Rockets Blast Thunder in Game One

No. 3 Houston Rockets vs. He immediately bounced back few minutes later with a 3-pointer putting the Rockets at a comfortable lead of 73-62.

Sorry, if that sounds personal, but I can’t stand lazy thinking, and voting for Westbrook because “HE AVERAGED A TRIPLE DOUBLE” is the height of lazy thinking. The Houston Rockets won game one 118 to 87.

The Rockets opened up as the fairly large favorites to get the job done and advance to round two, and on Sunday night, we all saw why.

Patrick Beverley should be on bedrest for the rest of the week, if he actually felt pain.

In Game 1 of the marquee matchup between teammates-turned-MVP frontrunners Russell Westbrook and James Harden on Sunday night, the latter walked away victorious.

They were tied at halftime and knotted at 88-88 after three quarters.

Harden, the other MVP candidate in this heavyweight showdown, scored 37 points and created 59.

Harden averaged 29.1 points (61.3 true shooting percentage), 8.1 rebounds and 11.2 assists this season, with his penchant for facilitating coming to the forefront frequently against the Thunder.

“Nah, it was a legal screen”, Beverley said. “He’s one of the most explosive point guards probably to ever play the game”.

The rude truth of it is that Westbrook doesn’t play well against people and/or teams with which he has beef because, while he’s at his best when angry, he’s at his most careless when annoyed.

“I told the guys coming out it was going to be physical and we wanted to throw the first punch”, he said. The Rockets will want to get out in transition where they tend to hit threes in bunches and force Russell Westbrook into his hero-ball tendencies. Another 14.8 came in second-chance points, often the result of Steven Adams or Enes Kanter taking advantage of a defense that had collapsed down to contest a Westbrook miss. Adams totaled just six points on six attempts. Fouled Out-None. Rebounds-Oklahoma City 41 (Westbrook 11), Houston 56 (Anderson 12).

Houston now holds a 1-0 series lead in the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs. Oklahoma City led the league in offensive rebound rate at 27.9 percent but grabbed just four offensive boards in the first half and didn’t record a second-chance basket until the 4:00 mark of the third quarter. He sets a physical baseline at the start of every game and builds from there.

“He made some shots”.

“[It’s] basketball”, Westbrook said. It compounds his tendency to play erratically in big games.

We’ll see them square off tonight for the next week or so. “It’s still 1-0 and we’ve got to come back and be ready to play for the next one”.

It was Clutch City playoff style Sunday as the Rockets cruised to a victory over Oklahoma City.

Once teammates just some five years ago, they’re now opponents that have both elevated themselves as the respective cornerstone for their franchises. “I can’t really do anything.’ He’s just staring me down”, Watt said.

Fourteen-year-old Blake Watts brought the picture he painted of James Harden to his first playoff game, perhaps for good luck.

On the other hand, Westbrook is just an athletic freak who skies over players half a foot taller than him for dunks and rebounds.

Harden wasn’t the only Rocket to outplay Westbrook, though.