Where the Rockets Stand

Moving closer the All-Star weekend in the NBA, the playoff picture is shaping up to be pretty close in the Western Conference and the Houston Rockets are right in the thick of things. At 24-22, the Rockets are currently in the 8th seed and fighting to get in to the post season after being bumped down to the 9th seed for the past 3 years.  After grabbing back to back wins over the Hornets in New Orleans and the Nets at home in Houston, the Rockets will take on the 7th seed Utah Jazz Monday night. The current playoff push teams are the Utah Jazz(24-20), Houston Rockets(24-22), Portland Trailblazers(22-22), Los Angeles Lakers(19-25), and the Dallas Mavericks(19-25) rounding out the  7-11 seeds in the West.

The Small Free Fall

The reason the Rockets are looking at this tough uphill climb was a result of a 7 game losing streak that dropped them out of 6th place at 21-14 and knocked them down to the 8 seed. The losing streak happened at such an off time as well, with Houston starting their toughest part of the schedule this season. At the time they were on a 5 game winning streak, just had a blowout win against the Lakers at home and looked poised to extend their lead in the west. They set out for New Orleans to win a game but instead the bottom fell out and "Houston, We have a problem" began to fill the atmosphere. James Harden struggled and the rest of the team seemed to be in a funk as well.

One of the biggest outlandish moments from the losing streak happened to be ineffectiveness of the 4 spot on the floor. There was no rebounding from Patterson or Morris and the scoring from them was  poor as well. They continued to struggle until they finally got to a team that was having more trouble than themselves and that was the Charlotte Bobcats. The Rockets snapped the losing streak after 7 games with a 100-94 win over the Bobcats where James Harden closed out the game with 29 points and the defense held the Bobcats to 13 points in the 4th quarter. Although they lost the next game at home to the Denver Nuggets, they at least knew that the losing streak was over and that some good practice can always help the team out. The next two games were a back to back (of course) where the Rockets went in to New Orleans and played great basketball winning the game (100-82). To top that they went back home the next day and outlasted Deron Williams and the Nets (119-106) for a solid home win to push them back to 2 games over .500. The win against the Nets was led by Harden(29pts/3reb/7ast), Asik(20pts/16reb), and Parsons(16pts/6reb/11ast) who outplayed whoever was opposing them on the court. Both of those wins were solid in bringing back some of the chemistry that was lost on the road trip.


What to Watch for

With 36 games left in the season, there is quite a bit of basketball left to be played and with 7 of the next 10 opponents in the Western Conference playoff picture, things will start to come to fruition pretty soon here. James Harden is playing at an extremely high level and Omer Asik is really starting to show his stuff at center. Chandler Parsons has been nothing but solid and will continue to grow in to one of the most underrated players in the entire league. Jeremy Lin will continue to flourish as a player but will have his tough moments until his game develops some more.

The lingering problem for the Rockets is the ineffectiveness of the 4 spot on the floor. Patrick Patterson and Marcus Morris are still working on their game and with no really powerful position player at the power forward spot, the team will continue to struggle in that position until they can make a trade or a major breakthrough happens with Morris or Patterson (or Royce White really excels and can come in and take over....LONG SHOT.....but could still happen). Or will Morey pull some of his magic tricks out of his hat and land Houston another building block like Paul Millsap or Josh Smith? Who knows. However, I know that if anyone could do it, I believe it is this crazy bastard. Morey  some how got us one of the brightest young superstars in the league in James Harden and never folded when one thing did not work out. The trade deadline is just under 4 weeks away, they are going to have to decide if they wanna make the playoffs with what we got. Or are they gonna make the push to bring in someone that could immediately affect the team and give them the presence at the 4 spot that they need.

Through 46 games I have loved watching this team, whether it be the yelling at stupid shots from Jeremy Lin, getting hyped up after Harden motors to the hoop for the basket, seeing Delfino nail three pointer after three pointer, Asik Grab 15 rebounds and score half of that in points, every Bill Worrell call of "CHANDLER BANG!", and the team slowly developing chemistry and an identity. No matter what way the season goes, it is still better than suffering through the last 3 years of 9th place mediocrity. This team is much more talented than the 9th seed teams of the past we have had. I believe they probably will not make it out of the first round, but maybe they can put something special together and at least keep giving these fans hope for the future by playing competitive against either the Thunder/Spurs/Clippers in the first round. All of the pieces of the jigsaw aren't there just yet, but they are close to becoming more than a fringe playoff team. 

What I Learned From The Rockets in Week 1

So week one for the new look Houston Rockets started with a bang after the 105-96 thumping they put on a pretty young Pistons team that is still some good seasoning away from being in the playoff hunt. James Harden started off his rockets career the best way possible by dropping 37 points, 6 rebounds, a whopping 12 assists, 4 steals and a block just to ice it. He also shot 56% from the field and gave Rockets fans like myself a hope that we have finally landed a player that is on his way to being a superstar. He showed us that night that when he is in the game he means business and that he is going to take shots and make shots. **Asik Watch** Asik finished with 12 pts/9 rebs/ 2 blks on the night with one of those being the seperation blocks to seal the game for the Rockets. Solid debut for the new guys.

