Almost everyone agrees that Houston is not at the same level as Spurs and Dallas. Though right now the records of the three teams are very comparable, I want to show you the statistics against winning teams. The seamingly tough schedule of November for Houston was actually very soft: Houston has played two of the worst teams, New York and Memphis each twice. Records against winning teams: Houston won 1 lost 4 ( won over Dallas, lost to Spurs, Pistons, Jazz and NOK) Spurs Won 3 lost 2 (won over Dallas, Phenix, Houston; lost to Dallas, Cleveland) Dallas had a tougher schedule and won 3 lost 4 (won over Phenix, Spurs and NOK, lost 4 straight since the opening night to Spurs, Houston, Golden state and LA clipper) From Nov. 28 to Dec. 23, your Rockets will only play 3 games out of 14 against teams with losing records. It is a critical period for the team. Even if the rockets will be playing at the current level, the won't have the same records (win 69%) at the end of this period. They need to use all their weapons. I hope JVG will play Wells. Also Novak's shooting ability needs to be used at least in some games. I really hope Sura will be able to come back at some point during this periord. Without extra help, the rockets could fall behind in the state race at the end of December.
I personally am glad for the tougher schedule. I want to see what these Rockets are made of against the top tier of the NBA.
well if you add the last for games in Dec. (@ind, @njn, atl, mem), then we play 18 games. we will go 12-6. our record will be 21-10 come new years day. book it.
You can't compare the games to dallas. Dallas played the suns and hornets while those teams were sliding. We played the hornets while they were winning, and the Utah game was the first game of the season when we weren't ready. We should have beaten the spurs too. The pistons game too, but it wasn't close after a while and we never opened up a lead as big as we did against the spurs.
hah im a rockets fan and all.. and im a homer.. but ur saying we should be number one in the leage with a undefeated record of 13-0? HMM Not very plausible.. those teams gave us a good beating....
i'm not worrying about phoenix, but yes i agree with the initial poster, we need to improve our play down the stretch to beat the good teams. We've had leads against those 'good' teams at some point in the fourth quarter (except UTAH), but were unable to close it out.
No worries guys, the team is starting to gel, T-Mac is slowly coming back and the our beloved rookies are playing, by the middle of december, we'll be just fine and nobody will like to face us.
It's hard to learn anything from the first two losses, seeing as they were both home openers for the other team. Nobody anticipated that Utah would be this hot at the start of the season. We played NOK in their opener in New Orleans, obviously a very emotional game for NOK. Other than that, we lost to the Spurs and Pistions, two championship-caliber teams who play great team defense and who have had a core of players together for years. Those two losses don't really bother me either, this early in the season, especially the Pistons on the road.
I think the team is slowly feeling their way into their style of play. As long as t-mac stays aggressive like he has the last few games, we will be fine. Actually, I think that the fact that JVG is starting to rotate his rookies into the lineup is keeping legs fresh for the close.
We actually had opportunities to win all the games we lost, bar our season openner, and even then, we stayed in the game. It's natural that we struggle against these top teams at first, but it's just disgusting to watch.
the typical 4th quarter collapses took place when rox met spurs, just in last 2 minutes of 3rd quarter, like the stock market collapses, the 17 pts lead disappeared quietly, no time-out, no feed back, no role player, we were just beaten unconsciously...i was really shocked by that, hope that will never happen again
I am not the least bit worried, the Rockets are talented enough to win every game....bring em on !! DD
I wish to state that I do not agree with the premise of your thread! The Rockets 2006/007 team has not gelled yet, infact the full team potential has not come together to play ONE NBA game. So when this comes about one will be able to say that the Rockets are on the same level or above the Spurs and Dallas.They are almost on the cusp of being so, even when playing scrubs such as Padgett and Howard. When Bonzi, Novak and V Span are incorporated and making a regular contribution I expect to see a significant surge in our performance.
