asik was not even on the bench tonight by the way. i doubt any amount of massengill is gonna cure his ailment. as far as the 26-15 record, breaking it down we have been beating up on leastern conference teams. so simply doubling it up to 52 when we will be playing more western conf teams down the wire won't work..
^^^ i stand corrected, we are indeed on pace for 52 wins. nonetheless, unfortunately, i'd put our chances of beating LAC, OKC, POR, or even SAS in a first round matchup very slim.
Don't go out on a limb or anything...... This record has reflected what happens when you.have 2 top 10 impact players in the league no matter how they or the team play, they find ways to win and have a solid record
Repped! This team will go as far as our two superstars will carry us. Dwight has been playing every single game this season. Harden only missed 6 games, and our record without him was like 4-2. Bothered by injuries for half a season? Exaggerating a bit! McHale sure knows more about Harden than all of McHale apologists combined because Harden was healthy enough to average about 39 min/game for games he played. That's 22 wins and 13 losses in 43 games he played. As for the rest of players? They are a bunch of role players who contribute no more than a few wins for the whole season! Missing a few games here and there will NOT determine the fate of this team. We've been a pretender since November, despite having two of the best players in the league at center and SG positions!
Could've been 30+ wins at this point if we had our full compliment of players & a competent coaching staff... Asik's PMS hasn't helped and McHale's play book needs at least a few pick'n'roll's inserted. Half way through the season and we still can't feed the post or run plays when the offence breaks down? That's on Coach.
The way this team plays--I don't think we can just double our current record. We can still crash and burn. We barely scrape past bad teams. We have lost to mediocre teams. And we look like high school teams vs. the elite teams. I would think even college teams would have better effort and game plans. Nope, my sense is Harden and Howard won't take us to contender status. Sorry, Morey. Don't put all your bets on these two guys.
The Rockets need a good matchup in the 1st round if they want to advance. I'd like to play the Clippers again before declaring them as a matchup nightmare since the blowout losses were early in the season. Clearly we matchup well against the Spurs but poorly against OKC. Portland looks like an even matchup so I'll take that.
Contrary opinion I am thrilled with the Rockets record so far. I figured they would get to 50-55 wins on the season, but I figured at the halfway point, they would be much closer to 20 than 25. This team and this offense was designed to compete when they didn't have the talent to match up with the rest of the league, so they have an approach that leads to crazy wins and bad losses. With the talent now on board, they can adjust their approach now (and have somewhat), but that takes time to really gel. Anyone remember how bad the Miami Heat were in the first half of the first season of the big three? We are going through the same thing, but with a major injury to our starting point guard, a nagging injury to our superstar shooting guard, growing pains from our superstar center learning a new team, a new approach (from working with Hakeem) and still learning to play with results of major back surgery. Oh and our starting power forward (which Asik was the equivalent of to start the season and for sure one of our best 5 players) has given us absolutely nothing all year. I'd say trade Asik, get Beverley back and let this team continue to gel and we will be the most scary team for a top seed to face in the playoffs. San Antonio and OKC will be trying to play down for 2 seed if we land on 4/5 line.
They are 29-10, but without Westbrook I believe they are 8-6 or so, 6-5 in their last 11, including losses to the Jazz & Nets. And you can bet that in every single loss, Westbrook's absence is mentioned. Hell, Marv Albert even mentioned it a handful of times last night.
I do think they need a more disciplined coach behind them as neither is strongly self motivated. Talent is one thing, but these are coddled athletes who have always been the best at their positions v(#1 and #4 picks). You have to get a coach who can light a fire under them and understand their strengths and weaknesses, Mchale is a rec game coach. A pickup game coach who the players like, not a champion. It has always been obvious that Lin just isn't good enough or assertive enough for NBA ball, or atleast playoff caliber basketball should I say. It is such a surprise when he strings together a few good plays that he himself is in shock. And of course the perimeter defense, not sure whether to blame McHale or Harden Lin Parsons being extremely weak individually, but you have to start to balance the roster if you want Harden to give all the effort on offense. 1 month before the trade deadline -this roster with this coach will 100% not cut it
The team needs a coaching change. Next season we will have a better roster, we will have more experience, but at the end of the day we will fall based on the same limitations we are watching these 2 years. Collective limitations, tactical limitations, coaching limitations.
Don't let the wins fool you. We're too inconsistent. In the West, we're probably at the 5th spot and we deserve to be there. I think teams such as Clippers, SA, Dallas, OKC, Portland and maybe even Golden State can legitimately give us fits. The problem with this team is 1). offensive identity and 2). lack of defense. Harden and Dwight play two different styles of basketball and both styles are not conducive for winning. Harden: Weaker defender. Not a great 3pt shooter but loves to shoot in volumes. Loves to draw fouls and get to the line. Howard: Terrible FT shooter. Limited offensive moves. Great defender If the opposing team take out one or both of these players, then our offense is pretty much stuck. It's going to take years of trades and changes to really make us into a contender.
Exactly. Please folks, look at their schedule. Between now and the All-Star Break, it's a joke. If(and it's a HUGE if) the Rockets fatten up on the lousy competition, they'll have a shot at 52 wins or so by the end of the season. But if they keep losing winnable games as they've been doing all year, that post-All-Star Break schedule which is killer will do them in. They'll be struggling to reach 50 wins which in this Western Conference would barely qualify you for the postseason(and may not be enough).
For the people comparing the Yao/ TMac teams to our now, the team we have now is so much better than the teams Yao and TMac had. When you are expecting long minutes and solid production from Rafer Alston, Luther Head, and Chuck Hayes to be anything more than a defensive specialist bench big, or the likes, we could have done better. The problem is that Harden/Howard combo isn't on par with Tracy and Yao, at least not yet. Tracy and Yao were more complete player than either Harden or Howard. Harden might be more efficient than McGrady ever was, but McGrady still had the ability to get blazing hot and be a game changer defensively. Same for Dwight as he is the better defensive player compared to Yao, but Yao was still solid and his offense greatly overwhelms anything Dwight does. When Tracy and Yao played together, they were arguably the best duo in the NBA. Combine Tracy's creativity, scoring and passing ability with Yao's size and soft touch and you had a lethal combination. Of course the problem was getting them to play healthy together outside the 2005 season. This isn't a knock on Howard or Harden, they are still young, particularly Harden so they might grow together into something special.
Those Rocket teams best record was 55-27. This year's team is paced for 52. That's a significant difference? Shaq/Kobe were finished by '05. Rockets acquired McGrady in '05. Prime Mavs and Suns aren't significantly better than OKC. Those Rockets squads lacked the role players the current team has. Those teams had less talent overall, but were better coached. Agreed. I didn't realize Anderson, Holiday, and another pretty good player DNP'd @NO. We barely won... smh.
For the Rocket's record so far, I'm only slightly disappointed. I put them to win anywhere from 52-58 games this season and they are on pace for that. But just looking back at the losses we had, I'm sure at least 5 of them could have been avoided. But just the same, at least a couple of our wins should have not been wins as well. Contenders are usually on pace to win above 57 games so the Rockets are still a level below that mark. Who knows, though? A lot of the team ahead of us had long winning streaks this season; Portland, Spurs, Thunder, even the Warriors. And in the past our teams have gotten healthier after the break and pulled off large win streaks to close the gaps and make the last few weeks of the season ultra competitive. If we can get a streak of 10 or more or several streaks of 5 or more, we will be okay. Right now, just stay in the pack as Howard continues to fit in and players comeback from injury.
