“In an era of waiting for the Warriors dynasty to end, Houston constantly took big swings to challenge them” Ramona Shelburne tweets
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The Rockets arrived at the end of their 2019-20 playoff journey tonight, falling short to the Lakers 4-1. While everyone out there is criticizing the coach or the players for what went wrong, Ramona Shelburne points out what all the Rockets have accomplished in recent times.
The Houston Rockets were the only team to challenge the KD-Warriors team, that seemed invincible. They took the Warriors to Game 7 in the 2017-18 Western Conference Finals. This was the first time in the KD era with the Warriors that any playoff series moved past Game 5. Till now the Warriors were wrapping up all series in Game 4 or at the max, Game 5.
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At a time where everyone was basically ‘rebuilding’ and waiting for the KD-Warriors reign of terror to end, Houston constantly challenged them and came up with a fight always. In the 2018-19 playoffs, the Rockets took the team to Game 6 again, eventually losing in the 2nd round, but it was a tough competition.
“Houston constantly took big swings… We should respect that.” Ramona Shelburne mentions
The Rockets did come out each year with a fire that started bothering the Warriors fans, especially after the 7 Game WCF series that could’ve swung either way. Credit for the same goes to James Harden and Coach Mike D’Antoni and the GM Daryl Morey.
Here’s what I wanna say about the Harden-D’Antoni-Morey era Rockets. They went for it. In an era where several teams seemed to want to wait out the Golden State dynasty. Houston constantly took big swings, trying to challenge them. We should respect that.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) September 13, 2020
“Rockets geared up again to take on the two LA mammoths” Ramona Shelburne continues
Everyone saw the Warriors were not a title threat this year after Klay suffered the horrific ACL injury in the 2019 Finals, and KD left to join the Nets. The Lakers and the Clippers, who had been collecting pieces finally acquired their final pieces to go for a title run.
Rockets once again did not shy away from the challenge, and geared up again to face the LA nightmare. The execution may have faltered in the end, but the preparation was complete, and the Rockets should take that as a win.
This year competing meant challenging the two LA teams and Houston went for it again, taking big swings with trades for Westbrook & Covington and going pure small ball by trading away Capela.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) September 13, 2020
