Shedding Some Light On The Houston Rockets’ Title Chances
Every single time we’ve looking into what could eventually end the Houston Rockets‘ title pursuit we end up talking about their offense.
The Rockets are scoring at an above-average level — league average is 100.3 and the Houston Rockets score at a 102.4 points per game rate — and winning some games along the way, however, they’re not exactly beating up their rivals and determining their alleged superiority over them, as they should.
"It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile; winning’s winning. – Dominic Toretto"
(Note: Everyone should be familiar with the previous phrase uttered by one of the most unexpected and beloved superstars of our time, Vin Diesel. If you’re not you shouldn’t even be here.)
Of course, when an NBA team (or a team in any sport whatsoever) wins, the main takeout is the win that shows up in the team’s record and the subsecuent rise on the league’s leaderboard that comes with.
Those wins are what eventually gives the team a chance to enter the playoffs and once the playoffs come along, 16 more wins is all you need to be on top of the basketball world. Offensive rating, defensive rating, overall rating, points per game, opponent points allowed, and/or point differential are useless.
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But should they be?
The previous theory applies mostly to one-time events like a single game or matchup that concludes and/or determines the definitive outcome of any other thing (Super Bowl, World Series Game 7, NBA Finals Game 7, World Cup Final).
When building throughout a whole season to achieve/reach the aforementioned event, overall positive performance, and every single stat/metric mentioned above — although not vital — is kind of important. And turns Dom’s statement into the most baffling thing you can say. Sort of.
In the Houston Rockets’ case, even though they’ve racked up some rather impressive and significant wins, they’re yet to look as impressive as the top teams in the league have.
- Streak-wise, this is what the Rockets’ 2014-15 season looks like: 9-1, 7-3, 5-5, 8-4. Impressive.
- The Rockets have a plus-4.1 point differential halfway through their rather attractive season.
However, even though the Houston Rockets seem to have all of the above going against them, they are still 17-9 against the Western Conference (which will likely beget the eventual NBA Champion) and has all but one losing record among the rest of the league’s divisions — the Pacific Division that has three playoff teams including the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, and Phoenix Suns, to which the Rockets are 4-5.
Also, ever since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976, there’s been four sub plus-five point differential teams that have won the NBA championship:
- 2006 Miami Heat: +3.9
- 1995 Houston Rockets: +3.1
- 1979 Seattle SuperSonics: +2.7
- 1978 Washington Bullets: +0.8
As you can see, the Houston Rockets are not exactly destined to fail and, as we’ve said it previously, even though they do have some issues they should work on — who doesn’t — they still have a silver lining they can get hold of.
And even though point differential shows exactly how a team performs on a game-to-game basis and how overwhelming it is for their competitors to handle them, at the end of the day the only thing every contention-hopeful team needs to do is win enough games to reach the playoffs and have even the slightest chance at a title.
So yeah, by an inch or a mile, winning’s winning.