[Yahoo Sports] Houston Rockets way ahead of schedule, team to watch

click on the thread to read. don't post the whole thing , it's one of our own KD(he's a clutchfan). give him some cred by clicking on it.

 

Actually someone looked it up; it doesn't matter when the Rockets play Toronto at Toronto, or if they have enough rest. Rockets just suck in Toronto.

(Blame Canada.)

On the upside, Rockets can't lose to the Knicks at MSG.

This goes back years, across players, coaches, time-of-day, etc. Can't figure out the pattern.

 

well, another favorable part is that basically 1/2 of our games have been against the east.......which means that going forward 2/3 of our games will be against the west.....who we are currently 3-10 against :S

 

Beat me to it. Yes, we have played more home games, doesn't mean we weren't playing some tough teams

 

LMAO Neopolitan Ice Cream...whose strawberry though?

 

East vs West isn't all that relevant-- East is weak overall and Rockets played East teams, but some have been pretty good East teams (NY twice, Miami, ATL, BOS for example). They have also played against OKC, MEM, Spurs twice, Lakers twice (struggling team, but still not horrible) etc. and have not yet met some of the worst teams from either conference.

When Houston meets, say, SAC, they won't automatically lose a few points just because SAC is a Westerm team. They also won't gain anything vs. Miami just because they are in the East.

 

Even with most of the wins being against East teams... (top or not), I still think this team is overachieving a little... and that's a great thing to see from a young team. It helps build confidence, chemistry, and it also gives you a winning experience. Some of those things are hard to come by in the NBA with a young team. Team is on pace to finish .500 or possibly better which may get them an 8th seed. Considering all the roster changes, that would be amazing.

 

Yeah, it hasn't been an easy schedule at all. The entire first half of the season is vicious, in fact.

 

Thats not fair. This is the youngest team in the NBA that Chandler Parsons has more experience as a starter than any other player on the team. This is a team that a lot of the so called experts thought would be one of the 2 worst teams in the west. By most accounts they should have lost most of those games even if they were at home since so many of those victories were against play-off caliber teams.

Orlando
Philly
Toronto
Charlotte
Detroit
Cleveland
Washington
LA
Phoenix
Sac
NO
Atl
Chicago
Milwaulkee
Brooklyn

All have as many or more home losses than Houston. So many here thought Toronto of all teams would be better than Houston. Only 14 teams have fewer home losses than Houston and with out checking their respective schedules I doubt that those teams have hosted as many play-off caliber teams than Houston has.

Houston has home wins against LAL, Chi, NYK, Utah, Bos, Philly and road wins against NYK and ATL. That's 8 quality wins against play-off caliber teams. There are 7 teams in the NBA that have 8 or fewer wins regardless of home, road or caliber of opponent.

Sorry but for the youngest team in the NBA in both age and experience that is impressive. If you disagree thats fine but the facts are not on your side.

 

have to disagree, it is relevant. we have obviously fared much better (10-2) against the east compared to (3-10) against the west. it's is like night and day, and more than 2/3 of the remaining games are against the west teams. you are right that this doesn't automatically mean we will beat miami and lose to sactown, but it is definitely indicating that, for whatever reason, we do not match up as well with the teams in our conference.

we are also 3-7 on the road vs. 10-5 at home, which is not surprising for a young team that plays inconsistent defense. and having played 50% more games at home so far makes our relative success (.520 record) a little less celebratory..

 

i'm only trying to be realistic about the schedule going forward. fair to me, would be to go 45-12 the rest of the way and get the #2 seed :grin:

but unfortunately, the schedule doesn't care how young and inexperienced we are

 

your right. the schedule over the next couple of months is much more difficult and I think it will determine if this team has a realistic shot at a play-off spot.

 

In the end, the schedules tend to balance out. Play enough tough games now and you have less of them later. They are going into a road heavy stretch and if they come out of it still at or around .500, things should look up for them later. There are still enough favorable games vs the likes of Hornets, Suns, Kings, Bobcats, Cavaliers left on the schedule and they have to go somewhere.

 

This next week and a half should be interesting. MEM, CHI, MINN, SA, OKC, ATL
All playoff teams as of now. What are your predictions? I really want them to beat OKC at the Toyota Center.

 

next month, we have 6 sets of back-to-back's. so if we can manage to finish out the month still at .500, i agree with you guys we have a very good chance of making the playoffs.

hopefully we stay healthy. and i actually think the loss of patpat will hurt us in some games. i consider him soft as far as rebounding, and a lesser option than morris on offense......but against teams with long PF's who can score (ie. LMA, Pau, Love), he really is our best option on D

 

A really good take as usual Carl. I had not gotten that far in my analysis.

 

I really want them to get both OKC and CHI for Harden and Asik, but wouldn't be surprised if Rockets only manage CHI. ATL has been coming together so I'm not sure that it'd be as easy as it'd been earlier this season, but then again the Rockets have improved as well. MEM will be a nailbiter I feel, they're almost the exact opposite of the Rockets (slow paced defense heavy versus fast paced offense heavy), but with more experience, except, again Rockets have improved since then. Still think the Spurs are going to give this team trouble.

So split the difference on the 'maybe's and call it 3-3.

 

Interesting to note Mavs have had the easiest schedule so far

 

Lin isn't pink.