When they don't play the following 4 teams: Code: Team win loss Los Angeles Clippers 0 3 Oklahoma City Thunder 0 3 Dallas Mavericks 2 2 Memphis Grizzlies 2 2 They are also 2-2 vs the kings, but the kings aren't making the playoffs. They are 40-10 against the rest of the league. That is a 80% win clip or 64 wins.
Wow. Good find. Unfortunately, those 4 teams make up half the teams that we could meet in the playoffs.
IIRC the 2 games we won vs Grizzlies was when Gasol was injured. We lost the home and home when Gasol came back. Our chances vs Memphis are not as good as a 2-2 would indicate.
We were also the walking wounded at the time and missing Asik who could be huge for that match up with the Grizz.
You know whats funny/interesting about this to me: These 3 teams (put Memphis aside for the moment) all do EXACTLY what the Rockets do on the offensive end but slightly better with their first unit which I find very interesting....especially the Clippers. Where the Rockets SHOULD have the advantage is the ability to have depth and a strong bench to offset the lack of depth these other 3 teams don't have coming off the bench whether it be for cap reasons, etc. The Rockets by all means have had their roster moves put on ice for whatever reason until potentially the Summer of 2015 which has had an effect in what kind of talent Morey is able to put around Harden/Howard/ & Parsons. You look at the longevity of Dallas (on the verge of needing to rebuild), Clippers (CP3 has had health issues & old supporting unit), and even SAS (how many years do they have left), and the Rockets are in good shape to really be the dominant force in the West in a year or so once Morey is able to really have the flexibility to truly build around Harden & Howard with a full palate and the other teams very likely go in a different direction. The Thunder, are the one team that I can really see being there for the long haul with the Rockets. There are going to be some nasty battles coming up in the next 2 to 5 years. Memphis on the other hand- They are an anomaly. They aren't a team I am really too worried about long term, but in the short term they have a match-up nightmare for most of the league to have to deal with in their slow it down grind it out style of play. The Rockets in the past have been able to really do damage to the Bulls with this style of play, but the Grizzlies have shown them some recent troubles. In a 7 game series though, you'd have to think that the Rockets would find a way to impose their will on the Grizzlies at some point and turn the series around. I just don't see anything they do as something that is anything to worry about long term. Especially since I'm not so sure how long Z-Bo has left. After he moves on or retires, I don't know what direction they will be able to go in. -So the teams the Rockets have had trouble with this year all sort of make sense to me. They match-up really well with the Rockets starting unit due to their style of play and top level talent, and the Rockets have had trouble with their bench all year long... especially in those games when they haven't had Asik or quality play from the backup wings. However the good news is I think the Rockets are still an incomplete team now, but should be much much better with improvement both internally and externally next year moving forward that should put them over the edge with better depth and support from the surrounding players. In the short term, I think you're going to need a little bit of luck or breakout performances from supporting players to beat any of these teams except maybe the Mavericks whom the Rockets can beat if they just play a little harder.
The Rockets seem to struggle with teams with athletic/physical front courts. Clippers have Jordan and Griffin. Thunder have Perkins and Ibaka Mavs don't fit that mold. Grizzlies have Gasol and Z-Bo
All those have pretty good 4's. Griffin, Ibaka, Dirk, Zbo. Tjones is not a very good defensive player.
It's just a stat, normally nothing to look at too closely. And also too early to tell... but the OKC/LAC problem (more so LAC) might be something we need to address personnel-wise the way NFL teams do. Bringing in specific players to beat specific teams... If the trend continues we could be looking at another Seattle problem (from the 90's) where we simply don't matchup well. I think some depth, maybe a deadly shooter and a Chuck Hayes gets you on even footing with LAC. For the Thunder we need Jones to step up and get a shooter to open up the floor.
