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Wiek: 35 Dołączył: Śro Sie 08, 2018 11:21 Posty: 7 Skąd: beijing
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The Houston Rockets spent almost no time celebrating their first-round playoff series win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night.
For the top-seeded Rockets Josh Jackson Color Rush Jersey , it simply moved them a little closer toward their goal of bringing the franchise its first title in more than two decades.
”This was a pretty good step for us, a step in the right direction, but we’ve got a long way to go,” James Harden said. ”We (don’t) have this team just to win one playoff series.”
From the moment Chris Paul joined the Rockets in a blockbuster trade from the Los Angeles Clippers last summer, the Rockets have talked incessantly about their desire and belief that the pairing of the two star point guards could propel this already good team into contender status.
A 65-win regular season led by Harden’s MVP-caliber play and Paul’s work in a top supporting role gave the Rockets the NBA’s best record for the first time in franchise history and added to the belief that this could be the year they win it all.
Despite not playing their best at times, the Rockets easily handled the eighth-seeded Wolves, turning in three blowout wins in the 4-1 series triumph, capped by Wednesday’s night 122-104 victory.
”We’ll continue to get better Jonathan Allen Color Rush Jersey , work on some things, figure out who we play and take it from there,” Harden said.
They move on to the Western Conference semifinals for the second straight season and look to return to the conference finals for the first time since losing to the Golden State Warriors in 2015.
But first they’ll get a few days to rest as they await the winner of the series between the Thunder and Jazz. Utah leads 3-2 after Oklahoma City overcame a 25-point second-half deficit to avoid elimination Wednesday night.
Coach Mike D’Antoni said it’s difficult to do too much preparation before they know who they’ll face.
”We’ll watch it. Get some popcorn and enjoy the NBA like everybody else does then we’ll break it down,” he said. ”We’ll have plenty of time to prepare and get in there and do what we do.”
While the Rockets have their eyes on winning their first title since taking back to back trophies in 1994-95, the next round will be a benchmark of sorts for Paul considering his disappointing playoff history.
The nine-time All-Star has faced criticism after making nine previous playoff trips without advancing past the second round. The worst of those flops came in 2015 against Houston, when Paul and the Clippers had a 3-1 lead in the conference semifinals. They got blown out in Game 5 and squandered a 19-point second-half lead in Los Angeles in Game 6 before falling in Game 7 at Houston.
He bristles when the subject is brought up by reporters, but both Harden and Trevor Ariza said Paul discussed that series this week as a cautionary tale when Houston took a 3-1 lead over Minnesota.
Paul carried the Rockets with a 27-point performance in a Game 2 win against Minnesota and scored 25 points in Game 4 when he and Harden fueled a 50-point third quarter that allowed the Rockets to come back to Houston a win away from wrapping up the series.
While his scoring helped Houston through this series, perhaps more important to Houston’s success was what he did to facilitate scoring by others like Clint Capela http://www.jetsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-thomas-rawls-jersey , who led Houston with 26 points on Wednesday night. Paul had a tough time in the first game of the series when he tied a season-high with six turnovers. In the next four games he piled up 29 assists with just three turnovers to help Houston advance.
Minnesota coach Tom Thibodeau marveled at how difficult it is to deal with both Harden and Paul after the pair combined for 21 assists on Wednesday night.
”They can hurt you a lot of different ways,” he said. ”They hurt us with the pass tonight. They’re not worried about their shots. They’re worried about the team getting good shots.”
While Houston’s offensive prowess was evident throughout the year, the Rockets hope that their work on defense against Minnesota shows that they’re solid on that side of the ball, too.
”We’ve been saying it all season long and in order for us to get where we want to go defense is going to have to be our backbone,” Harden said. ”We’re going to have to get stops.”
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Eric Hosmer’s first single barely stayed fair and never made it past third base. His second was a little crisper and gave the Padres a little cushion in the ninth inning.
