An Inside Look at Houston's 22-game Win Streak

Before the Houston Rockets 94-74 loss to the NBA's top team, the Boston Celtics, Houston had a team-high 22-game win streak. Houston's streak was also the second-longest in NBA history; longest was the Los Angeles Lakers 33-game win streak that went from November 5th, 1971 to January 7th, 1972. Before the 20-point loss to Boston that snapped the streak, Houston was 24-20, and looked like they could fall to under .500.

After the Rockets stretched their streak to 12 games, the Rockets found out they will have to finish the season without 7 foot 6, All-Star Center, Yao Ming, who suffered a stress fracture in his left foot. Houston went on to win their next game by a score of 94-69 over the 27-30 Washington Wizards. Before the streak, Houston's star SG Tracy McGrady struggled, averaging just 17.9 PPG in the first two months of play, and 5.4 RPG in the first month, and 3.6 in December. McGrady missed 11 straight games at the end of December, and begining of January.

Can McGrady carry the Rockets into the Playoffs???

As of late, McGrady's PPG went up, and so did his RPG, meaning less assists. Overall, McGrady's stats have been lower than they have in the past 5 years. His PPG haven't been lower than this years 21.6 since the '99-00 season (when he played for the Toronto Raptors), and his rebounds haven't been this low since his rookie year in the '97-'98 season.

Despite being out of the lineup since Febuary 26th, Yao Ming still leads the team in overall Points scored (1,209), Rebounds (594), and blocks (111). Houston sure does miss his 7 foot 6 body, and skill in the paint. I don't think the Rockets (46-22; 1/2 game behind New Orleans Hornets in Southwest Division) will manage to get out of the first or second round of the NBA playoffs without Ming.

Since their loss on March 18th, the Rockets have dropped two games, and are no longer ontop their Division. Both losses have been by 20+ points, and McGrady managed just 8 points in the game vs Boston, and 15 against New Orleans. McGrady obviously needs to be ontop of his game, and carry the Rockets through the playoffs if he wants to win a championship. Houston has 14 games remaining until playoff time, and will play at Golden State tomorrow night at 10:30 PM ET.

RomiezzoLegend

602 days ago

Score 2

Good article, BBB. I guess the Rockets now know that even though they have a decent shot at making the playoffs, if they get there, they're going to face teams like this. If they lose by 20 points against the Hornets and the Celtics, they're going to have to learn how to pick it up.

T-Mac has been doing a lot better and has definitely been leading his team to many victories. He's going to have to keep doing this now that Yao Ming is out for the season. Another key factor that has helped is the rookies, and everyone else on the team who has come up big. Rafer Alston, Shane Battier, Carl Landry... they all did really well, and worked coherently to win ballgames. It has just been way too tough for the past 2 games. They've faced the currently ranked #1 teams in both divisions.

Hopefully, they'll be able to show that the only strength they have is due to their schedule, and that they can prove everyone wrong by defeating the Warriors and the Suns these next couple of games...

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SSreportersLegend

602 days ago

Score 2

Two game losing streak? Fire Adelman!!!

And great article BBB15.

BBB15

I am a Behbigben15 fan

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