The Houston Rockets had such high hopes for this season. Considered amongst the elite of the powerful Western Conference of the NBA, nobody expected a slow start coming out of the gate.
In particular, the season opener (and home opener at the Toyota Center) against the Denver Nuggets was a surprise. The matchup had the subtext of a revenge game of sorts for new Rocket point guard Ty Lawson, who departed Denver this offseason in disgrace. Aside from the emotion-fueled narrative — which may or may not actually ever mean anything when it comes to professional sports — the Rockets were just supposed to be a much better team on paper than the Nuggets.
But they don’t play games on paper, they play them on the court. On that court, the Nuggets jumped out to a big lead early and pounded the life out of the Rockets late to win by a score of 105-85.
Speaking of subtext, the second game of the year for the Rockets was loaded with it. Facing the Golden State Warriors at home, the Rockets were (or should have been) pumped for another crack at the juggernaut who sent them home last year in the Western Conference Finals.
Everybody wants a shot at the Warriors. The Warriors are the best the league has to offer right now, at least until proven otherwise, and they’re a team that is going to get everybody’s best shot. While you can’t read too much into getting beaten by the Warriors (since everybody gets beaten by the Warriors), the Rockets’ effort was flat and they fell by 20 once again, with a final score of 112-92.
So in the Rockets’ defense, one could say that the Nuggets game was just a matter of a Rockets team with new pieces getting used to each other, and perhaps the absence of Dwight Howard (who served a one-game suspension in the opener) hurt more than expected, and the loss to the Warriors was just a beat-down at the hands of a team that gives out a lot of beat-downs.
That means that Sunday night’s game against the Miami Heat would be all the more telling. No longer do the excuses work that the Rockets’ new roster hasn’t had enough shakedown time, and no longer does the excuse that the Steph Curry’s scorched-earth bombardment for the Warriors is simply too much for mere mortals to withstand.
With no more excuses to fall back on, the Rockets flew out of the gate hot against Miami, jumping out to a 45-30 point lead halfway through the second quarter, and led 63-44 at halftime. We finally may have gotten a picture of what this team might actually be.
But then, the “bad” Rockets returned.
In one of the worst halves of basketball you’ll see an NBA team play (even in an era where the perpetually “in process” Philadelphia 76ers exist and play bad halves of basketball on a regular basis), the Heat demolished the Rockets in grotesque fashion.
The Rockets settled for lazy perimeter shots (James Harden in particular) and the Heat made them pay. Miami trimmed what was a 21-point lead early in the third quarter to a tie game late in the same period. By the time the dust had settled in the third and fourth quarters, the Heat had outscored the Rockets 65-26 over the course of the second half.
The Rockets were outscored 65-26 in the 2nd half on 48 estimated possessions.
— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) November 2, 2015
This means that over the course of 100 possessions at this rate, the Heat outscored the Rockets 135.4 to 54.2. The Heat had a per-100 possession net rating of +81.2 for an entire half of basketball. This is a surreal level of domination.
One of the things that basketball observers find unappealing about the Rockets is that they sometimes tend to disappear, and that the effort level isn’t always consistent. Sometimes they fight and scratch for every loose ball, every rebound, every basket. Other times, well, look at Sunday night, or look at the first four games and almost three quarters of the Western Conference semifinals last season against the Los Angeles Clippers.
For those who don’t recall, the Clippers were blasting the Rockets off the floor on a nightly basis in that series until Houston decided to wake up while simultaneously the Clippers fell asleep at the wheel in Game 5, and the Rockets came back and won that series.
It’s this mercurial nature that turns people off to the Rockets. When this team TRIES, they’re awesome. When they don’t, or at least seem to sleepwalk, they’re abysmal.
That leads us to ask the question: what exactly is wrong with this team?
Next: Harden