I say Harden. We wouldn't have been there without him but 13 turnovers, 14 points is ridiculous. Not to mention the game 2 debacle.

We ran into a better team? Some times things just don't go your way. There isn't fault or blame in this.

The series loss isn't on Harden, but this game was. Just a complete collapse.

We ran into a better team, and being down two starters finally caught up with us.

The Rockets are close, very close. They need to get themselves a point guard and stay the course. At this point it's all about continuity, health, and the lucky breaks it usually takes to win a title.

To emerge from the West, you almost have to be the team that stays the healthiest. It was going to be a tall task to beat the Warriors, anyways, but you can't have key guys injured.

The East, on the other hand....

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This needs it's own thread? There's a season thread already.

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Judging by the two threads devoted to attacking Dwight, I have no issues with this thread

But to answer the question, you don't blame anyone. You accept the fact that GS is a damn good team, and we definitely missed having DMo and Bev healthy this series. But we have made good improvement each year with Dwight and James. It's time to take the next step next season

If you have to "blame" someone, blame Morey for not building the team properly enough and blame the basketball gods for taking Bev and DMo from us. Honestly even before this TO game, I thought Harden's ball handling days should be over. Get a ball-handler. James can still be an MVP without being the point guard.

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You don't blame anyone. You look at the big picture that the Rockets had their best season in about two decades and you use it as a building block for next year.

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Holy balls. Soup ended this thread immediately.

I don't really watch the Rockets. But Jason Terry looked gawdawful out there.

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You don't blame anyone. You look at the big picture that the Rockets had their best season in about two decades and you use it as a building block for next year.

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Or you look at it rationally and say "Golden State won the most games in the NBA - 12 more than Houston did. They were the most efficient defensive team in the league and the second most efficient offensive team in the league. They not only won 12 more games, but they were blowing teams out, letting all their stars rest for the playoffs by having a point differential of over +10 while no one else was higher than +6.6. Houston lost to a better team, but had a great season despite a lot of injuries."

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Or you look at it rationally and say "Golden State won the most games in the NBA - 12 more than Houston did. They were the most efficient defensive team in the league and the second most efficient offensive team in the league. They not only won 12 more games, but they were blowing teams out, letting all their stars rest for the playoffs by having a point differential of over +10 while no one else was higher than +6.6. Houston lost to a better team, but had a great season despite a lot of injuries."

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As much beef as us Houston fans have with Soup on our main thread, I have to agree with all of this. It's hard for fans to adopt the mentality that another team might just be better. Sometimes you lose the game because the guys lining up across from you are just better. While I do believe that if we had Beverly and D-Mo we would be up 3-2 right now, we were fortunate enough to get through two series without them and should consider the post-season a success with all things considered.

Golden State offense > Houston Offense

Golden State averaged 1.097 points per possession .001 behind LA for best in the NBA.
Houston averaged 1.042 points per possession for 12th in the NBA.
Golden State led the league in Assist Ratio, Houston was 16th.
Houston was 3rd worst in the NBA in turnovers per possession, ahead of only Milwaukee and Philly, (GSW was middle of the NBA)
Golden State led the league in effective FG% with 54%. Houston was 7th at 51.2%.
Golden State led the league in True Shooting % with 57.1%, Houston was 8th with 54.8%.

Houston just didn't have multiple people that could create for themselves and others. Terry could create sporadically, but he isn't the player he was four years ago. It all fell on Harden.

No one wins the title with only one guy that can create on offense.

I blame the Pelicans. We needed them to pull a Denver like in 93-94 against Supersonics. The problem is now the Warriors are not old and roster won't change much in the next 3 years. Rockets gotta find another guard that can get to the rim off the dribble. Having only one guy who can break down the defense isn't gonna cut it.

Blame everyone who didn't take the plej.

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The problem is now the Warriors are not old and roster won't change much in the next 3 years.

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Depends on how much luxury tax they are willing to take on.

Golden State is over the Luxury Tax for next year before they even resign Speights, Leandro Barbaro and Draymond Green. And that is with Steph Curry being vastly underpaid.

Word. Lot of talent on that GS team with multiple guys who would command the max or close to it on the open market. I don't what their culture is like, but I'd be all for guys taking less money to try and keep the team together, but this is not a common occurrence.