The Rockets just posted their best November month in a decade - going 12-5 over the month of december -- consider that outside of the 2 clipper games the other 3 games were heartbreak/coin flip type games (lakers,sixers,mavs) that record could be better - but cant change the past. But even more impressive about the record is that they had to juggle starting lineups several times either due to experiments (Asik/Howard) or due to injuries (Harden, Beverley, Lin). To me for a team just starting to come together this is a tremendous sign and bodes well going forward when the team starts getting healthy again. Hopefully this will also lead to fewer turnovers (instead of 20 a game hopefully it can come down to like 14-15) OR right now the Rockets lead the league (not a good thing) by far in turnover differential - +4.7 (orlando is #2 at +2.9) thats nearly 5 extra possessions that the Rockets opponents have - that probably accounts for 4-6 points alone. Previous November Records: 03-04: 8-7 04-05: 6-10 05-06: 4-11 06-07: 10-5 07-08: 8-8 08-09: 9-7 09-10: 7-7 10-11: 5-9 11-12: Lockout year - No November games played 12-13: 6-8 13-14: 12-5 Lets hope they keep this momentum going and have an even better month of December!
cant change the past - just learn from it what the rockets can change are their turnovers -- this can help with playing which each other more as a unit and building chemistry and everyone knowing their roles. as i stated in my first post - the rockets turn it over nearly 5 more times than their opponents - that alone is probably worth a 10 point swing (4-6 points not scored by the rockets that their opponents score instead) -- cutting down on those will alone ensure games like the lakers,sixers, mavs wont happen again in the future
I think the Spurs win balances out the Dallas collapse, as we could easily have lost the Spurs game, so 14-5 in my book.
You can include 3 pter from James Anderson as another game Rockets possible could have won if they foul instead letting the team shoot the 3.
I agree with you that we can't change the past so the record is the record, no matter how much we are sad about those 3 losses that should have been wins. That being said, I disagree with your focus on TOs. Our TOs are high but a lot of good teams (like OKC) have high TOs and most star players have high TO rates as well. TOs aren't a great measure of how well a team will do -- there are much better ones -- and we can easily still contend w/ our current TO rate. Does that mean TOs are good or something? No, cutting down on them obviously helps, but I just put it lower on the totem pole. You have to really see what KIND of TOs we're making. Offensive fouls? Traveling? Dribbling out of bounds? Those are at least better than losing the ball at the top of the key and allowing the other team to get easy fastbreak points (which I felt like we were doing a lot more of last season). I'd like to see us start utilizing Dwight a bit better too (we're always like half a second slow on passing the ball to the inside when Dwight has great positioning) and close out better on perimeter shooters.
Take away the coach we'd probably also lose to Memphis. 2nd Clippers and Mavs games were total collapse in the 4th qtr with or without McHale. So 15-3 is my guess.
I'm doing a little looking ahead and don't think it warrants a new thread. We have no back to back games until the 20th/21st of December. We play: Jazz Suns Warriors Orlando Portland (beat them already pretty easily) Warriors Sacramento Chicago Then tough game against Pacers. If we win all our games, which are all very winnable, we are 20-5 going into Indiana. That should have us competing for 1st place in our division because the Spurs have the Pacers and Clippers during that span. As, Bill and Clyde say, we have to win the state championship first to make any contender noise, so jumping in front of the Spurs has to be priority one.
If we had lost the Spurs game, it would have counted as a collapse. We had a 23 point lead in that game, but lost it.
Didn't realize how well we're playing! Crazy how good the West is this year though, despite all that... still only 5th seed.
I meant our turnover differential is the highest by far in the league -- +4.7 - we turn the ball over nearly 5 more times per game than the opposition -- if that at least comes down to around +2 that would result in 4-12 point swing per game -- thats huge alone
I suspect that the Dallas, Los Angeles and Sixers losses will even out over the course of the season, if not go slightly in the Rockets favor (good teams tend to win close games). A 1-2 decrease in turnovers would be a miracle over the course of the season, unfortunately with the type of offense the Rockets run, I do not see them doing well protecting the ball. It is the consequence of trying to score before the defense has time to set.
