Houston Rockets: Takeaways From 5-Game Road Trip

Consistency Still A Problem

What has plagued the Rockets throughout the season has been their inability to play consistenly. Their defense has been poor throughout, while poor chemistry has hurt their offense at times. It has played a part in the Rockets being consistently inconsistent, which happened once again during this road trip.

Things got off to a rough start against the Bulls, as they allowed Chicago to score at least 25 points in each quarter. While the defense was poor at times again throughout the trip, the Rockets were able to get enough stops in the next three games to win them all.

For example, after giving up 61 points in the first half to the Raptors, they held them to only 46 in the second half, overcoming a 10-point halftime deficit.

But, the effort wasn’t always there against the 76ers again, as the Rockets gave up 104 points despite Jahlil Okafor not being in the lineup. Outside of a 40-point outburst in the second quarter, that game was close throughout.

Then, against the Celtics, we saw the Rockets really lock in. They held the Celtics to only 98 points, which is only the second time since the All-Star break that they held an opponent to less than 100 points. At the same time, the Rockets also snapped the Celtics’ 14-game home winning streak.

While that was a nice accomplishment, it was diminished a bit with the performance they had against the Hornets to finish the trip. It was the second night of a back-to-back and final game of the road trip, but it was disappointing to see the performance they put forth after what they did the previous night against the Celtics.

Next: Top Players By Age: Age 21

That back-to-back, and trip overall to an extent, epitomized the Rockets season thus far; they have flashes of the team that went to the Western Conference Finals last season, but the consistency is just not there.