10 most impactful moments from the 2017-18 NBA season
By Luke Askew
8. The Houston Rockets re-defining basketball
The Houston Rockets simply redefined basketball in the 2017-18 NBA season. Some loved it, some hated it, but what you couldn’t do was ignore it.
At 65-17, the Rockets boasted the NBA’s best regular season record. They also broke their own NBA record for 3-point field goals attempted. They connected on 15.3 of their 42.3 3-point shots per game.
The fact that they shot 42.3 3-pointers per game is still mind-boggling. For comparison, the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team that went 72-10 only attempted 16.5 3-pointers per game — only about one more than the Rockets made per game.
If that doesn’t speak to the way Houston is changing the game of basketball, I don’t know what will.
Well besides … I don’t know … the way they deliberately hunt for fouls?
It’s something that I’ve never seen before in my life. The way the Rockets (specifically James Harden) are able to bait defenders into getting their hand caught in the cookie jar is simply spectacular. I understand why many people hate watching the Rockets play. It can be ugly at times, but like it or not, it worked.
Until it didn’t.
https://twitter.com/dchinellato/status/1001476479652417536
In Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, the Rockets were squaring off against the defending champions, the Golden State Warriors. They stuck to their game plan despite James Harden not getting many of the calls that he seemed to get all season and shooting an absolutely atrocious 7-44 on 3s as a team. Of course, they lost that game – the most important game of the season.
So who’s to say whether or not they’ll run that strategy back again in 2018-19, but if I had to bet, I’d bet on lots and lots of 3s and dunks — the Mike D’Antoni way.