By: Paul McGuire
I was happy with this series just getting to a seventh game.
After getting wrecked as badly as they did in the first four games, the fact that the Houston Rockets made this series competitive was good enough for me. Sure, other teams had come back from 3-1 deficits. But none had done so while getting blown out as badly as the Rockets.
But the Rockets won Game 7. They led wire to wire. And aside from two scary moments early in the third as well as the last minute of the game, they were in complete control. The lead went up to 20 in the fourth. But with less than 90 seconds, Los Angeles made a final push to get within eight points with less than 90 seconds left. Howard observed later that at that point, he thought "we can't let them pull an us on us."
The Clippers did not. J.J. Redick bricked yet another three and Trevor Ariza hit the dagger trey. A few free throws later, and the series was over. The Houston Rockets are going to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in almost 20 years, when John Stockton taught my childhood self that good does not always triumph.
As great as this regular season has been for the Rockets, I do think that Houston has been underrated because of the Howard injury.
Houston finished with 56 wins, but had a SRS of 3.83 and an expected win total of 50 games. To put this number in perspective, last year's Rockets had a SRS of 5.06. The Clippers this season were at 6.80. The Warriors are over 10, one of, if not the highest SRS since the 1997 Bulls. In short, the Rockets got to where they were by winning a lot of close games - and as Daryl Morey has observed, good teams don't win close games. They blow out their opponents.
But the reality is that Houston is better than that 3.83 mark because Dwight Howard was injured for so many games. As great as Donatas Motiejunas was this year, I cannot imagine him trying to box out and contain DeAndre Jordan throughout this series.
Howard could. And Howard did.
We all know how Howard has played throughout this series. How he is not wasting offensive possessions on post-ups, how he is playing the pick and roll defensive center which everyone else in the basketball universe knew he would be so good at. And that defensive boost has given the Rockets a level up which they needed to beat the Clippers.
Sure, Houston needed some help. Houston probably does not win this series if Chris Paul plays in Game 2. But in addition to Howard, the Rockets made adjustments.
While I have always been "meh" on Kevin McHale ( not blaming him for the Portland loss, but not praising him for how this team has played this season), every Rockets fans has to give McHale huge credit for how he coached this series. There may be no coach in this league, not even Popovich, who is as good at making players believe in themselves. It reminds me of Rudy T, who was no X's and O's genius either ( as anyone who watched the Franchise years can attest to.)
Starting Josh Smith over Terrence Jones was huge. Placing Ariza on Redick at the start of games was huge. And while Doc Rivers ran his team into the ground, the Rockets were fresher and ready to thrash the Clippers by the end. Only five Clippers scored more than 2 points in Game 7.
The Clippers had no depth. Everyone knew this at the beginning of this series, but Austin Rivers managed to hide that fact for a bit. But as the series dragged on, Kevin McHale made his adjustments, and the Clippers felt the aftereffects of that first round war against San Antonio, it seems like their players aside from Paul ran out of gas. Yes, Blake Griffin had 27-11 tonight. But if people can talk of how Harden did not take over this series even though his numbers are not much different from the regular season, then I can do the same for Griffin.
After McHale put Smith on Griffin, Griffin wasn't terrifying like he was beforehand or like Aldridge was last year. He could be contained. He was tired. He didn't do much after someone passed him the ball when he was at the top of the key. He lobbed the ball up to Jordan a few times, but that was about it.
Chris Paul fought hard, and I will go nuts on any idiot who blames him for the Clippers losing this series. He was the only Clippers who seemed willing to score in the fourth, and even had this amazingly clever play to get Howard to the foul line with less than 2 minutes left. But there isn't much Paul could do about the fact that the other Clippers perimeter players forgot how to play defense and left Trevor Ariza open for wide open three after wide open three. Nor could he do much about how the Clippers players forgot to shoot as well.
To sum things up? Despite the lack of a bench, I do think Los Angeles had the better team on paper. But games are not played on paper. They are played where nerves are frayed, muscles scream in pain, and sweat drips off your brow ( or perhaps rain given the current Houston weather). Kevin McHale outcoached Doc Rivers. The Rockets showed up and shot the ball when they needed to, while Los Angeles ran out of steam.
The result? The best and most important Rockets victory I have watched in my life.
Now, what about the next round? Golden State is a different thing from everyone else. They have everything from shooters to creators to interior defenders to a good coach. Everyone will pick Golden State to beat Houston. Most will pick them to crush the Rockets.
But most people ( including myself) thought this series was over after Game 4. And while I'm sure you will hear it a thousand times before Game 1 begins, I might as well observe it now. 20 years ago, the Houston Rockets and the runner-up MVP took on the number 1 seed in the Western Conference and their MVP candidate. 20 years ago, the San Antonio Spurs beat the Houston Rockets in every regular season game in the 1994-95 season.
If you're reading this, you know what happened next.
Maybe history will repeat itself. Maybe it will not. I do know that pretty much no matter what happens in this series, this season has been an unqualified success for the Houston Rockets.
Now let's see them get ready for Round 3.
