Forecast: Rockets At Warriors NBA Playoffs: Game 5

The Houston Rockets are on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs tonight as they face the Golden State Warriors up at their house.

Will the good Rockets show up and fight it off for one more day?

That remains to be seen but I’d imagine that the Warriors want to get this series over with so that they can maximize their rest and wait for Stephen Curry to be ready to go for the next series.

I’d love to have Game 6 back in Houston Friday but I’m quite skeptical that this will happen but stranger things have happened.

Like the Los Angeles Clippers collapse in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semis.

If there’s any inspiration that needs to be tapped to imagine the unthinkable, I just look at that performance and thinking that anything is possible.

I certainly hope that’s the case tonight.

But if they play like did in the 2nd half of Game 4, this game will be over quick and they’ll need to start warming up the team bus to take them back to the airport.

We’ll have to see.

So who’s leading the charge for the Warriors?

More from House of Houston

Klay Thompson is the leading scorer (22.5 PPG) and Stephen Curry is the steals king (2.0 SPG). Draymond Green is the assist man (6.3 APG), top board-getter (9.8 RPG) and Andrew Bogut is the premier shot-blocker (1.5 BPG).

Let’s talk about what the Warriors are doing well.

From a Rockets fan’s perspective, they’re doing everything right but let’s delve deeper into the numbers:

They’re a well-balanced team. Not surprised by that assertion, huh? The Warriors have elevated to 5th in offensive efficiency (scoring 107.6 points per 100 possessions) but are holding at 2nd in defensive efficiency (allowing a stingy 91.0 points per 100 possessions) among the 14 teams still playing for something.

They’re kind of good at that “moving the ball around” thing. Although the Warriors are looking good doing it against us and led the league in assist ratio for most of the way of the regular season, they’ve jumped the Cleveland Cavaliers for 1st place. Currently, 20.3 percent of their possessions end with an assist. Wow.

They love to have the basketball in their hands. This stat isn’t too surprising but the frequency of possessions that they use to turbo-charge their offense is something to behold. They’re currently ranked 1st, averaging 102.1 possessions per game.

Injuries:

Patrick Beverley injured his right hamstring in Game 4 and did not return. He has been receiving treatment and he did practice yesterday in full. Although he is officially listed as day-to-day, he said that “he’s definitely playing in Game 5” and that he feels “good” as well as being ready to go today. So if Mr. 94 Feet says he’s going to play, he’ll play.

Stephen Curry injured his ankle late in the first half of Game 1 as he seemed to have landed on it wrong while actually being heavily-defended by none other than Bev. He made two trips to the locker room as was available to play in the 2nd half but wasn’t used as the Warriors definitely had the game in hand. Curry didn’t play in Game 2 or 3 but did return Game 4 and chipped in six points, five assists and five turnovers in 18 minutes of action. He sprained his right knee just before the end of the half and did not return. He had an MRI done this past Monday and the results were that it was low-level and will be re-evaluated in two weeks, definitely meaning that he’ll miss the rest of this series.

Sources: Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com, Jenny Dial Creech of the Houston Chronicle, Chris Mannix of the Vertical and Marc J. Spears of ESPN.com and the Golden State Warriors

Five Things to Watch:

Patrick Beverley vs. Shaun Livingston
Can Trevor Ariza get out of his offensive funk?
Will there be any improvement on how the Rockets respond to the Warriors’ rotations?
Can the Rockets improve upon finding a way to move the ball around to the open man quickly?
Will the Rockets find a way to neutralize Draymond Green?

Prediction:

110-101 in a Rockets’ loss.

The Rockets are back on the road to take on the Warriors for Game 5 at Oracle Arena.

Tip-off is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. CDT.

The game will be televised on TNT/ROOT Sports Southwest and broadcast on NewsRadio 740 AM (KTRH), Sirius/XM/SiriusXM Internet 890 and La Ranchera 850 AM (KEYH) in Spanish.

Go Rockets!

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