Streak by the Numbers By Doug Orth PA SportsTicker Staff Writer The Houston Rockets truly have entered rarified air. How rare? Only three teams in NBA history have won at least 19 games in a row and only two have won more. What makes the 2007-08 Rockets much different from the 1971-72 and 1999-2000 Los Angeles Lakers, and the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks is that those teams were expected to win the championship - and did so. Meanwhile, Houston - even with this lengthy winning streak - has been written off by many as a team that can’t even make it to the Finals, especially now that it has lost six-time All-Star center Yao Ming for the season. So, in a salute to the truly amazing and unbelievable stretch from a team which was just 24-20 before it defeated Golden State on January 29, here is a list of notable streak-related numbers the Rockets have posted in that time: 1 - Wins needed to tie the 1970-71 Bucks for second-longest winning streak in league history. 2 - Smallest margin of victory (February 13 vs. Sacramento). 3 - Current standing in the Western Conference playoff race. 4 - Number of times Tracy McGrady had a 30-point game (first since December 1; 11 overall this season). 5 - Different leading scorers for the Rockets during the streak (Yao, McGrady, Carl Landry, Luther Head, Rafer Alston). 6 - Road wins during the streak. 7 - Wins without Yao in lineup. 8 - Wins vs. teams with a winning record. 9 - Wins vs. Western Conference teams. 10 - Consecutive double-digit wins. 11 - Times Houston has scored 100-plus points. 12 - Average margin of victory (12.8 to be exact). 13 - Total number of double-digit wins. 14 - Wins needed to tie the 1971-72 Lakers for the league’s longest win streak. 15 - Points per game Alston has averaged during the streak (11.5 in his first 41 games). 16 - Number of opponents Houston has held to under 100 points (only Miami scoring 100 points on February 21 has kept the Rockets from reeling off 17 straight such performances). 17 - Number of wins the Lakers have enjoyed during the streak (17-4 overall). 18 - Margin of victory in the Rockets’ latest game - 91-73 over New Jersey on Monday. 19 - Consecutive wins; also the number of remaining games in the regular season for the Rockets.
To show how much better we have been... they have lost 4 games since our streak started. We have only lost 4 games in all of 2008
Dang, I'm loving all the attention. SIDE: Like you Laygo, I'm up here behind enemy lines too and all my Mavs friends talk without spirit. Oh, they got spirit alright, spirit to change something about that organization. (it's hard to keep a straight face when they're b****ing about the Mavs on the phone to me.)
I hear it all the time from my best friend- he grew up outside of Ft. Worth. Blah blah blah. He sent me a pic of Yao in the locker room after he broke his foot; I sent him this pic after we beat the mavs:
