The Houston Rockets are Not What You Think, They are Better

The scary thing is we haven't had healthy full season yet and we can still improve in many ways, I mean if we really hit our peak we could be the scariest team in the league come playoffs time.

 

That's crazy 31-12, and now 48-13. The Rockets are still barely ahead of them too.

Check this crazy thing out, I just looked up.

The Rockets have currently won 14 in a row. If they keep winning, they would be at 22 wins on March 17th. If they were to win the next game on March 18th they would break the Rockets streak a few years back that was 22 games. Which actually ended on March 18, 2008. If somehow they get that far, McGrady and Yao better both be there on March 18th!!

 

Yea they can still get better. They can still improve their shooting. Some of them have after a couple of days off like Eric, Ariza and Ryan. Also Pj been shooting a bit better.
We can also improve once everyone gets in the line up and they get more playing time together.
Later today we need to win it because we let the last game go. Plus Harden has to want to have it since that flopper got him twice. We had that game. And let’s keep on winning.

Román I’m recalling some of those games that we should have had or we let slipped.
Celtics is one of them one that we just had to inbound it once more and we had it.
Those Memphis games too if it weren’t coz of the refs those games and the Toronto game would have been ours. Also wish Memphis would have been sucking back then.
That way we would be like 4 games ahead of the warriors.
In fact if we didn’t have that bad month in December we probably would be 7 games ahead of them. We should have had the clippers, lakers, Celtics, okc and warriors.

I’m pretty sure if we had been full healthy we would have swept the warriors. We were close till the end of the 3th or 4th and they only won by 10 or so. And okc we had that game we just didn’t play well and we didn’t have our guys.

Okay checking the schedule now
Memphis games that was horrible to watch. Refs gave those two games to Memphis.
Then sixers. We had the lead against the sixers but we got complacent and let them hang and they won.
Raptors played well but the refs weren’t calling it out way. Specially when we had the momentum and got our runs.

Then the bad stretch in December 22-29 5 games. All of them we could have won. Well maybe wizards game we didn’t play well at all. But we were close too then we just stop caring that game looked wack.
But Celtics we had, okay was close and we could have close it we had the lead at one point. Clippers and lakers we didn’t play well.
And the golden state game was close till the end and we didn’t have harden. And same for pistons.


So easily we could have had 5 or 7 more wins by now. If it wasn’t coz of injuries or the team being off or the refs influence. For sure 5 more.

Oh well let’s just go perfect for the rest of the season and get the chip.

 

PJ was huge during the recent streak with hitting timely shots and he was terrible during the losing streak

 

we had 20 plus lead in the 3rd if i recall well or it was the first half? never mind that collapse had the last season rockets written all over it... Harden led rockets were a historic team but boy another ball handler in times of crysis was necessary to growth of rockets (as predicted by bbholic somewhat) because we lost so many games due to harden getting fatigued mentally and/or physically and turning over the ball several times in row and the teams would stole momentum from us... with cp3 I cant remember it ever happened except for once

i cant see anything but 30 pts blowout tonight

 

I would still trade the scariest team tag for most consistent production in the playoffs.

 

Celtics game was without Chris Paul, Capela and Lock Down Your Booty

 

Some people probaly think I'm going overboard being excited for another parade. Rockets have been in games where the opponents have better stats in the main category, yet the Rockets blow them away. Harden became a better passer, more energy on the floor getting away from triple-double madness and having an assassin mentality. Every Rockets are capable of scoring which is why I'm planning to take at least a week out of mid-June. The only way we get beaten is Draymond being a punk and start kicking sacks. And other teams playing ghetto ball (hack and smack)- we have PJ, Wright and Nene.

 

Don’t forget that Harden has to score every point, can’t be carried by his teammates. Also has to hit the game winner with Leonard or Durant in his face. And it can’t be a travel or a push off or taunting.

 

lol i hope all this hype doesn't end in another disappointing playoff exit with harden choking in the clutch.

 

I'm hopeful that Harden will shine with CP3's presence. Let's hope for the best.

