2018 NBA Playoffs Preview: Houston Rockets vs Minnesota Timberwolves, SWOT Analysis & Prediction

#2 Weaknesses

Luc Mbah a Moute is expected to miss the first round with a shoulder injury

Houston Rockets

How do you pick out bones from a side that finished with the league's best record, shattered the franchise record for regular season wins and obliterated the NBA record for most three-pointers in the season?

The short answer is that you don't. But if you still wanted to look at areas where they can be exploited, you only need to look at the bench. The injury to Luc Mbah a Moute and Ryan Anderson started the whole "rest vs rhythm" debate all over again and also means that at least, to begin with, the Rockets won't have the depth they had all season. They want the defense they had all season from the bench and the offensive output will be reduced as well.

Minnesota Timberwolves

To be able to beat Houston, you need to have a team that can outscore them. While having a solid defense definitely does help, you cannot always guard two elite playmakers and everyone else as well.

This is where Minnesota fade into oblivion, not only are they dead last in both three-point makes and attempts this season, they have the 23th ranked defense in the league. The fact that they don't have the defense to keep the Rockets down nor the three-point shooting that would give them an edge is a huge disadvantage, especially when you are going up against a team that is fresh from annihilating the all-time NBA record for three-pointers.

As good as Karl-Anthony Towns is defensive, if Tom Thibodeau does what most teams do and run a heavy-switching scheme, he will have to guard James Harden, which is just a recipe for disaster. He will have to do that on top of ensuring that Clint Capela doesn't continue having a field day (he averaged 18.8 points and 10 boards per game against Minnesota this season) off of pick-and-rolls with Harden.