James Harden, Russell Westbrook and the Houston Rockets need to beat Chris Paul and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The state of the franchise as we know it kind of depends on it.
If you think about it, every major figure associated with the team has a stake in this series.
First, there’s James Harden, who is an absolutely brilliant player, but the knock on him, fair or not, is how he performs in the postseason.
If he loses to Paul, after the two apparently feuded, and when the Rockets with CP3 were at one point perhaps just a hamstring away from the NBA Finals, the media will be all over him and he won’t even be able to draw a foul.