Warriors-Rockets 2018 Western Conference Finals Game 7 with Joseph George - Remember That Game

Joseph George (Silver Bulletin) and host Thomas Emerick drop in on Harris County May 2018, for this Game 7 showdown between the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets for a trip to the NBA Finals. If Houston advances, it would be their first escape from the Western Conference bracket since the days of Olajuwon and Drexler.

Joseph George is a sports analyst for Silver Bulletin and basketball analytics consultant for the NBA G League’s Mexico City Capitanes. This episode of Remember That Game made for a really fun chat about analytics in politics and basketball, particularly that revolution in the 2012-2020 period. What better game as a jumping off point than an interesting night for the three-point discourse, as two catalysts of this movement take the stage and one of them goes historically cold.

Also check out:

• Joseph George's work on the Silver Bulletin 2026 March Madness predictions
• COOPER mens’ NCAA basketball ratings
• COOPER women’s NCAA basketball ratings

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More episode threads:

• Perception of analytics in politics and basketball after Trump’s upset win and while the NBA transformed into a league more reliant on the 3
• How the Rockets and Warriors of the 2010s ushered in the current era
• Evolution of the American public’s relationship with analytics in both politics and basketball this decade, now seven NBA titles and two presidential elections in
• Whether these the two best teams of the 2010s
• How Daryl Morey’s obsession with spacing started way before James Harden
• Is compiling stats and wins December-February less instructive than it used to be for identifying the best teams and players, in the era of tanking and load management.
• With various popped Achilles in the 2025 postseason, what to do about regular season length
• Would the Rockets have won if Chris Paul stayed healthy, and did this game impact the load management discussion both over a season and within a series
• Morey’s idea to pair Chris Paul with James Harden
• Harden playing off Clint Capela was working a bit, should they have pulled off the gas a bit with the 3s and worked that two-man game for high percentage shots?
• Houston goes 7-for-44 from three
• James Harden 2-for-13
• Eric Gordon 2-for-12
• How important was Eric Gordon in this series? Does it get to 7 without him?
• Gordon deal in 2016 turned out great for Daryl Morey and the Rockets
• How influential that 2016 offseason was with the money going around that summer
• Did Houston need to lean more on Gordon getting to the rim in Game 7
• Impact on the discourse: All the missed 3s that game + Game 7 on the other side of the bracket w/ Celtics going cold from deep against Cleveland
• Would the Rockets had won this with someone who could do more work in the post or at the elbow like say, Hakeem Olajuwon?
• And what the NBA could do to reconcile the analytically optimal vs the aesthetic interests of the oldheads. (Hakeem Olajuwon is the absolute favorite YouTube watch for Thomas when it comes to old basketball clips.)
• Could the value of a Zach Randolph-type cycle back organically like the run game has in the NFL, as teams adapt so far in one direction and leave themselves vulnerable to a zag?
• What’s the potential for a meta shift 2026-2030 in the NBA?
• This the twilight of the free agent super-team era? And whether seeing Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson pick each other up during scoring draughts made Joseph more or less amenable to the second apron

Box Score: Golden State Warriors 101, Houston Rockets 92 | GSW clinches 2018 Western Conference Finals 4-3 (Pro Basketball Reference)

HOST

Remember That Game creator Thomas Emerick

GUEST

Silver Bulletin sports analyst Joseph George (Substack)

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