A matchup I’ve been waiting for. Houston has spent the season getting drunk on their own hype. We got swept by them in the regular season. Make no mistake, beneath their false confidence, there’s plenty of fear of their own personal post-season failures (Paul, D’Antoni, and Harden), but they don’t think it’s happening with us. Mentally, they’re looking ahead to GSW, for that’s what they’re nervous about. They see themselves as having been rested while we’re on a pseudo back-to-back. They’ll be over looking us out the gate.
On the flip side, OKC was a tough series as, though we were technically underdogs, we knew we were at least on their level, and we had a lot of pressure to take them down. We now have no pressure and should come out loose. I think we’ve got a good chance of stealing both Houston games if we stick with it. They’ll drop the first one looking past us. They’ll drop the second convincing themselves it was a huge fluke, by the third and fourth losses, they’ll lose because they won’t be playing to win, but playing afraid and playing to not lose. D’Antoni will have no idea how to respond when Quin gets him in some uncomfortable places.
Wait until Ryan Anderson and James Harden get roughed up by Crowder, Jerebko, and O’Neale.
Rubio out will shake things up for the first couple games and throw a fork in D’Antoni’s game plan. Having O’Neale on Harden out the gate will be great.
Jazz in 6.
On the flip side, OKC was a tough series as, though we were technically underdogs, we knew we were at least on their level, and we had a lot of pressure to take them down. We now have no pressure and should come out loose. I think we’ve got a good chance of stealing both Houston games if we stick with it. They’ll drop the first one looking past us. They’ll drop the second convincing themselves it was a huge fluke, by the third and fourth losses, they’ll lose because they won’t be playing to win, but playing afraid and playing to not lose. D’Antoni will have no idea how to respond when Quin gets him in some uncomfortable places.
Wait until Ryan Anderson and James Harden get roughed up by Crowder, Jerebko, and O’Neale.
Rubio out will shake things up for the first couple games and throw a fork in D’Antoni’s game plan. Having O’Neale on Harden out the gate will be great.
Jazz in 6.
