The Oklahoma City Thunder lost the first two games to the Houston Rockets, but people with the Rockets don’t feel like this series has been clinched by any means.
“All we did is defend home court,” Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Now we have to go to Oklahoma City to play.”
That’s a serious statement in the form of joke, of course. There is no home-court advantage in the bubble. The Rockets won’t have to deal with crazy Oklahoma City fans. There’s no travel to a different city and sleep in a different bed.
But if this were a normal season, the fourth-seed Rockets winning the first two games would just mean that they won both games in Houston, and are now traveling to play the fifth-seeded Thunder away.
Rockets guard James Harden was asked if he thought they had control of the series, and he answered “no” before talking about Game Two-specific moments and themes.
So now, the Thunder just have to “go home” and win a game at “Chesapeake Energy Arena.”
Then they need to win one more, also at “home,” and tie it up.
Then it’s just a best of three series.
At least, that’s how the Rockets are viewing it.
“We gotta go back to starting games with the same intensity, mentality and see what happens,” D’Antoni said.
