What a GAME!. Rockets win Game 5, but lose Chris Paul to a hammy injury in the last minute of the game.
That game took about 10 years of my life and I am pretty sure i grew 7 gray hairs from tip off till the buzzer. It was ugly, dirty, piss poor, yet refreshing. I’ve been quoted this season saying the Rockets are finding ways to win games they should lose. Here they are in back to back games doing just that. Warriors could have easily won the last 2 games, but the Rockets somehow, someway, in the last few minutes are doing the intangible things to win games. Things that wont show up on stat sheets, but they show up inside that “W” at the end of the game. Those defensive, 50/50 balls and help defensive plays are fun to watch. Curry, going in for a floater and PJ coming over on help D, jumping as high as he can and basically forcing Curry to push the ball high and miss. Thats what I am talking about, those plays don’t show up on stat sheets, but they count.
Unfortunately, in the process CP3 went down holding his right hamstring. He has dealt with this exact same injury before, even earlier this season. Its heart wrenching to think the Rockets will possibly have to finish the rest of this run and possibly the rest of the playoffs, if they get through GS. CP3 was -13 when he was on the floor, but would have never guessed that with the way he has been playing energetic wise. He was pumping Harden up when harden missed his 11th 3 pointer, he was taking the game and putting it on his back. Call those lucky shots, the fade away 3s or call them great, I don’t care. The truth is that he willed this team to win 2 straight games with his emotion and gritty performances all over the court. His presence on the floor will be truly missed if he has to miss any time. (I’d be surprised if he played at all) his face looked like he knew something, no one else did and it was not good.
Put me in the crowd that thinks Gordon will get the start and will need to play out of his mind to even be in the game on Saturday night. They also need to completely switch it up if Paul is out and go to a more pick and roll offense that gets Capela involved more. If they dont, it will get ugly in a hurry. Also put me in the crowd of D’Antoni going through the motions in game 6, to put all his eggs in the Game 7 basket. If they can somehow win Game 6, perfect, if not, no sweat, because he will have it all in on Game 7 in Houston on MOnday night.
I picked Rockets in 7. I am sticking with it. Its really hard to based on the CP3 news. But the fact is this team has won without him this season before, they can do it again before they lose two in a row.
