The Toyota Center is no longer a tomb. It's that simple. Only 6 teams in the league have a winning road record, and only 4 of those are more than a game above 0.500. The adage is: win at home and split on the road. The Rockets are doing that. Considering they've either been without Yao or McGrady most of the season, it's pretty unfair to expect them to have a better record than they're sporting at the moment. They whacked San Antonio and Utah, both at full strength, while down McGrady and then Yao. That's pretty awesome. Evan
Good Point. Much of the credit can surely go to the Rowdies, but I have also seen a concerted effort on the part of the Rockets' organization to deliver the right atmosphere for a home court advantage. For Example, they went out and got the best "voice" guy they could find in the NBA. That guy by himself gets the crowd excited and on their feet, the Rowdies, of course, reinforce that. Also, the intros, the countdown clock, the vintage montage film hinting of past Rockets Heroes intertwined with the current guys all contribute to the excitement. People are, to some degree, in thier seats earlier and the creative ticket selling strategies have given us a number of sellouts. The whole atmosphere at Toyota Center is better this year. Some of that (maybe alot of that) is the Red Rowdies, but it's other things as well and the Rockets' organization deserves some credit.
At this rate of return I think it would serve the Rockets well to shell out the extra money to have a traveling rowdy group of 50 that go to every rocket away game. Then we could turn around our away record.
agreed...............if you can maintain .500 or a bit better on the road you are usually gonna have a pretty good record
