The media are totally overlooking one of the biggest keys to this WCF series: This year's Rockets are one of the greatest road teams OF ALL TIME. Think that's an exaggeration? Think again. We're tied for the 7th best regular season road record in NBA history: RkTmSeasonGWLW/L%1GSW2015-1641347.8292CHI1995-9641338.8053BOS1972-7340328.800-BOS1974-7541329.780-MIA1996-9741329.7806LAL1971-7238317.8167HOU2017-18413110.756-GSW2016-17413110.756-CHI1991-92413110.756-LAL1999-00413110.756-PHO2004-05413110.756-DAL2006-07413110.756-BOS2007-08413110.756For the regular season, our home +/- was solid: GSW 9.4 HOU 7.6 BOS 4.7 CLE 1.1 Our ROAD +/-, though, was JUST AS GOOD: HOU 7.5 GSW 4.4 BOS 2.5 CLE 0.8 That only gets better during the playoffs, where our home +/- was still solid: GSW 13.3 HOU 9.5 BOS 9.1 CLE 4.8 But our playoff road +/- was significantly better than everyone else's: HOU 9.3 GSW 1.8 CLE -2.6 BOS -9.0 So far, we have the best road record during the playoffs: HOU 3-1 CLE 3-2 GSW 2-2 BOS 1-4 I'm not sure how this got so overlooked, but we strolled into Utah's arena, a notoriously tough place to win according to the media, and held them to 87 and 92 points as we dominated them in both games. In the freaking playoffs, when Utah had everything to gain by winning at least one of those. And we beat Golden State in the only game we played at Oracle Arena this year. Hopefully we can hold court at home in those first two games. That's no small task, obviously, but Golden State has been mediocre on the road these playoffs. If we do win both in Houston, though, I can't see the Worriers winning 4 out of the next 5 against a team who plays this well on the road.
my favorite record is our record with Harden, CP3, and Capela in the lineup...I’m not sure what it is now, but last time I checked it was 50-5 or something crazy like that Rockets in 7, I believe
I agree!!!! I’m sick of hearing all these analysts talk about warriors sweeping the rockets. (Kinda disrespectful). But even if they are setting a low bar for the rockets, it highlights to me again how these analysts vote on gut instead of facts and statistics.... this very one re: road success being one of them. The one caveat that I’m not sure how will play out is that the Rockets have shown the ability to play fast as well as slow. But of recent memory (since all star break?) they have been slower than not. Dunno if this is the result of the calendar or a deliberate move. But pace has been unequal through this season. With the warriors, all the focus seems to be having have to play fast to keep up with them. But makes u wonder how the rockets will respond. Also - for the greater part of the season. Maybe more the first half we had Ryan Anderson and his ability to space and shoot. That changes also in the second half and his status looks to be in limbo. Against the warriors, it’s again unclear to me whether we are better off (or not) with Tucker and A Moute getting major minutes over Anderson. Sorry for digression. But it kind of pertains to the road win observation. Thanks for the thread! TheSage
gotta win on the road if you're a true championship team. that's why if you lose at home, while not ideal. its not the end of the world for this team
Love the way you left off the team with the best road record in NBA history. You know, that team which lost only 9 games total. We are tied for 7th, and with another key team you left off. Spoiler: the real list Teams with less that 41 games played Neutral site games. This is only true Road games RkTmSeasonGWLW/L%1GSW2015-1641347.8292CHI1995-9641338.8053BOS1972-7340328.8004BOS1974-7541329.780-MIA1996-9741329.7806LAL1971-7238317.8167HOU2017-18413110.756-GSW2016-17413110.756-CHI1991-92413110.756-LAL1999-00413110.756-PHO2004-05413110.756-DAL2006-07413110.756-BOS2007-08413110.756
Well, ****. I must have pulled the stats from a wonky list. I'll update the post. Thx. However, we are STILL among the best road teams ever, so everything else still stands.
But we have HOME court available. We are playing four games at HOME, not AWAY. We can will all games at road and still we will lose. I.D.I.O.T. certificate for sure.
Our corporate lower bowl helped mold the Rockets to be road warriors by making every home game feel like a road game.
doesn't mean they're gonna win all the games at home. that's incredibly difficult to do. its a good advantage to have but you can't absolutely rely on just winning games at home, especially when they're playing a historic team like GS
I've seen a lot of Warriors in 5 predictions which is a very real possibility, but that would require the Warriors to win 2 games on the road. Again that team is capable of anything, including a sweep, but I think the Rockets have too much pride and worked too hard to allow the Warriors to get 2 games in Houston out of the first 3. This should be a very interesting series to say the least. Houston though will not be intimidated coming into Oracle to play. Whether they win is a different story, the biggest thing for them is to come out at half time and play the Warriors even in the 3rd quarters thats generally when the Warriors, especially in Oracle, just blitz teams and demoralize them.
Pride can get you FAR in sports, but not against the Warriors IMO. If they're hot, rolling and hitting tough shots (which they can), no amount of pride can stop those swishes.
We'll need every bit of our veteran cool. We should prepare with the mindset that we need to take 2 games at Oracle. There's an extremely high risk that we'll lose one of the first 2 at home. And we shouldn't count on winning both Games 5 and 7.
I would love nothing more than to eliminate the Warriors at Oracle in front of their crying fans. A sweep is basically improbable, so let's go with Rockets in 6
Despite the dominating blowout win in Game 2, there seem to be a buttload of doubters around here who don't think we can win a game in Oakland and take back our home court advantage. Stats would say otherwise. The Rockets have been outstanding on the road all year: In late December/early January, we had that rough stretch where we lost 7 out of 9 because either CP3 or Harden was injured. Since then, our record (including the playoffs) is 47-9, for a win % of .893, and we haven't lost two games in a row. During that same span, the Warriors record is 41-19, for a win % of .683, with a 3-game losing streak and THREE 2-game losing streaks. TL;DR #1: We haven't lost back-to-back games since early January, while the Warriors have shown multiple times that they're capable of it. Now let's compare our road record during that same span to the Warriors' home record -- the situation for Games 3 and 4. Since our rough stretch, we are 21-6 on the road for a win % of .778. During that span, the Warriors are 20-7 at home for a win % of .741. TL;DR #2: Since early January, the Rockets have a better winning record on the road than the Warriors do at home. I know, I know: The games are decided on the court. I'm just glad we've gotten scary good at winning on the opponents' courts. OVERALL TL;DR: Yeah, winning a game in Oakland is very doable. Hell, winning 2 games is doable if we play like we did last night.