Thanks. Forgot about CJ's lung (hope he's good) and didn't know about Zion. Them both being out definitely increase the Rockets chances of winning.
Some old teams looking to cruise to the playoffs are going to stroll in here having the same expectations as fans who thought this team would win 32 games and they are going to get absolutely PUNKED just like the Lakers did tonight and I love it.
That's absolutely nuts considering we lost our first game by 30! What's our point differential since the Orlando game?!
I'm just as excited about the win streak as the rest but let's pump the brakes on the hyperbole.....unless you just want to take advantage of it for the short time we are above .500. We are taking care of business when opportunity presents itself(playing the Kings x 2 without Fox, the Lakers without Davis, the Hornets...well they are just the Hornets) - that in and of itself is a HUGE upgrade from last several years. It will be interesting to see how we fare against some of the better full strength teams especially while we are riding a streak....but until we can start doing this against better teams, I'm still on the "it's a GREAT improvement, but we are still a 35ish win team" train...but hey man, this is still wonderful progress of a team maturing. It means we aren't beating ourselves as frequently.
This argument may have validity if we were just beating the Lakers and the Kings. But we're not. We're absolutely destroying them. Sorry, I will not downplay slaughtering a Lebron-led team, no matter the circumstances.
35 win teams don't beat playoff teams without one of their stars by 30, they barely squeak by. We are "taking care of business" like a 50 win team does.
Crazy thing is that The Rockets still have alot of of growth left in them, they are just starting to "get it". If it weren't for letting up against SA they could be 5-2. Amen hasn't even gotten comfortable yet and they just sent a young star to the G-League. I know other teams have injuries but The Rockets themselves are at a disadvantage due to the entire new coaching staff and shake up during the offseason. Not to mention how young they are. If they keep this up, they might have something here...
We are playing COLLEGE like with our effort a full 48 of committed defense and it is STUNNING teams - I have won over $1k in the last few games betting the Money line because I know that people still think we suck and why take points when you know the Rox are gonna cream the Lakers, the Kings and most teams that come in here with older players thinking they can compete..... The Pels might be different but without CJ and our committed D - I don't think so..... Go Rox...5 in a row coming up. DD
I'm not a huge sports bettor, no more than a few hundred bucks a year for fun, but when the over/under came out at 28.5 this year I put $10k on it. I have followed this team for over 20 years and have never seen a bigger disconnect between reality and the expectations of so many.
I had us at 5-10 optimistically for our first 15 games. Shows how wrong I was, and how ahead of schedule our young team is. I've been so proud of the Rockets this year
Were playing like I thought we might by the last 2 months of the schedule. And that was best case scenario. But, consistency is key. If after 20 more games, there is no let up, THEN, we can start expecting it game in and game out.
I said earlier in the thread I didn't even care if we lost every game as long as we showed some structure and learned to play like a basketball team for real. The guys have exceeded all of my expectations and then some to be honest, Ime is the god damn truth.
