Despite our recent slump, we can (and must!) recover in our upcoming 12 games stretch. It will include - Away game against the Pelicans, followed by 6 home games against - Pelicans Magic Suns Mavs Bulls 76ers Then we travel to Florida to face Magic first and then Heat Then we get back home to face - Nuggets Hawks And for dessert, we travel to Utah. We MUST win at least 9 of these 12. I can understand loosing to the Nuggets and 2 of the 3 Florida teams matches which always been challenging to us. The remaining schedule after these 12 games is VERY challenging, and we can’t allow more than 3 L’s before we get to them. Mark my words - if we don’t ace these upcoming 12 games, we won’t end up in the top-6. Let’s hope we finally enjoy this “easy schedule” that we so far been jinxed by..
I'd say it's actually the next 13 games. After Utah, they get 2 days off before going to Phoenix. If they don't win 10 of those, there's a serious risk of falling out of the top 6. The Warriors have a joke of a schedule the rest of the way and are playing great since the Butler trade. The Kings are also on a roll having won 4 in a row. And BTW, both Golden State and Sacramento own the tiebreaker against the Rockets.
We're still 3 games up on the Warriors and 1.5 games back from the 4th seeded Grizzlies. This is our chance to go on a run, but we have to play the way I know we can, no more of this lackadaisical mistake-filled crap that's been going on. Gotta take care of business, get back HC advantage in the playoffs, and go into the postseason with some momentum.
Yeah we have to get some sharpness back. Free throw shooting is unacceptable right now and the defense has broken down way too many times. Having a couple of easier match ups should help, but we seem to rise to the level of the competition and lower ourselves, so I'm hoping this doesn't go that way.
Exactly! These tie-breakers both Warriors and Kings have are a main reason why we can’t allow loosing games to teams we suppose to win. And let’s not forget we have 1 more match vs. Warriors.. It would probably be a MUST win game for us, unless we’re able winning the more easy games in our schedule.
I know, we’ve been loosing to mediocre teams as well recently. But still, except for the Nuggets match, this is a winnable stretch.. I just hope we won’t stumble like we did twice vs. The Nets..
The irony is they'll probably show up against Denver. It's when teams like New Orleans, Chicago, or Philly come to town that I don't know what to expect.
I’m predicting 17-9 the rest of the way, but that is predicated on winning the next 8 games which we should be favored in. Any less than that and we are headed to the play-in, might be headed there anyway. Ime and Stone should be on the hot seat this off-season.
I felt confident the Rockets would pass the real test and the 18-game challenge. I expect FVV will be back soon, but the Rockets' lineups have not fit with Amen starting. I don't think Amen is the problem. I don't think chemistry and coaching will fix the problem in the short term. I think the Rockets likely win a lot of these games, but not as easily as they would have earlier in the season.
Oh it's the annual easy stretch. Should be easy because when Jalen practically led us to 11-0 last season, I was told they were just bad teams so we shouldn't make a big deal about it. Seriously though, I believe in the guys. Rooting for a strong finish.
I don't think there's any need to overanalyze - with Thompson & Sengun playing the opposition is going to play zone when it needs to and crush us on offense. The Rockets have precisely one good 3 point shooter in Dillon, every one else is barely average or bad. I'm not talking rep wise, I'm talking reality wise. League average is .358. Rockets have Brooks at .388 as the sole above average shooter on the entire team (who everybody complains about all the time, lol) Average Eason .361 Holiday .368 (he is $ on corner 3's this year, 48%) Green .358 Then the below average boys: Jabari .347 FVV .340 Whitmore .329 Sheppard .282 Jef Green .327 The "back off we're not even going to bother to guard you" crew Sengun .228 Thompson .263 Tate .294 Adams (n/a) The Rockets generally have 1 or 2 of the "back off" crew on teh floor at all times when Fred is out, that is just a disaster offensively.
17-9 would put us at 54 wins. Would be hard to complain about that. Similar to Thunder last year (57 wins).
One of the reasons Fred is so huge for us--teams still treat him as a 37% on very high volume 3P shooter even though he's having a down season. Makes our spacing much, much better. They don't like leaving him wide open on threes which means at least we got two guys out there pulling their defenders away from the paint. If we're going to keep building around Sengun and Amen we need shooters. I can see the argument that Jalen, Tari, and Jabari will be better than this in the long term, but it would be hugely beneficial to add at least one guy who is a serious 3P threat while they develop. Or just trade one of them in a consolidation package because it will make it easier to pay everybody and might become necessary anyway.
I mean, I would just get rid of Sengun or Thompson (probably Sengun); playing multiple "back off this guy" guys is hard! Only the peak Warriors come to mind as a team that was able to overcome it, which was by having the 2 greatest shooters of all time on the floor next to them. How did the Cavaliers solve, for example, playing Mobley and Allen together and turn into an elite world-smashing offense? By having Mobley turn into an elite offensive player & a good 3 point shooter (like this is the leap Sengun should have/tired to make but hasn't, if anything he has regressed).
It's tough because they're arguably our two best players. It might become necessary though. Amen is shooting 35.4% on corner threes this season so I'd personally give it at least one more season and see if he can take another step forward on his shooting before I'd split the two up. Not feeling as optimistic anymore about Sengun developing into a three point threat.
Noticed this too. Also noticed that when he has the ball, we don't really benefit from that quality of his. The dilemma of your best spacer also being your floor general. When he was off ball for a few games they tested him a little and he got hot for a while. On catch and shoot he's 39.5% on 3.5 attempts On pull ups, he's 29.3% on 4.2 attempts The problem is, someone has to take the difficult 3's otherwise drive into a crowded paint or let the shot clock expire. Only Brooks, Whitmore and Green are shooting a higher % on pull up 3's so if we can sneak 2 attempts away from Fred to those 3, we'd be in a good spot. I do think Green is overextended on 3's though. IMO Brooks and Whitmore are our best bet. The Sengun/FVV PnR consists of a big man making 53% TS% despite not taking 3's, and a PG who is 29% on pull ups 3's and struggles inside the arc. It's pretty obvious we are overusing the hell out of this play. Fred off ball is like acquiring a spacer mid season. It might be a good trade off to give the ball to our 2nd and 3rd playmakers more often, freeing FVV to be a spacer more often.