 

Top 5 teams:
Rockets stars are luckiest in terms of injury issues.

Stars missing games:
Rockets 25 games
Warriors 32 games
Spurs: Kawhi
Celtics Hayward
Cavs IT

 

While I don't love all of the isolation plays we run, I do love the way we are scoring efficiently in the half court. Half court offense is totally in your own control. It doesn't rely on the other team missing shots to lead to your fast break points. It doesn't wear out your players by sprinting back and forth the whole game. It doesn't lead to easy points on the other end because you can setup your defense better.

That said, I do prefer the Warriors half court offense of constant movement and lots of passes to find open shots. We have turned into the old Jazz pick and roll offense and it works when you have guys like Harden, CP3, and Capela with three point shooters standing on the perimeter.

In the end its all about winning though so if isolation plays are getting us wins, ill take it!

 

I.D.I.O.T.

That's some very careless posting. @DreamShook

 

PJ's often underrated here by some, in my opinion. He had a real impact on that last Warriors game. Really stood out. He hasn't earned a serious comparison, certainly not yet, but there are times he reminds me of Mario. Elie seemed to be everywhere during games. He did the little things, grabbing key boards, moving without the ball and making the right pass, playing tough defense and making the right rotations, and hitting shots when we really needed them. PJ has to do a lot to earn a legitimate comparison.

PJ hasn't shown Mario's leadership yet, instead leading with his effort, and he hasn't been key to winning a series for us, or a championship, but he reminds me some of SuperMario. Not all that "big," but playing at times like a bull putting his head down and charging the crowd at Pamplona when getting a rebound (OK, so I read some Hemingway again recently - forgive me!). Yes, he had a bad stretch there during the losing streak. Not the only one, but can't deny it.

Luc and PJ were key additions by Morey who need to show up during the playoffs. They need to have the impact to win us a game here and there in the post-season, games we would likely have lost without them. They need to continue to be good role players who can step in and start if needed, as we've seen. We just need to be lucky with the "i" word and have everyone good to go for the playoffs. That, and avoid bad juju. Tonight will test us. I expect the Rockets to step up and leave with a win on national TV and I'll be paying attention to those two. They better bring their #2 pencils!

 

"I mean that's nice and all but lemme jus tell you sumtin Ernie, dey aint beating da Wurriors in a 7 game series"

I'll go out on a limb and say that we'll hear less of this crap if we keep up the current pace.

 

What did Chuck say about a jump shooting team never winning a ring again?? Now Chuck is all in for GSW. The guy is always wrong, because he is always 2 steps too slow to recognize the trend.

 

I think everyone has backed off at this point. Now they are saying the Rockets have a punchers chance now. I think we have better than a punchers chance but I still consider GS to be favorites though.

 

Rockets top two 5-man units:
Harden-Gordon-Ariza-Ryno-Capela = 209.3 mins logged together this season
CP3-Harden-Ariza-Ryno-Capela......= 182.8 mins logged together this season

http://www.82games.com/1718/1718GSW2.HTM
Warriors top two 5-man units:
Curry-Klay-Durant-Green-Zaza...= 404.3 mins logged together this season
Livingston-Klay-Iggy-Green-West= 127.6 mins logged together this season

Warriors top 5-man unit has logged almost twice as many mins this season together compared to Houston’s

From those GSW starters: 49-14 (63 games)
Player.....................missed games
Klay............................1
Draymond..................8
Durant........................8
Curry..........................15
Zaza...........................10
———————————
....................................42 missed games


From those Rockets starters: 48-13 (61 games)
Player.......................missed games
Harden........................7
CP3............................18
Capela........................6
Ryno...........................4
Ariza...........................13
————————————
...................................48 missed games

You may not see Capela/Ryno/Ariza as “Stars”; but I don’t see Klay/Zaza as stars for Golden State.
And you tell me which games your players sat out just to rest.

 

I'm just happy that we don't have a weakness right now. We're elite on both sides of the court and can play either big or small. Teams cannot easily exploit any of our players. We've been good before but never great. This is a great team.