Houston Rockets: Returning To Form And Over .500

The Houston Rockets are finally over the .500 mark for the first time this season following a tough home win against the Charlotte Hornets.

The Houston Rockets have been a source of frustration and dismay for their front office and fans alike, with significant effort and defense issues. It’s been a difficult season, but once again it looks like the Rockets are trying to climb that hump.

The first hump to get over was the .500 mark, which they finally did on Monday night in a hard-fought 102-95 home victory over the now 15-11 Charlotte Hornets.

The Rockets are now 15-14, tied for sixth place in the Western Conference, and they’ve reeled off three straight wins, with two of those against playoff-caliber teams in the form of the Hornets and the Los Angeles Clippers, and the other against the Los Angeles Lakers.

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For the first time this season, the Rockets’ much maligned defense has held three straight opponents to less than 100 points, and both the Clippers and Hornets are capable of putting up big numbers at any time.

In fact, they rank sixth and seventh respectively in the NBA in offensive rating, putting up 103.9 and 103.8 points per 100 possessions, and putting a stop to both of their offenses is something that is becoming less unusual for the Rockets defense of late.

The Rockets’ defense was the key to their success last season, and they may be recapturing some of that magic and effort in this short stretch. In fact, over the last 10 games, according to stats.nba.com, the Rockets have the eighth-best defensive rating in the NBA, giving up just 100.5 points per 100 possessions.

That’s ahead of the Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors, all teams with vaunted defenses.

Along with their defensive upturn, the offense has maintained its output, putting up the fifth-best offensive rating in the NBA over the last ten games, scoring 106.3 points per 100 possessions, and their net rating of 5.8 is behind only the San Antonio Spurs, the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Rockets are playing at the second-fastest pace in the league, and they have the fourth-best effective field goal rate and second best true shooting percentage in the NBA. They have suddenly become–dare I say it–efficient, and capable of effort.

The Rockets’ starting lineup of James Harden, Patrick Beverley, Trevor Ariza, Clint Capela and Dwight Howard has now become the most used five-man lineup on the roster, logging 86 minutes together and posting a net rating of plus-19.8, and a total rebounding percent of 64.8, significantly higher than the Rockets’ season-long rebounding percentage of 49.8 percent.

To break things down further, according to NBA Wowy, when Harden and the supposedly disgruntled Howard share the floor over the last 10 games, a sample covering 185 minutes and 385 possessions, the Rockets are outscoring the opposition 121.3 to 105.7 points per 100 possessions.

Now that the defense seems to be clicking, and the Rockets have found a lineup that they can go to, it’s all for naught if last season’s MVP runner-up can’t get it done.

James Harden has indeed been cooking over the last ten games, and his request for rest seems to have been heeded by head coach J.B. Bickerstaff. He’s down to 35.5 minutes per game over the last 10, which has reduced his season average to 38.3. That’s still a lot, but he was around 39.5 a few weeks ago, so this is progress.

Harden is shooting 44.8 percent from the floor over this stretch, and 41.8 percent from three-point range. He is averaging 27.4 points per game, and adding 5.1 rebounds and 7.3 assists.

As for the aforementioned Dwight Howard, he seems to be doing just fine in Houston. Whether he’s happy or not may be beside the issue, because he’s been one of the best Rockets when he’s on the floor since the season started.

Over this 10-game stretch that we keep investigating, Howard is averaging 13.1 points, 10.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, and he has the highest net rating of any Rocket who sees regular time on the floor with a rating of +13.3. When he is off the floor the Rockets are being outscored by 3.2 points per 100 possessions, a difference of 16.5 points.

Maybe it’s time to cut the big man a break and just let him play.

As for the team as a whole, it seems like this is a good team that has finally awoken from its nearly two-month slumber, and is poised to make a run and even swipe one of the top four spots in the Western Conference, as blasphemous as that sounds.

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The Rockets are only one game behind the fourth place 16-13 Clippers, fresh off a home loss to the Thunder on Monday night. As gruesome as this start to the season has been, the Rockets are in an unfathomably good spot right now, and it’s on them to take advantage of it.