The Rockets' November schedule is insane. I don't think I've ever seen one quite like it. Two games against the Mavs, Spurs, and Suns, including the Spurs on the back end of a back-to-back (just played) and the Suns on the back end of the same. In addition to that they get to play the big three in a row mid-month. But even this doesn't quite tell the whole story. Based on last year's finish the Rockets' opponents finished 793-591 (counting records twice for teams played twice). That's a 74.5 winning %! It goes without saying that the Rockets cannot afford to drop a single game this month against the likes of the Bucks, Bobcats, etc. Their 4-1 start is very important, but they need to get to 8-1 before they hit that brutal three game stretch against the big 3. The good news is that once the Rockets get out of the first month nothing in the upcoming months jumps out at you. In fact, you might describe the other months as an easier than normal schedule, which makes sense considering what they have to do in November.
Well if this season goes anything like last season, let's get some of the tough games out of the way early. Remember when Yao went down for 2 months last year, it came during a not-too-difficult stretch which is partly why the Rockets were able to actually thrive with the big guy out. Of course it's also easy to favor a tougher early schedule when the team's already off to a 4-1 start.
Sorry...small correction. These numbers include the opener, which was technically played in October. Some of you legalists out there might have nailed me for it!
I didn't go back and look at it, but if I remember correctly, January was brutal last year. The Rockets had their best month of the season anyway...even without Yao.
Okay, I'm terrible at math...sorry again, but first of all the record of opponents would be 793-601 and obviously the 74.5 is way too high! The correct calculation is 56.9%. Now that is not as staggering, but still I bet it is the highest in the league through November.
i voted for a softer early schedule. if we could get some huge leads RA would have some breathing room to implement more pieces of his offense. i suspect that much of what he wants to do has been shelved to keep our win % up during this brutal start.
I like for the tough games to come in the middle of the season; at neither the beginning nor the end of the season.
i'm glad we play the big three so early. history has shown that the spurs and mavs take it easy and simply dont care this early in the season. the mavs lost to the hawks just the other night. if we had to play them later in the season i'd be worried because they'd have their A game. the suns also seem to be struggling out of the gate.
