Harden definitely didn't show up in the 4th. Very disappointing.

Also, where the HOLY **** is Kenneth Faried?????? If he plays, we win. Period. Is he just done for the year? Why did he not play in this ****ing game??

The D said:

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3rdGen2015 said:

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k20dub said:

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We're now down to 2 or 3 seed. If nuggets lose tomorrow, then we are 2 seed. They win, then we are 3.

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Portland can still go 2-0 to push us to the four seed

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That's not what the tnt graphic showed

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Yeah, they were wrong...odds are heavily favoring the Rockets dropping to the 4 at this point.

That Harden missed FT and the non-Travel on George's slide across the floor absolutely hammered you in the last minute.

Scenarios:
Denver loses, doesn't matter how Blazers finish: 2 seed
Denver wins, Blazers finish 1-1: 3 seed
Denver wins, Blazers finish 2-0: 4 seed

Tiebreakers:
We get first in a three way tie
We beat Denver H2H
We lose to Portland H2H

Why is everyone so convinced we can beat the Thunder in a series? We had them down by 14 in 4th quarter knowing the 2 seed was ours with a win and they choked it away. Westbrook and George are playing at a high level and they have enough scrappy defenders and rebounders.

It would definitely be hard fought and not a sure thing.

I will say I agree the rotations these last few weeks have been weird. House, Green, Shumpert, Faried have all been in and out. Will be curious who we roll with in the first round.

Their record since the all star break is atrocious

Guess I'll stay awake and watch the Blazers/Lakers game

Well lakers are only down 2 on Portland now

CFTXAG10 said:

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Gordon and House shat the bed tonight

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For most of the 4th quarter it seemed like the ball was in the hands of all the wrong people

k20dub said:

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Their record since the all star break is atrocious

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They've beat us 3 out of 4 this year. I just don't think we match up well with them and they have 2 players that can dominate for long stretches

Well if the Lakers can pull it out in the 4th quarter then at least we'd be down to 2 or 3 seed. Hope to wake up to good news.

Lakers up 1 at the end of the third

Lakers up 1 going into the 4th

Hickory High said:

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Order of awfulness in the 4th quarter tonight:
1. Gordon
2. House
3. Harden
4. Coaching staff for not playing Faried in this game

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Plus House got abused on defensive end, too

I'd easily argue Dantoni is worth at least a few points. Not having him tonight, especially in such a tight game hurt.

That was less than ideal

Lakers up 2 with 4:30 left. Caruso has 12 assists.

Tie game, 1:38 left

Caruso with 4 straight points. Lakers up 2 with 44 seconds left.

Caruso knocks down a 2 to take the lead with 43.9 left. Double double for him too

what a ****ing disaster tonight as been, jesus ****ing christ

Caruso turned the ball over on the last Lakers possession, Portland wins it at the buzzer.

Games left:
Minnesota @ Denver
Sacramento @ Portland

Updated scenarios:
Denver loses, doesn't matter what Portland does: 2 seed
Denver wins, Portland loses: 3 seed
Both win: 4 seed

Who cares who we play. Get past the first round and then beat gs. Have To best them at some point anyways. And belong these huge leads in a few games is why we are at this point in the first place

Tonight has sucked but this is also losing all those games at the first 6 weeks of the season when we looked terrible.

They all count the same.

Nope... The more series they play before we have to play them, the more chances pigs can fly and they lose in the 1st or 2nd rounds... or Curry, KD and Thompson all go down with minor injuries that are career ending or life threatening

True. I'm just not as scared of them as I am previous years and as someone pointed out we get to avoid okc who seems to have our number for some reason

I guess I might rather have GS earlier in the playoffs hopefully before CP3's body inevitably breaks down again.

Gig-Em2003 said:

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I guess I might rather have GS earlier in the playoffs hopefully before CP3's body inevitably breaks down again.

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There was some discussion on this a month or so ago. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Gig-Em2003 said:

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I guess I might rather have GS earlier in the playoffs hopefully before CP3's body inevitably breaks down again.

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This is what I'm thinking, but the first round matchup still matters. I do wonder though are our chances on taking down GS better early or late. Losing last night was a blunder, now all they can do is hope, which is a bad spot to be in.

Based on current standings:

2 - we get San Antonio (most confident against them)
3 - we get OKC (I just don't like them as a matchup for us)
4 - we get Utah (best defensively of the 3)

Also, if Houston ends up at the 4 spot you can almost kiss goodbye Harden's shot at MVP. Giannis is the best guy on the team with the best record in the NBA. If Harden is the best guy on a team getting the 4 seed in the West, regardless of how his numbers look, he will lose votes to Giannis, period. If they get the 2 then Harden's odds are still good for MVP.

I'm still pissed from that game last night.

1) Not only did Denver win their playoff maneuver, we lost our Kenny Faried gamble. I really think they were trying to hide (or rest) our X-factor assuming we might get OKC in round 1. He is a huge difference maker and I think we would have easily won with him in place of Nene.

2) I'm not really worried about GS right now. We just earned ourselves a date with the Utah Jazz in round 1 of the playoffs. There is something about the beautiful lunarscape of Utah that creates the craziest, most rabid white people on the continent. Not looking forward to this matchup even though we played them well in the regular season. They are hot right now and super motivated to take us out. I'll worry about round 2 if we get there.

3) I like coach Jeff. Smart, calculating, detail oriented. His post game interviews were always really insightful too. I miss Pringles though. Hope he is healthy for playoff time, we are going to need him at his best.

4) Harden lost the MVP last night. Prime time, big moment, choke job. That is the last image people will have as they vote.

Lets get this out of the way: last night sucked.

However, like some of us discussed a few weeks ago, this might not be such a bad playoff scenario for the Rockets. Could easily argue that the Jazz are an easier opponent than OKC. Something that has stood out to me over the last couple of years about Utah is that they don't really have the superstars you need to advance deep into the playoffs. You could make a case for Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert but are they the 3-headed monster of CP3/Harden/Capela? Paul George and Russell Westbrook? No they are not. They have a solid team and it will be a challenge, but we should have the star power necessary to get by with relative ease.

You weren't going to get home court against Golden State no matter how you slice it. Assuming we stay in the 4 spot you just get them one series sooner, which could have some benefits. Mainly, less mileage on CP3 and the rest of the team. We can wait and see what happens tonight, but as it stands we still have a decent shot at a nice run here in the postseason.