It also assured Clayton Richard’s career-best winning streak stayed intact.
Hosmer reached base three times, Richard pitched three-hit ball over six innings for his fourth consecutive win and San Diego beat the San Francisco Giants 6-2 on Friday night.
The Padres were clinging to a 3-2 lead in the ninth before scoring three times. Hosmer’s two-run single to left off Will Smith was the pivotal blow and came after the Giants intentionally walked Wil Myers.
”I don’t think he likes having the guy in front of him intentionally walked,” Padres manager Andy Green said. ”He’s got way too much pride for that to happen. It was a great at-bat. We needed those two insurance runs.”
Hosmer’s hit in the ninth was in stark contrast to his infield single in the third off starter Chris Stratton. The ball bounced near the plate then rolled slowly down the line as third baseman Pablo Sandoval stood and watched, hoping it would go foul. It didn’t.
”I didn’t even know it had a chance of staying fair Authentic Josh Allen Jersey , honestly, so it was kind of a surprise for me,” Hosmer said. ”I’ll take the free knocks. I need them, that’s for sure.”
Manuel Margot had two hits and two RBIs as the Padres snapped a five-game skid. Travis Jankowski and Cory Spangenberg added two hits apiece.
Richard (7-6) was dominant in his third start against the Giants this season. He retired 17 straight during one stretch, allowed only two runners past second base and struck out four. The four consecutive wins mark a career high for the left-hander.
”We’ve struggled the last five days so it’s good to get back on the right track,” Richard said. ”That’s always a good thing, and to do it against the Giants here, it’s a good win.”
San Diego’s bullpen made Richard’s performance hold up http://www.patriotsauthorizedshop.com/authentic-jason-mccourty-jersey , but it was dicey at times.
Green used three relievers to get out of the seventh. Kirby Yates allowed a leadoff single in the eighth before setting down the next three. Brad Hand retired all three batters he faced in the ninth.
Gorkys Hernandez doubled twice off Richard.
”We just couldn’t do much offensively,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. ”We hit a lot of ground balls off of Richard. That’s what he induces with that sinker and we just couldn’t get much going offensively.”
San Diego scored the go-ahead run in the sixth on a throwing error by catcher Nick Hundley.
Spangenberg slid into first base with an infield single after initially being called out. After Freddy Galvis singled Spangenberg to third, Hundley blocked a wild pitch by starting pitcher Chris Stratton but threw the ball into center field, allowing Spangenberg to score.
”We had him,” Bochy said. ”Nick recovered well. He just yanked the throw a little bit to the left.”
Margot followed with an RBI single.
Sandoval’s two-out single in the seventh off Craig Stammen trimmed San Diego’s lead to 3-2.
TOO SLOW
Stratton (8-5) allowed three runs and nine hits in six innings but was more upset at himself for not getting to first base on Spangenberg’s infield single in the sixth. Giants first baseman Buster Posey made a diving stop but Stratton was late to the bag.
”My thought was that it probably was going to go foul there, but Buster made a heck of a play there and you can’t be late,” Stratton said.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Padres: C Austin Hedges (elbow tendinitis) continues to make progress in his rehab start with Triple-A El Paso and could rejoin the team soon. The Chihuahuas are playing a series against San Francisco’s affiliate in Sacramento, about 80 minutes north AT&T Park.
Giants: The team is undecided what the next step will be for Jeff Samardzija after the right-hander gave up four runs in four innings with Triple-A Sacramento on Thursday. Manager Bruce Bochy said it’s possible Samardzija will make at least one more rehab start before rejoining the big league club.
UP NEXT
RHP Jordan Lyles (2-4 http://www.giantsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-nate-solder-jersey , 4.46 ERA) pitches for San Diego on Saturday in the third game of the series. It will be Lyles’ ninth start, his most since 2015. LHP Andrew Suarez (2-4, 4.70) goes for San Francisco.
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