The NBA has BLESSED the Rockets...

The NBA has blessed the Houston Rockets. After last night's play-in game, the Rockets will go one-on-one with the Golden State Warriors. And this should have Rockets fans fired up. This is the matchup that you wanted. For the reasons, we're going to break all that down in this video for Rockets Digest. Where you can get all the latest news, rumors, and updates regarding your H-town team, the Houston Rockets. I am Donovan Argundo. It's great to be here. And let's get straight into it today. Last night's play-in game happened, and it was probably one of the worst ref games I've ever seen in my entire life, if I'm being completely honest. But the result is the Golden State Warriors going in to the playoffs as a number 7 seed against the Houston Rockets. And we should be ecstatic for this matchup. It's going to be a fantastic series to watch. Two: Curry, Green, Shingun, Draymond, all of that stuff. It's going to be absolutely fantastic again to watch, but also to see all the schematics. You're going to have Kerr versus Udoka, two guys that branches of Greg Popovich, one of the greatest coaches of all time, his disciples, blah, blah, blah. You can write a book about it. You can write a script. It's going to be amazing. But the reason why this is the best opponent that the Rockets could possibly face, we'll go into that right now. as we all know the last time these two faced off against each other it was not pretty it was ugly it was scrappy it got bloody so why is that important well the Rockets have not that much experience in the playoffs you only have a guy like Fred VanVleet who's won an NBA championship in 2019 with the Toronto Raptors who has like some experience everyone else like Sengun, Green, Easton, Thompson none of these guys have much playoff experience and so to have a first round matchup where you know obviously you're going to bring intensity but with a series like this with a matchup like this where the intensity was brought out you know on the floor in the middle of the game that led to tactical fouls this is a team that you don't really uh you have respect for of course we are trying to physically and obliterately just dominate them for at least four games right and so to go into this series with kind of a chip on your shoulder with a little bit of like uh these guys again you know the Golden State Warriors team that has ruled the NBA for the last probably 10 years that they've you know been a very successful franchise winning what one two three four championships and so to make that joke to make a statement against the Golden State Warriors would be huge for the Houston Rockets to knock them off in the first round that would in my mind symbolize one the rise of the Houston Rockets and like hey we are a for real team because right now the Houston Rockets are underdogs in this series I don't know if you've looked at the bet they are underdog because they are the number two seed and they're underdogs against the Golden State Warriors these teams are only four games behind from each other since the all-star break they've all played uh pretty well the Golden State Warriors have a slightly better record than the Houston Rockets since the all-star break with the condition of Jimmy Butler but these teams are both really solid but a underdog for the Rockets in my mind is it's a little too far like I like the Rockets if you've watched the Rockets play if you see what they do they are a solid and defensively sound team they're led by Coach Ime Udoka who's led to a championship led a championship team before the Boston Celtics just three years ago this is a team that can make the Western Conference playoffs and they have a definite run of reaching the NBA Finals. And I know that sounds like a stretch, and we'll see what happens, but I certainly don't think they should be necessarily underdogs against a team like the Golden State Warriors, who, quite frankly, could have been in the play-in game tomorrow night or Friday night, whenever that eight-seed playoff game, if that Grizzlies thing did not work out. However, we're still on the topic of this game. Obviously, we know the intensity with Draymond Green. We also had the intensity of Ime Udoka and Steph Curry. And, you know, they had to exchange some words at halftime. so you know both teams are going to bring all they got curry's going to want to get his revenge he only scored three points last game uh ahman thompson essentially kind of locked him down so you better watch out you're gonna have to make sure you maintain a guy like this and we'll go a little bit more in depth about curry in this series in just a little bit excuse me here's the season series rockets are two and three on the season against the Golden State Warriors, a lot of asterisks when it comes to this. Those first two games Curry did not play, however the Rockets did still lose those games. You never know in the NBA, I don't really know how best to interpret that they kind of had our number, had our number in that first half, the Warriors did start off pretty good in this season, earlier in the regular season but since the All-Star break, obviously the addition of Jimmy Butler, Rockets are two and one or excuse me, since the All-Star break they split two matchups uh each winning one, and one of them was, was that very intense matchup back on April, what is it 6th, April 6th, and then they had a match back in February 13th where the Rockets lost by 18 points. And so, things are pretty even with these teams. And so, what are the keys to victory when it comes to all that? Well, first thing I want, the