Have you checked who those victories were against? The Rockets have not beaten one team in their division. That is pathetic.
How many of those division games were played with T-Mac and Yao? I can think of one early one in San Antonio, and that's it.
If by the end of this regular season the Rockets were winless against all the teams in our division that would undoubtedly be the most woeful record to hold for the Houston franchise. [To any NBA historian on board, has this ever happened to a team?] We are on schedule to play 16 games total against the 4 other teams in the Southwest Division, our record thus far is a pathetic 0-11. There are 5 games remaining: 3/18 vs SAS, 3/21 @ DAL, 3/23 @ NOK, 4/15 vs MEM, 4/19 vs SAS. For all the Houston Rockets pride, we need to score at least a couple of victories.
I don't remember for sure, but I do know that the Rockets have beaten very few playoff teams this year, especially Western playoff teams. The notion that with a healthy TMac and Ming this team would have sailed deep into the playoffs is a myth. The current team without Sura, Barry, James, or Padgett is nowhere near the talent level of last year's group, and JVG said that last year we lacked talent. So what does that tell you. I have been watching NBA basketball for many years, and IMO, this is the weakest supporting cast I ever seen on an NBA team. Remember, without TMac or Ming this group beat no one, nada, not one team including the Hawks, Raptors, ie. the bottom-dwellers. The Rockets need an infusion of talent, or we are in for a repeat next season, which would be a nightmare.
31 games is pretty representative to me. No, I don't know what the combined record was of those teams, or how many of them were home games or away games, or back to backs, or who was injured on the other teams line-up, or if one team seemed to get a larger amount of calls and ft's then the other, or whether the other team was on a back to back, or what day of the week it was, or what time the game started, or what I had for dinner that night... It's a record...it is what it is. 21-10. That's very good. Sure, the team still has a long way to go, even when healthy... BUT, the only bets that didn't pay off this year were the ones that implied the team would be healthy. You'd have lost a bunch of money making that gamble
The notion that they wouldn't is equally fantastical. Nobody knows. All you know is how successful they have been in the regular season when healthy. You can make guesses as to the other all you want, but one could just as easily argue the other side.
I didn't know they had salads...I go so infrequently that when I'm there I have to go large. No pansy salads for me!
per Haven: "Who cares if JVG is back? Quite frankly, it doesn't make much of a difference. People put far too much of a premium on the coach of a team" This I agree on. Bill Worell could be coach if TMac, Yao and tough rebounding power forward are in place. Tough defense and healthy players are all we need. I do like Alston- if he can push that ball up the floor get 8 tpo 10 assists per game and we are adequate at the 1. We need a4 really bad to help Yao. I hate it we are stuck with Juwan's never ending contract.
Well, for one thing this year there are fewer teams per division (i.e. fewer games against division opponents). Our division is also very, very good top to bottom. I'm not proud of our division record, but you can't really compare it on a historical level.
