<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Rockets might never lose again. If they did not lose Sunday, when they did everything it takes to lose, it must be impossible. But somehow, they did just enough to escape with the ugliest of 81-80 wins, extending their winning streak to seven games. They then celebrated their longest winning streak this century by explaining how awful they were. "We don't feel good about that victory," Bob Sura said. "A win is a win. We'll take it. But there is not a good feeling in the locker room." As often as teams fool themselves, and as much as the Rockets have, Jeff Van Gundy said, during their winning streak, the Rockets could not come up with anything to cheer. They blew an 18-point second-half lead. Then after somehow surviving that, they nearly blew a five-point lead in the last 12.5 seconds, escaping with the win only when Damon Stoudamire missed a running, half-court 3 at the buzzer. "If they had 10 more seconds," Yao Ming said, "they would have beaten us." Either that or if the Rockets were capable of losing, they would have.</div> Source
Losing a 18 point 4th quarter lead like we did on sunday could make anyone cringe, lets hope it does not become a habit.
Looks like we're turning that performance on it's end with this Wizards game. We're on track to getting 120 points and its not even over yet. 5 player in double digits with Sura going for a triple double yet again is what we should be doing night in, night out, just like the suns. We should keep this type of up tempo rhythm in our games but a win is still a win. In the end it is the only thing that matters.
Make that 8 straight ..we're doing REAL great!!!!! Hope we can keep this going to at least double digits streak
Make it 8 in a row, the Rockets are just rolling through teams and are only a 1.5 games behind the Mavs. So what do you think the main factors have been for the Rockets current surge? 1. Weak level of competition? 2. Yao's aggressiveness? 3. Bobby Sura's all-around play? 4. The role players stepping up? 5. T-Mac stepping up?
I think the Rockets are playing well because if a simple reason, they are finally meshing as a new team.
The role players certainly has something to do with this. Sura and Howard have been phenomenal double-double threats each night, something that we didn't have at the start of the season. Wesley has also found his shooting touch, and Padgett and Barry have really boosted our firepower off the bench. Rod Strickland also brought some veteran leadership and passing ability when he was signed to the team. Had it been just Yao and T-Mac every night, the Rockets would be a middle-of-the-pack team.
Role playing has let us go on this winning streak, definitely. Before, they were really putting up much on the boards so it made it much easier for teams to just double team Yao and McGrady- and basically win the game. However, know Houston has Sura, Howard, and Wesley stepping up as starters, giving us around ten points each. Meanwhile Barry, Padgett, and Mutumbo have played much better as well. Barry and Padgett have become great three point shooters for the team while Mutumbo is doing a great job subbing for Yao and doing a great job on the defensive end. However, meshing as team also plays a huge part in this. Because they are meshing as a team, the role players actually understand what their jobs on the court are. For an example, Sura now understands he is supposed to bring us fire, offense, and toughness while Wesley knows if he has the open three, he's supposed to take it.
Our success is mainly from our teamwork. It's a series of things..yao's stepped it up..tmac stepped it up and so do the role players. When we're playing well (shooting well and defending well), things become easier for yao and tmac and they perform better since they would have less pressure to do everything themselves. Wesley and the other role players are doing a great job at playing as a TeAM rather than as individuals like in the past
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting drm2dnk:</div><div class="quote_post">Our success is mainly from our teamwork. It's a series of things..yao's stepped it up..tmac stepped it up and so do the role players. When we're playing well (shooting well and defending well), things become easier for yao and tmac and they perform better since they would have less pressure to do everything themselves. Wesley and the other role players are doing a great job at playing as a TeAM rather than as individuals like in the past</div> Another big factor in our success is the easy schedule we've had. Yeah, a lot of those wins came on the road, but they were mostly against sub-500 teams we were supposed to beat anyways. A lot of the teams we've faced during our run also had key injuries. Don't want to sound like a pessimist, but realistically we're not a 19-6 team and I suspect that should be very clear in the second half of the season. We've had the easiest schedule in the league based on opponent's winning percentage so far, and after the break we'll have the toughest. We'd be very fortunate to hold on to the 6th seed, and it will be tough fending off the likes of Minnesota, LA, and Denver.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting durvasa:</div><div class="quote_post">Another big factor in our success is the easy schedule we've had. Yeah, a lot of those wins came on the road, but they were mostly against sub-500 teams we were supposed to beat anyways. A lot of the teams we've faced during our run also had key injuries. Don't want to sound like a pessimist, but realistically we're not a 19-6 team and I suspect that should be very clear in the second half of the season. We've had the easiest schedule in the league based on opponent's winning percentage so far, and after the break we'll have the toughest. We'd be very fortunate to hold on to the 6th seed, and it will be tough fending off the likes of Minnesota, LA, and Denver.</div> Yeah you're right but still it's an awesome acomplishment. The team's percentages we beat in our streak go as follows... Boston ? 0.509 Philly - 0.491 Minnesota - 0.500 Lakers - 0.520 Chicago - 0.531 Indiana - 0.490 Portland - 0.412 Washington - 0.577 An average of 0.503, it's still good, I think these wins could increase the teams confidence and we might beat all them big guns