Houston Rockets to take note of, or that we all should, is you gotta watch out for playoff chipping. You gotta make sure your defense is absolutely sound. The addition of Jimmy Butler has been fantastic for Golden State Warriors and all their fans. He's just another scorer that they got off trade deadline, and he can do a lot of things, you know, being in that starting lineup. And so, excuse me, Jesus, I'm a little sick if you can't tell by my voice. I sound awful. I sound terrible. But anyways, Jimmy Butler, playoff Jimmy is going to be absolutely amazing. I mean, he never really fails to disappoint. You saw what he did with the Miami Heat just a few years ago. He is fully capable of taking this series over, like he did last night. Last night, he had 38 points. I don't know if you watched. I don't know if you saw him, but, like, he had 38. The Memphis Grizzlies pretty much had no answer for him. They had absolutely no answer. So you got to make sure you watch out for this guy. And you got to watch out for a guy by the name of Steph Curry. Because Steph freaking Curry is the greatest shooter of all time. And I understand, like, yeah, we held him to three points that one game. But that really, like, I'm being so honest, that's not sustainable for seven games. And I don't think anybody thinks that is. I know a lot of people were hot on Andre Thompson. And no shots being taken on. He's a great defender, and I think he can certainly do a great job of guarding a guy like Curry. I think he has all the skills and tool set to do that effectively. But I just don't think it's sustainable to do that for seven games. If you think so, you're probably insane or don't watch basketball. Because Curry and this team can get going, you know. So I just don't think that's fully, fully sustainable. But I do think, of course, you've got to maintain it. You've got to make sure that everything is taken care of on the three-point end with these two scorers. Again, Andre Thompson, he can do what he does best, which is defense, and utilizing him, I think he's a real X-factor in this series. The way he plays in this series is going to have a huge effect. Yes, Jalen Green. Jalen Green's got to be our primary scorer, right? Him and Sengun attack team, but, like, if you need a bucket, you need a three, you need a jump shot, you got to give that ball to Jalen Green. Shang-Goon, keep doing your thing, I guess, but, you know, I'll start. but Aman Thompson I think is a real like he as a second year player he is a real like make or break for this series a lot lies on him but the thing about that is is that he likes that stuff as i mentioned in a previous video about Aman Thompson that day of the Warriors game he was locked in from the beginning uh Jen Goon was like you couldn't even talk to him like he was like straight locked in he was like i am not gonna have this guy score a lot of points and that's exactly what happen he kind of did that with Shea and that previous game before that he was absolutely locked in he held Shea like like 10 points under his season scoring average and so a lot is going to ride on this second year player is that a lot of pressure to put on him absolutely but can he get it done absolutely and so it's going to be very interesting to see how they implement him and the defense and him against Curry and how all of that is going to look additional you also have the double big lineup that I think Emile Doka has been using very, very well this season. He doesn't use it too, too much. He doesn't depend on it, but he uses it, again, very wisely. And so that net rating right there that you see, 29.9 points per 100 possessions, would rank best as a duo in the NBA with Shenmue and Steven Adams. Of course, there's not a lot of possessions when it comes to that, and it's kind of a small sample size. still I do think that there's something to be said teams kind of get frazzled they get kind of like oh like what do we do I do think with the week to prepare the Golden State Warriors are going to have an answer to that and so it'd be very interesting to see how Ime Udoka implements that double big lineup I think it can certainly like definitely work but if you're going to play zone against a team that's probably one of the best shooting teams ever with the best shooter of all time that's a that's a tough ask and so it's going to be very interesting on how he's going to implement all that. And just to wrap up everything I've been saying. All these things about the Warriors and the Rockets and this potential matchup and how exciting it's going to be. Here's a quote from Kenny the Jet Smith, Houston Rockets legend. He's saying they're not a number 7 seed with Jimmy Bowe. They're not playing like a number 7. They're playing like a number 3 seed. That's straight from Kenny the Jet Smith. And he's not wrong. He really is not wrong. The Warriors have been playing phenomenally. I think we can match up great with them i think we can definitely beat them in a seven game series but it's going to be tough it's going to be absolutely tough you're you're essentially looking at a number two number three seeded teams in a first round matchup especially in this western conference in this western conference it's going to be insane to watch it's going to be fun to watch you know I'll be watching every single one of those things, it's going to keep up from Sunday all the way until this series wraps up, let me know how many games do you think this series will take four five six seven, let me know in the comments down below let me think about the matchup, we'll see you guys next time on Rockets Digest