Most of the social world was blowing up after that win as I saw my twitter feed go nuts over the newest addition to Space City. Although I enjoyed the praise, I also wondered in the back of my mind how he was going to follow that performance up on Nov. 2nd against the Hawks in Atlanta. His response went as follows: "Don't Doubt Him".....He put up an astonishing 45 Points with 7 rebounds and 2 assists. I know that most would have liked to see him put up more assists to facilitate the ball more but when the "bearded one" is on, don't take the ball from him. He shot 14-19 (73%) for the night and made 15-17 from the charity stripe. He showed the doubters that night that he can control a basketball game and make the other team put in work to keep up with him. Jeremy Lin also got pretty involved in this game as well by putting up 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists. Just shy of the triple-double but at that point in the night, getting out of ATL with that win was a big accomplishment mainly because winning on the road in the association is tough so being able to mark down 2-0 for the road record to start the season put it in the right direction.**Asik Watch** Asik also looked great on the defensive end with a career high 19 rebounds (10 defensive, 9 offensive) which shows that money we put in to him has provided the rebounding so far.

The vibe was good after Friday night flying out of Atlanta, with a return home to play the revamped Blazers in Houston on Saturday night for the home opener. The situation sounded pretty good to me although the outcome did not turn out as expected. James Harden started out hot from the field making shots from all over and scored 18 points in the first half. Going into halftime with an 8 point lead seemed promising for the second half. That good feeling was whipped away in the second half when the Blazers began to make their run and the Rockets let their lead slip away. Harden also tweaked his ankle in the 3rd quarter which also probably did not help his current minutes increase since becoming a starter. Needless to say, he struggled in the second half while only scoring 6 more points and ending the night with 24. The game was well in reach but a clutch three in the final minutes by Portland ended up tying the game and sending it to overtime. The Blazers had found the stroke as the Rockets had lost theirs and managed to only muster 4 points in the OT period. A 95-85 loss to start the home kick-off was not what the boys had in mind but losses happen for a young team searching for their identity in this league. **Asik Watch** Asik again added 4 pts/15 rebs/2 blks while he continues to grab the boards he still shows slow development for an offensive game.

A few days off sounded great for this team that traveled and has only practiced all-together twice since the James Harden Trade. The practice however did not do the wonders just yet as the Rockets dropped their second in row at home to the extremely athletic Denver Nuggets. I watched most of this whole game and there was a common theme with this entire game and it was that Denver abuses people with their athleticism and deep bench. For the first time this season James Harden was held to under 20 points where he scored a mediocre 15 on a pretty off shooting night with 5-15 and no three's made along with 6 turnovers. The Rockets did not go down without a fight though with Carlos Delfino scoring 19 off the bench and Patrick Patterson finally starting to get into an offensive groove that he has been looking for. They got within 2 points in the 4th before Denver turned on the little extra juice and got a lead big enough to where the Rockets had to foul. The final ended at 93-87 and left most fans with a bitter taste in their mouths after starting the home part of the schedule 0-2. To Denver's credit, Kenneth Faried is a beast by all means and is a gifted athlete that can be one of the cornerstone pieces in the mile-high for years to come. **Asik Watch**Asik had 10 pts/13 rebs on Wednesday and showed the ability to get the ball in the bucket a little more and was a little quicker on the floor.

The First week has shown what the Rockets can be on two completely different levels. The high end shows them being a playoff contender with a chance to surprise some teams in the first round and then the low side where you can see them losing games because of poor shots and turnovers which can send a team like this to the end of the tough western conference. Though it is only 4 games in and at 2-2 there is a lot of season left and much progress to be made for a team with the average age of 23.5 and nobody in their prime yet. Some things I would like to see moving forward would have to be the emergence of some rookies and also using some of them. McHale has yet to use the versatile Royce White who can provide a unique use of all the tools on the basketball court. Terrance Jones showed a lot of promise in preseason but that is just preseason and we need to see him get some minutes at the 3 or 4 spot. D-Mo is the main one I am waiting to see with his unique talent of passing and athleticism while being a true 7-footer as well, not to mention he also has a pretty good stroke not just inside the circle but from beyond the 3 point line as well. Like I said though there is a lot of season left and time will only tell for this young team of new comers waiting to make their mark in the best basketball league in the world. We will see game 5 of the season Friday night in Memphis and hopefully the last two losses will have just been stones on the path to getting some W's.

**Asik Watch**- we will keep track of the big man and see how he progresses in to the starting center role this year