"Jump Thru Hoops" Discusses the OKC-Houston Slugfest in the First Round

As Aaron Atayde said, "One thing is for sure, here at Jump Thru Hoops, we're gonna talk about nothing but basketball" and that's exactly what happened as another podcast started with its first episode through pinoyliga.com on the same day that the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs began.

While the first episode of Jump Thru Hoops with hosts Atayde and Jinno Rufino massively gave viewers tons of things to laugh about throughout the episode, this is a basketball-centric show and that Atayde and Rufino discussed a specific playoff series in the Western Conference that Rufino thought could go the distance: the best-of-seven first-round series between the Oklahoma City Thunder versus the Houston Rockets which will start tomorrow. 

For Rufino who is also a known fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, he picked the OKC-Houston series as the playoff series that excites him for one simple reason: the side stories that revolve around both teams as they involve a Chris Paul who played for the Rockets last season only to be shipped to Oklahoma City during the 2019 offseason after a beef with him and James Harden.

Rufino began by saying that "Nobody thought that OKC is gonna be here and yet, they're here," while also lauding Mike D' Antoni's experiment of the Rockets playing "small ball" which proved that Houston can slay giants even with a small line-up which is true considering the fact that they beat Anthony Davis and the Lakers a few days ago and Russell Westbrook didn't even play. 

Here's where it got tricky: Jinno Rufino was all-hands on Chris Paul's being a great player with him even asking "Can you imagine how an angry Chris Paul would look like in the playoffs?" But when it comes to predicting who's going this particular series, he went by predicting that the Rockets would take it in six games if Russell Westbrook was healthy. Since Westbrook is set to miss at least the series opener, and there's no saying how healthy he would be when he comes back, the series, for Rufino, could reach a Game Seven and that game could go either team's way.

On the other side, Aaron Atayde had a different take. For Atayde, the Rockets would win the series in five games even without a Russell Westbrook. Atayde pointed out that the current set-up of the NBA playoffs where all games are played in one place- eliminates the need for James Harden to travel- not the one when he gets uncharacteristically whistled for taking too many steps. It means that since they are all inside Disney World in Orlando, Harden can get all the rest he needs which will help him in leading the Rockets in nullifying the size of the Thunder.

One thing is for sure: the OKC-Rockets series is going to be an exciting one not just because of the stories but because of the players who are set to give their all. One team is hoping to prove that they belong in the playoffs while the other is hoping to prove that they can beat any team even with a small line-up. Fortunately, we only need to wait until tomorrow for them to get things started. 

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