I’ve been going back-and-forth with the Houston Rockets‘ schedule strength — or total lack thereof — for the entire season. I’ve also misread it, too. And I’ve been held accountable by my mistakes on it every single time I’ve done the latter.
At the beginning of the season, their schedule was supposed to be a thing out of nightmares. But once the season got under way, their schedule proved to be a pretty bearable one after all.
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And now we’re here…
For the last 26 games of the season, the Houston Rockets have the 12th-easiest schedule out of the 15 teams in the Western Conference. No playoff team has an easier schedule — the Los Angeles Clippers are 10th and the Oklahoma City Thunder are 11th.
In fact, the only three teams with an easier schedule than the Rockets are the Utah Jazz, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Sacramento Kings.
Here are some facts for the skeptics out there who are not convinced about how big of a deal this is for the Houston Rockets.
- The Houston Rockets will face 15 teams with a .500 or better record. Only one of those games is against a Western Conference team that’s ahead of them in the rankings — March 4 vs. the Memphis Grizzlies at home.
- Almost half of those 15 games (six) are at home, where the Houston Rockets have (1) held opponents to 95 points per game; and (2) won 70 percent of their games.
- Nine out of those 15 games are vs. teams against which the Rockets have a combined record of 14-5.
- Their opponents throughout the previous stretch (final 26 games of the season) have (1) a combined winning percentage of .505; (2) a combined 100.4 points-per-game average; and (3) hold opponents to only 99.3 points per game.*
- The Rockets have the third biggest improvement in offensive rating since the beginning of the year.
- Even with an easy remaining schedule ahead of them, the Houston Rockets have had the biggest regression in defensive rating since the beginning of the year. From October to December the Rockets had the second-best defensive rating in the league, 97.9. Since January, their defensive rating has dropped 4.3 points all the way to 102.2, good enough for 15th in the league. Ouch.**
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Even though their defense has suffered quite a bit, their offense has improved throughout the year thanks to James Harden‘s incredible performance, keeping the team afloat. However, I can’t seem to get over the fact that their minuscule net rating of plus-3.4 will could eventually end their incredible/improbable half-season 38-18 run.
One of the easiest schedules in the Western Conference will play a huge part on the Rockets’ playoff seeding.
Nevertheless, in the nightmare that is the Western Conference, a top seed could eventually mean an early playoff outing for the Rockets by facing the scorching-hot Oklahoma City Thunder
led by
, or the San Antonio Spurs which, let’s face it, are always a pain in the ass.
*OK, that last one isn’t exactly going the Houston Rockets’ way.
** Overall: 99.8 points per game allowed per 100 possessions. third in the NBA.
Next: Rockets' Trade Deadline Extravaganza