You may have been watching the Rockets this year so far and wondered how well this team could be together when fully healthy. This team has a special background and something many didn’t believe would be a big factor for this year: Defense. The Rockets currently have the 7th best defense in the league. They are right behind the Warriors, Spurs, and Lakers by .6 points to jump to 4th place. It’s safe to say this defense is better than we expected so far, and hopefully, this will last throughout the season. The Rockets currently also have the 2nd best net rating at 10.5 behind the Warriors. This “Net Rating” stat shows the difference in PPG and PPGA which is a good statistic to base how well they can beat opponents while playing defense.
The Rockets currently have a 60.1 Assists % which is good for 6th in the league. This is a stat which shows how much possessions of points are generated off assists. The Rockets are also second in the league in EFG% and TS%, which they sit behind Golden State. For those who were wondering if this team could truly be elite, they have shown on the offensive side of things for sure, but have also shown on the defensive side of things that they mean business- something that was a huge problem for them last year. Last year, offensive struggles hit this team during stretches in the game, and without defensive stops, the leads just kept growing. Thankfully, this year the team has stepped up its defensive attitude with CP3 and Luc, alongside PJ Tucker to help the team get in the correct mindset for defense. The Rockets are a great team and the stats are there to back them up for how they could truly be a threat to Golden State this year. Something many thought would be for OKC. So far OKC has not been able to mesh, and the team which everyone thought would be a disaster due to two dominating point guards would never work out, is actually top on the west, and currently has the matchup win over Golden State so far. James Harden is playing out of his mind and CP3 has been a great addition even when he can’t shoot by allowing his team to score.
Watch out for this team come April, I think they'll surprise a lot of people.
