Houston Rockets: Re-examining the Three Problems of Clutch City

* – Doesn’t Mean a Thing!

In my entry, I discussed how the Warriors not facing the Rockets would leave people to possibly give us an asterisk should the Houston Rockets win it all. The reason being is that the Rockets never faced the Warriors in the playoffs. I’ve always loved the stories of how losing to an opponent gets you experience in how to beat them. Consider this path.

Boston Celtics

Let me further explain. The Boston Celtics were the kings of the Eastern Conference who would beat up on the Detroit Pistons. Once the Pistons got past Boston, they then became the target for the Chicago Bulls. Without the losses to the Pistons, Michael Jordan is probably not the best competitor in the NBA. By the time the Pistons were dethroned, the Bulls took over.

You following me here? Let me put it like this. The Rockets have lost to the Warriors twice in the playoffs and they could’ve met them last year had it not been for the disaster in the playoffs. So if Houston meets the Warriors in the playoffs and beats them, there’s a good chance they become the top team in the West for quite some time.

Should a * Matter?

Now, the national public could lead on to an asterisk that could deny us. But let’s be fair. Should that matter about an asterisk being on a championship for Houston? Is there even such a thing? I mean, Rudy Tomjanovich is not yet in the NBA Hall of Fame yet. One would only wonder if the asterisk of MJ being retired for Houston to win the titles is there.

But the answer to the question of an asterisk mattering is a simple no. Why should we care about an asterisk? Heck, why should we care about how the Houston Rockets do win the championship in the end? If we meet the Warriors and get past them, that’s great. If we win the championship without the Warriors in our way, that’s great too. An asterisk in sports is about as dumb as… well I don’t know. All I know is that it’s worthless to put an asterisk on anything.

An asterisk takes away the credibility of our team should we win it all. It wouldn’t show that we won the title fair and square. Without an asterisk, we won’t have to hear the clumsy talk of people wanting the game to go on when it’s over.

Golden State?

So Golden State will still be the favorites in everyone’s eyes except our own. We feel that this is the year we knock them off and we should. Will it be an easy sweep? Probably not. Will it be a full seven-game series? Most likely, yes. But here’s the good news. We got home court baby. Thanks to us being number one overall, homecourt is salvaged.

But for right now, we can’t worry about the Warriors. We must get ready for a tough first-round matchup whoever our opponent is. The number eight seed will play like they got nothing to lose while we pretty much have everything to lose. We can’t get too cocky and we have to treat it game-by-game. We either win four games and move on or lose four games and go home. It’s the playoffs for sure.