It was Christmas against the Lakers. Here's my formula: Take the last 6 games and avrage out the points Rox scored... also average out the points we allowed to opponents. Compare those two average numbers for each game for the past 3 months (Jan, Dec, and Nov) excluding overtime games (because extra periods are played, and they throw off the average)... and you'd have a chart that looks like this: The point indicated by the arrow is where the rockets started to put more distance between their 6-game PPG average and the 6-game points-allowed average. That point is almost precisely on Christmas day, when the Rockets beat the Lakers. the correct answer is (A) Rockets beat Lakers on Christmas -- droxford
Yeah I thought it was when that dolphin spun around and ejected his penis.... oh wait....sorry wrong topic.....I thought it was HUMP THE SHARK thread.
DAMN!!! this chart was better than my original post...now i have to come up with something to top that!
Interesting! But we have beaten the Lakers in the past. Last year we beat them, and then we had the typical letdown. I like the New York Knick game, because it was against a team we should beat, on the road, after we were on a good winning streak. And it was a blowout where we maintained a good lead the whole game.
The shark ain't jumped yet. Team is upticking, promising brighter pools in which to swim. But the shark is still lurking ready to take a big bite for spite.
When Mark Jackson hit the floor the team elevated. The streak began long before that, but the team's eyes had not been opened yet. Now the team is awake. They believe.
I agree with Rocketman95 here! Last night's game is the first Rockets game I've seen that they appeared know exactly what they wanted to do, and how to do it, and actually did it. Steve played a fabulous game; at the same time Yao was just as impressive. You can call the game against the Wolves as the "Sharking the jump" game, but for playing as a TEAM, the Indy game is the turning point. --daoshi
This is true, but irrelevant. My chart is proof that ever since the Christmas game the Rockets have consistently maintained 6-game PPG average (let's call it a 6gPPG) that is higher than their 6-game ponts-allowed average (let's call it a 6gPA). Now, prior to that laker game, were were streaky: at the very left of the chart, you can see that for a few weeks, our 6gPPG was higher than the 6gPA for 4 or 5 weeks. Then the two were very close for 3 or 4 weeks, then for about 6 weeks our 6gPPG was a LOT higher than the 6gPA. Strangely, the 6gPA shot up to be even with the 6gPPG (something caused our strong defense to abruptly falter - I wonder what happened there?) Anyway, for about 9 more weeks the two numbers have been very close - until Christmas. After that we've been consistently scoring more than we're allowing. Good news: we're about to go up against a couple of easy teams (Magic and Miami) at the same time that Dallas is going up against 4 really tough teams in a row (Sacramento, Seattle, Utah, and Denver). If we play as well as we should, and with some help from Dallas, this may be a good time for us to overtake them in the rankings (though it's not even mid-season yet). Yay! -- droxford
Isn't it nice to have multiple "great win" games to choose from? (Minnesota, LA, Indy, NY) -- droxford
The team began to turn the corner when Jimmy started knocking down open shots a couple of weeks ago. Anyone else remember all the bricks he was throwing up early in the season? As far as sharking the jump, that occured last night, beating a damn good team on the road. The Rockets have always been able to beat teams at home, but if they start winning on the road, they can become great.
when yao got knocked on his ass and decided maybe he should start playing hard ALL the time or when jvg finally realized what most of us knew, that forcing yao on the low post all the time when he has a sweet jumper is stupid. i think haywood leveled yao like a day or 2 before but the other was just as key to opening up the offense. the minny and indy wins were just the extensions of these developments. honorable mention goes to trading moochie. even though we didn't really start replacing his minutes until mj (we just made steve play the whole game), not having him out there for 12-14 minutes completely destroying us has been a huge relief and it obviously shows from VesceySux post.
This is a layered cake with mini milestones. You can see their growth in stages that is built on top lessons learned in previous stages. Critical points of the season as I see them: 14 Tue @ Sacramento Preseason W 82-78 Rox lost every preseason game prior to this point and won each game afterwards. Cato pulls down 13 boards here and he begins to establish himself as the starting PF. Cato's high energy play on defense has been exactly what we needed. Nobody ever really talks about upgrading that position anymore unless it is a pipe dream acquisition for a superstar like Wallace...that says alot about Cato's play. With Cato and later MoT's play, this team is now set at PF. Wed Utah W 107-101(OT) Rox record early indicates decent play but they seemed a little shaky. Steve is making cocky quotes about recent wins in the press but that is when JVG was saying we still were not playing like a good team. As proof, they go 1-5 on a road trip that knocks the team back into reality. They then pull out a tough win against Utah in OT with Yao goes 20-12. Rox win next 3 against NO, Detroit, Portland and start to show signs of improvement with better team play. Rox had 9 assists in the previous loss @ Seattle and 34 in this game. Wow!!! They then average 23/gm over the subsequent 4 game win streak. They finaly see the benefit of "team" play. 31 Wed Philadelphia W 80-72 This game was the first in a series where the Rox starting blowing out their opponents. This is in part because our defense really puts the hammer down. Rox had a previous win at LA but still were really inconsistent. It seems like around this point in time that the Rox start to find their identity and believe in themselves as a defensive force. Unfortunately, their offense was still anemic. 13 Tue @ Washington W 93-80 Rox were playing another mediocre game until Yao got knocked on his ass. From that minute on, Yao stepped it up and the Rox took control of that game for an easy win. In following games, Yao continues his strong play and team offense finally starts to improve. Over the next 6 games, the Rox are solid on both ends of the court. The only loss is the Memphis which was still a solid game. If the Rox continue to play as they have over the last 6 games, they will remind me of the Rox in the early 90's. We'll have a low seed in the playoffs but no team will want to face us in the 1st round (Hopefully we won't have a nemisis like Seattle this time! ). We are starting to display that we can beat good teams as long as we are not beating ourselves. Next test is mid February when we play SAx2, LA and Dallas.
I think it's the Minnesota win, though there have been lots of small mile stones. Love the topic. The Rockets, the past 2 weeks, have been playing their best basketball since 97-98.
past 2 weeks have been an awesome time to be a Rox fan. I think the Washington game was the turning point. When Yao plays better the team plays better period.. I enjoyed this topic very much and i hope the Rox can sustain this type of play moving forward. J
I wont be convinced until the Rockets beat up on the weak sisters of the league. Last season the Rockets had some nice wins only to lose to Cleveland Chicago etc the next game. If the Rockets take care of business and have nice wins against the pathetic Magic and Heat than thats when I'll be convinced that the Rockets have turned the corner. That would make them 10 games over 500. Which would look pretty good.
I think the big win for us was the one in MSG. That was some great basketball by the Rockets and it set off our little surge that we're on now. Hopefully it'll last for a while! Again, we got a chance to go 10 games over .500 if we beat Orlando and Miami this week.
That was the first thing that came to my mind. I love Yao but I think he needed to get roughed up a little bit to wake up. I can still hear Calvin screaming "they done made Yao mad!!!" I dont wanna get too excited yet but they do seem to be making progress. Now I wanna see Cuttino win the 3 pt shootout, that might just set him and the rest of the team up for a very good second half of the season.
