trying to guard Durant on the perimeter because the other four Golden State players will slash to the basket at will looking for entry passes. So with these two offensive juggernauts getting set for battle what are the important matchups or players that we need to look out for? So far, so good.
These two teams met three times this season, with Houston winning two of the three meetings.
“We want to win another championship”, Green said, “and it don’t matter who’s in the way of that”. Everybody talks about fighting for a championship. Game one begins on Monday and we can only hope to get a competitive and entertaining series. “Everybody takes their job serious”. Like I’ve said before, all that stuff is cool. Home-court advantage will likely play a huge role in this series and if Houston wants to take this series they can not let it slip into the hands of Golden State. The Rockets won the final matchup of the regular season. No team has a higher ceiling than Golden State, who have won two of the last three titles and are aiming for their fourth straight trip to the Finals. “I think both teams are different and playing better”.
“However, we got them, aiight”.
As Embiid talked, Morris used his hand to toggle between the sign for three and the one for zero, signaling that Boston was up 3-0 in the series. The Rockets are capable of shooting much better from the field and Harden can be much more consistent.
The first game was a close affair with the Rockets edging the Warriors 122-121 after Kevin Durant late buzzer beater was deemed late upon replay review.
“But our guys have reached the conference finals four years in a row now so they should be really proud of themselves”. “So following that trend for sure”.
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Anthony Slater tweeted out that Kerr was asked about the Rockets having more hunger than the Warriors to win this series because they’re seeking their first championship. The old adage in the National Basketball Association was that teams essentially had to pay their dues before they would be able to finally win a championship. And in February, Green told Sports Illustrated that he knew the Rockets were focused on knocking the Warriors off. “We’re not about to run off talking about how bad we want to play somebody”, Green said.
