J.G. :@kev Not to rain on your “Houston is awesome” parade, Keith and Kev, but did you actually watch the games they played, more particularly, did you watch how their opponents played in those games?
They got beat by a Portland team firing on all cylinders in the first game, BARELY beat a horribly unorganized and sloppy Golden State team in the second game (108-107), beat that same Portland team in the third game when the Blazers gave up 33 points in the first quarter, racked up 15 turnovers and 3 technical fouls and played even worse defense on Ariza and Brooks the entire game despite Brandon Roy’s Herculean effort (42 points).
And then they clobbered a listless and just absolutely horrid Jazz team who gave up 29 assists to the Rockets, only grabbed 8 rebounds and shot a disgusting 27.3% from three (the Jazz actually went 13-35 in the second quarter, going more than 7 minutes without a field goal in the third quarter), in what was one of the Jazz’s worst defensive efforts in their home arena, per Jerry Sloan: “If you’re not going to defend, it’s pretty tough to have a chance to win. They got on top of the basket, they drove around us, they went up to the ball on the boards and they passed the ball.” (The Jazz gave up 325 points in three games — an average over 108 a game).
And then they lost an overtime game to the Lakers on a missed last second shot (gee, where have I seen that before?).
Yes the Rockets are out working (and out executing) teams with better talent, and by no means do I want to discount that, but we all know that hard work beats superior talent when talent does not work hard.
And the Rockets have three wins over teams who did not work hard enough to either challenge the Rockets and their cohesive teamwork/execution, or to work hard enough for all four quarters (Golden State) on both ends of the court (Utah/Portland).
So yes, I think the Houston game will be a great game to watch, but I’m still not sold on Houston’s start being that much more impressive than the Thunder’s by any stretch of the imagination.

thank you – neither one of us said “awesome”. I am on the same page with Keith. They beat Portland, we didn’t – and they beat Portland with LMA playing the whole game if I remember correctly . . . right NOW Houston is the better team – I didn’t say they were future world champs . . .
Keith :@J.G.Actually, I don’t think either of us are calling Houston awesome by any stretch. The point is that Houston is a good measuring stick for our team. We are great against nobodies, and rather lackluster against good teams. Houston is not a more talented team than us, but they should be about even with us overall.
My point is that how we play Houston could say a great deal about who we are. Houston beats teams by playing solid defense and very cohesively in order to cover up their lack of great individual players. We have a couple great individual players, but ultimately will only be as good as we can play cohesively. If we get beat in bad fashion by a less talented team with more teamwork, it shows we aren’t as good of a team as we hoped, and are at least a year away from consistently challenging opposing teams. If we can beat a team with great teamwork in their own building, it will say a lot about how effectively we are utilizing our players and thus the ceiling on how good we can be this year.

Maybe scummie has another meaning then, because it doesn’t fit the context of this exchange…

jHARD13 – @blakegriffin whats good bro…

jHARD13 – @blakegriffin lol bro there isnt any..ive been looking..u got some scummies for me in LA now??

Unless Harden is looking for unattractive, creepy dudes at bars.

doint – pointless,useless, waste of time.

scummie – A very unattractive, creepy guy at bar, who lurks, watches.

Who is willing to own up on being a scummie?

IOU is a way of saying “I owe you”. Jenni is trying to say that Kevin owes us a good game.