In the 36 years of the modern basketball era (3-point shot), 1) only 8 teams lost their first regular season game and went on to win a championship. They are: 2004 Detroit Pistons (Bad Boyz) 1998 Chicago Bulls (Jordan) 1991 Chicago Bulls (Jordan) 1987 Los Angeles Lakers (Magic) 1986 Boston Celtics (Bird) 1985 Los Angeles Lakers (Magic) 1984 Boston Celtics (Bird) 1982 Los Angeles Lakers (Magic) 2) only 5 teams had a losing record after their first 3 games and went on to win a championship. They are: 2006 Miami Heat (Wade) 1992 Chicago Bulls (Jordan) 1991 Chicago BullS (Jordan) 1985 Los Angeles Lakers (Magic) 1982 Los Angeles Lakers (Magic) 3) only 1 team lost their first 3 games and went on to win a championship. They are the 1991 Chicago Bulls (Jordan). 4) no team has gone 0-4 to start the season and won a championship. In 1991, Jordan's Bulls had a total +/- of -11 through their first 3 games, all losses. Those were 3 close games, an 8-point loss, a one-point loss, and a 2-point loss. They went on to win their next 4, then went 1-4 to start the season 5-7, and went on to post a 56-14 record throughout the rest of the regular season to finish 61-21 and grab the #1 seed in the East, before plowing through the playoffs at 15-2 to win their first championship. Discuss
Nothing to discuss about a championship run this year. After we probably lose tomorrow night to OKC, we are NOT going to be making history to be the first team in NBA history to start 0-4 and win the championship. The rest of this year will be about what we will need to do next year to get back into the conversation.
If you are in the Eastern Conference. In the west, where last year 4 teams had approximately the same record they are very relevant. Especially games against opponents like Denver which should be easy wins.
No team has lost their first three games by 20+ points each and gone on to win the NBA title because, well, no team has ever lost their first three games by 20+ points each.
Were the 3 losses just plain awful? No doubt about it. But its just the beginning of the season. The Rockets can turn it around, so everyone should just relax for a bit. Now if this were deep into the season.....
What's there to discuss? The Rockets aren't winning the title this year, barring an absolute miracle. No title team does what they've done to start the season, hence those lists you put out there.
i think it was you who displayed some ignorance by comparing a jordan-led bulls team to the current rockets team that's "led" by a party-and-dating star.
Hakeem Olajuwon was #2 in the 92-93 MVP Voting He won a title the next year http://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/awards_1993.html#mvp Rank Player Age Tm First Pts Won Pts Max Share G MP PTS TRB AST STL BLK FG% 3P% FT% WS WS/48 1 Charles Barkley 29 PHO 59.0 835.0 980 0.852 76 37.6 25.6 12.2 5.1 1.6 1.0 .520 .305 .765 14.4 .242 2 Hakeem Olajuwon 30 HOU 22.0 647.0 980 0.660 82 39.5 26.1 13.0 3.5 1.8 4.2 .529 .000 .779 15.8 .234 3 Michael Jordan 29 CHI 13.0 565.0 980 0.577 78 39.3 32.6 6.7 5.5 2.8 0.8 .495 .352 .837 17.2 .270
so what's the point? hakeem wasnt happy that they gave the mvp to d-rob. we all know what he did. what did harden do? there's absolutely no comparison here. pls, dont insult dream with this harden clown.
Meh..."History says this so it won't be done." I was expecting some bballholic insider news on the team or locker room.
"Turn it around" does not mean "Winning a Championship". These losses are very significant. I will say this in defense of our team. The league and especially the Western Conference has way more parity in it than there was in the 80's and 90's. So if it can be done, then it is more likely to be done now than in the past. However, it's been 10 years since Wade/Shaq came back from a 1-2 start to win a championship. And granted, that was the second year they were together down in Miami. So there had to have been an adjustment period for them. On our side of the spectrum, Morey emphasized keeping this group together and building chemistry with the advantage of players knowing each other. Granted Lawson was added. But.....we've lost 3 games by 20 points each. It's not realistic to believe that we would have won any of these games if Jet/Pablo simply replaced Lawson in the lineup. The other factor here is Dwight has missed 2 of the first 3 games. And there's no question he's our second best player and second most important player. So, perhaps that is a huge contributing factor to the 0-3 start and makes our 0-3 start somewhat of an anomaly in regards to our odds of winning a championship. I didn't do a detailed study on all the teams that had a losing record after the first 3 games to see what mitigating circumstances they had. I do think one of those teams was the Westhead Lakers team where Magic and Westhead clashed and the Lakers wound up canning Westhead but i didn't look that up to be sure.
