Pleasant Surprises from Houston Rockets' Early-Season Games
There have been several surprises to start this 2014-15 season but perhaps none as pleasant as the red-hot Houston Rockets. After a tough offseason, the Rockets have shocked the NBA world and have jumped out to a scorching start this year atop the Western Conference.
The losses of Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik seem forever ago as the Rockets keep on winning. They are yet to lose a game with Dwight Howard in the lineup and have shown no signs of slowing down, either.
There hasn't been much to complain about. The team is playing great defense, the bench has played above expectations and each player has been fulfilling his respective role. The best part is that the wins keep on coming.
Let's take a closer look at how the Rockets continue to astound us early on in the season. Here are five pleasant surprises Rockets fans have enjoyed thus far.
Top Record in the League
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Some of the loyal Rockets fans knew that Houston would be okay this season, despite losing out on Parsons, Lin and Asik. However, I don't think they saw this upsurge coming.
The Rockets are rolling at the beginning of their 2014-15 campaign. They started the year 6-0 before finally letting one slip away to the Golden State Warriors, while missing Dwight, Patrick Beverley and Terrence Jones in the lineup. As a matter of fact, plenty of their wins this year have come with someone in the starting lineup missing and now they have one of the best records in the NBA.
While many had the Rockets dropping in the standings this year, general manager Daryl Morey had other ideas. In a summer interview with Bleacher Report's own Howard Beck, Morey assured us that he still had confidence in this Rockets squad, despite their offseason losses:
We like our position. We might have liked the Bosh-Parsons position a little bit more, but I think we’re going to come out of this still as a top-four seed in the West, and I think we’ll be a better team going into this year’s playoffs than last year’s.
So far, Morey's prediction is looking like a real possibility. The Rockets have jumped out to an early top seed, similar to the Portland Trail Blazers last season.
Will it be smooth sailing all season long for the Rockets? Of course not. Any longtime Houston sports fan should know it's never that simple. There will be bumps along the way, but this fast start has people believing, including the players themselves, that Houston is capable of getting a top seed in the West and advancing deep into the playoffs.
This extra cushion out of the gate could go a long way in capturing a top seed for Houston.
Dramatic Improvement on Defense
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Perhaps the biggest headline surrounding Houston's success this young season has been the defensive improvement. After years of poor defense holding the Rockets back, the team is finally locking down defensively.
A couple of weeks into the season, the Rockets actually led the NBA in defensive efficiency. They are giving up the second least points per game at under 93 and they lead the league in opponent field-goal percentage as well. The competition hasn't been phenomenal, but the defensive effort from the Rockets has truly been outstanding.
Last season, the Rockets were just outside the top 10 in defensive efficiency according to ESPN's Hollinger statistics. The perimeter defense was pitiful, but Dwight Howard clogging up the middle helped significantly. This year, with Trevor Ariza replacing Parsons and Harden re-focused on that end of the floor, there is a huge difference in the Rockets' style of play.
Even when the offense is struggling, the ability to lock down defensively has kept the Rockets afloat. The team continues to win games they would have lost last season because they can finally hold their own on defense. This team will also fare better in the postseason if they continue to dominate defensively like this.
The Bench Is Stepping Up
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We knew the Rockets' starting five was among the best in the NBA, but the biggest question mark heading into the season was the team's depth off the bench. So far, the second-stringers have played much better than we anticipated.
Especially since starters like Patrick Beverley and Terrence Jones have had to miss some time, Houston has needed some role players to step up big time.
Veteran guard Jason Terry has proven that he still has some gas left in the tank early on this year. The Jet is averaging nearly nine points per game, including a couple of threes per contest. His veteran leadership and spark-plug production have helped tremendously.
Isaiah Canaan has had to start in place of Bev a handful of times, and he has shown flashes of brilliance with his scoring. He's pouring in 9.1 points per game as well, and he's connected on 42.1 percent of his shots from deep.
Other guys have chipped in considerably as well. Kostas Papanikolaou has been an early bright spot thus far. In his rookie season, the Greek forward is contributing in several facets of the game. His three-point shot got off to a slow start but it's coming along, and his general playmaking and facilitating has been fantastic. His passing ability for a bigger guy is a nice weapon on offense.
Even guys like Donatas Motiejunas and Tarik Black have been helping the cause. D-Mo has not been scoring like we hoped he would after a solid summer, but he is doing well in other areas that may have gone unnoticed by some. His passing from the low post and his defensive rotations have been spectacular. It's really nice to see him contribute in other ways. Black, who had little to no chance of even making the team to start the preseason, has been able to effectively back up Dwight at the center position.
The bench is still rather inexperienced, other than Terry, and it will be a concern throughout the season. There will be nights when Harden and Howard will have to put the team on their back, like the November 14 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. However, for the most part, they have pleasantly surprised in the early going for Houston.
Harden's All-Around Game
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If you had told me that the Beard was shooting 38.7 percent to start the season, there's no way I would think of him as an MVP candidate. However, that just so happens to be the case.
The 6'5" guard has thrived as an efficient scorer for the first handful of years in his young career. At 25 years old, Harden is now improving his all-around game, and its paying off for the Rockets in a major way.
Even with a woeful shooting percentage, Harden is still dropping over 25 points a night. Even better, the Beard is stuffing the stat sheet across the board in the season's first couple of weeks. His career averages of 4.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game have skyrocketed to 7.5 and 6.4, respectively. He's already got three double-doubles with double-digit assists this season.
One of the best scorers in the game, Harden has continued to put the ball in the basket, but the best part of his 2014-15 season so far has been his contribution in other areas. He has basically been the shooting point guard on this team, not only scoring but dishing out dimes and crashing the boards.
The notoriously poor defender is even excelling in that category as well. He has a top-10 defensive rating to start the season according to Basketball Reference, something no one expected. He is getting plenty of steals and even a few blocks here and there, and his one-on-one closeouts have clearly improved.
There's no doubt the Beard has made noise in the early MVP discussion. His Rockets keep winning, and his stats across the board have been a big reason why.
Record-Setting Milestones
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The Houston Rockets aren't just winning. Throughout this scorching start, the Rockets have been rewriting the history books along the way.
The Rockets 6-0 start, and even their 8-1 record, has been their best since the 1996-97 season with Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Charles Barkley on the roster. The 1993-94 Rockets have the best start in franchise history, beginning the season 15-0. Houston didn't quite get there this year, but their early games have been different than those years past.
The Rockets won their first six games all by double digits, the first team to do that since the 1985-86 Denver Nuggets. Better yet, the Rockets were the only team in NBA history to win their first five contests scoring 100 points or more while holding the opponent to under the 100-point mark.
To top it all off, the Rockets' 104 threes through their first eight games set an NBA record as well. They hit at least 10 threes in each of their first eight games, which had never been done before, until finally falling a bit short November 14 against Philly.
It's been an historic start to the season for Houston. They have one of the best records in the league, and they are breaking records in the process. Let's hope the red-hot Rockets can keep it up as the season progresses.
All stats taken from Basketball-Reference, unless otherwise stated.
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