NBA Playoffs: Everything you need to know about Rockets vs Thunder

The Houston Rockets begin their quest to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy with a very intriguing matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

During the 2019 offseason, the Houston Rockets sent Chris Paul to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Russell Westbrook, so it’s only fitting that these two teams meet up in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

The irony is that Paul, who has struggled to stay healthy over the latter stages of his career, is healthy while Westbrook, who has stayed healthy for the majority of his career, will miss the first few games of the series, at the minimum, due to a quad strain.

Even though the Rockets will be without Westbrook for at least the start of the series, this is still one of the most intriguing first-round matchups, especially since the two teams approached the season with completely different mindsets.

The Rockets signaled that they were going all-in in their efforts to bring a championship back to Houston when they dealt Chris Paul and four future draft picks to reunite Westbrook with James Harden. Furthermore, the Rockets decided to go with a small-ball approach midway through the season and sent center Clint Capela away in a multi-team deal that brought Robert Covington to Houston.

Meanwhile, the Thunder appeared to be entering a rebuilding phase as they traded away Westbrook, Paul George, and Jerami Grant, to bring in future first-round draft picks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But despite all the players lost in the offseason, Oklahoma City turned into the surprise team in the NBA and earned the fifth seed in the Western Conference.

The two teams met up three times in the regular season with the Thunder coming out on top in two out of the three meetings. That now means nothing as both teams start out with a clean slate and race to be the first to win four games.