WESTERN CONFERENCE
Oklahoma & Houston – April 21, 2013
The Summary: The Thunder came into this game deadly, this is a team that’s only eyeing the championship and everyone at home knows they’re going to get there, including me. With that said, Houston, well, they didn’t get destroyed – 29 point loss, eh – as most would think. Okay, they did. Shooting percentages weren’t similar in any terms, where the Thunder shot 53% whilst Houston shot a measly 36%. I honestly see the worst shot selection in this team; did they really try and shoot 36 threes? I mean, maybe if your team is hitting but really, they went 25% from behind the arc, it was just like they were jacking them up hoping the lead would diminish if they made a few. Unlike Ibaka, Westbrook, and Durant who all shot marvelously from the field; showing off that they don’t really need an over-payed fourth wheel in Harden. (Mini Rant: No hate to the’ Bearded Mamba’ – You heard that first here – but really, if he shoots this horribly without any help from Lin who went 1-7 why are we caring about this series? Oklahoma is going to destroy this series) However, when you do think about the regular season games, Harden went crazy on his previous team. Back to the game, they did get destroyed and all you saw in this blur if you were a Houston fan and probably turned off the TV in the 4th was the incredible stats Durant had and the near triple double for Westbrook. Nothing to take from this game except for Lin and Harden needing to step up their game.
How Houston Can Improve: Well, really, there’s the obvious statement that tells Houston to pick it up with their shooting and then there’s the detailed explanation that talks about how to stop Durant, but in reality. There’s no way Houston’s small team is going to contain Durant. It’s all about offense for this team and if they can connect from that end, they have a shot to make a few games exciting.
After Game One Series Prediction: Oklahoma in 4. Really, I don’t even see a 30 point game from Harden winning the game for Houston. The Thunder will probably not let it happen and if they do it’s probably from an inefficient amount of shots Harden would have to take.
-LefttoWrite
