By: Rahat Huq
- So. How is everyone? I am in a strange mood right now regarding this. Considering this team has a very strong chance to make the Western Conference Finals, I should be a lot more excited than I am. Maybe it's because I've been so drained from my real job. Maybe I subconsciously think the team will let me down, because historically they always have? I don't know. BUT THEY HAVE A VERY REAL SHOT TO GET TO THE WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS. That's incredible, like, considering what happened this offseason. If I had told you back in the summer that the Rockets would be the 2nd seed, you'd ask me, "oh, is Chris Bosh first team All-NBA?"
- The last time these two franchises squared off in the postseason, the Mavs had Dirk, and the Rockets had a 25 year old superstar shooting guard carrying a tremendous load.
- Bob Sura and Mike James is a decided advantage over Terry and Prigioni, even if Sura was completely hobbled by that point. Actually, I don't really know, now that I've typed all that up. Sura was completely hobbled. And while James exploded for some big games, he had a tendency to play outside the offense. And Terry and Prigioni will hit some huge shots throughout the course of this series. Verdict: the Rockets have had a problem at point guard for a very long time (not including their lottery years in between with Lowry and Dragic).
- Ariza vs. Wesley is a huge advantage Ariza considering Wesley was like 5'11 and 35 years old by that point.
- Ryan Bowen and Clarence Weatherspoon vs. Terrence Jones and Josh Smith. LOL. Consider that the team had freaking Juwon Howard as its starter, and losing him was considered a big loss. But those first two guys aren't even NBA players. This exercise is leading me to wonder why I've been suggesting Harden doesn't have help when T-Mac basically had a glorified NBDL team surrounding him.
- That '05 team's key reserves were Dikembe Mutombo and a 75 year old Jon Barry. Related: Jerry Stackhouse absolutely murdered Jon Barry and whoever this team put on him that series. This team, even without Motiejunas, with Josh Smith and Corey Brewer, has one of the most explosive bench combos in the league.
- McHale vs. Van Gundy: I'll make too many of you angry if I go there, so I won't.
- Dwight vs. Yao: this is where it gets interesting, because I think there's a lot of revisionism surrounding Yao, or maybe just a failure in memory. While he averaged 21 points and 8 boards in that series, even on 66% shooting, he wasn't the dominant force that conventional wisdom has suggested he was. He was tremendous in Games 2, 5, and the meaningless Game 7, but even a downright liability at times, in the losses. Yao torched Shawn Bradley when the Mavericks played him conventionally, but the series shifted when Dallas went small, benching Bradley and Keith Van Horn, and forcing Yao to guard smaller players out on the perimeter. Van Gundy, at times, had no recourse but to just bench Yao, for spurts. And that's the thing with Yao that people don't remember. Even back then, I'd get into this same argument with Rockets fans, on different parts of the Internet, regarding the Yao v. young Dwight Howard debate. Dwight probably won't score 30 points in any game this series. He'll drive me to tear out my hair when he posts up. But no matter what the circumstance, there's never going to be a point where I will deem him a liability, just simply because he's so tremendously disruptive, even now, defensively. Many of you will disagree, but give me Dwight, any day of the week, over Yao Ming.
- I was the biggest Tracy McGrady supporter in those days, when almost everyone else in this city would pile on him for his failures. I thought Yao got too much of a free pass, and McGrady didn't get enough credit. And boy, was T-Mac tremendous. He took his game to a new level that series, averaging over 30 a game, bringing the ball up himself, and even guarding Dirk. But I'd still go with Harden. While T-Mac had scoring binges in the playoffs, my memory of him is of always shriveling during critical moments. He shot poorly in that Game 7 disaster. And the same occurred in later series'. I distinctly remember, against Utah, in Game 7, with Houston entering the bonus with like 7 freaking minutes left in the 4th quarter, for some reason the guy just completely refused to take the ball to the basket and force the issue. We lost. In Game 6, against Utah again, the next year, while he scored 40, I have this distinct memory of T-Mac standing around deferring to Bobby freaking Jackson during the deciding 3rd quarter stretch where the Jazz pulled away, then piling on some meaningless baskets once it was over. Harden is different. He's nowhere near as talented and probably can be shut down more easily, given the vast disparity in physical makeup. (T-Mac looks like, basically, what the end result would be if you were creating the perfect basketball player; Harden looks like a tall fat dude that is seeing good results the past three weeks on his new kettlebell regimen). But Harden is not going to go down without a fight. Sometimes its a bad thing. But I'll take the guy who is going to go down shooting, even if possibly at a detriment, over the guy who will likely shrivel. You could argue that the Memphis and San Antonio games, this year, proved that maybe forcing the issue isn't always the best course of action. But I'll live with that over deference to Bobby Jackson.
- And yes, while everyone else probably broke down the '14 Rockets vs. the '14 Mavs, by position, I just compared our players to their counterparts from 9 years ago.
