Was It A Fluke? Examining The Houston Rockets Season
The Houston Rockets season is officially over.
To be quite honest, I never wanted it to end despite some of the blunders that I saw this team throughout the playoffs.
As this team continued to progress and shatter the mold, I was right there, cheering them on being proud of their successes.
At the beginning of the season, if you picked the Rockets to go all the way to the Western Conference Finals, then you’re definitely crazy like me or just have incredible faith — also like me — and there’s nothing wrong with that.
This season was loaded with challenges coupled with a myriad of injuries to our star players in Dwight Howard, Terrence Jones and Patrick Beverley.
Each missed their fair share of time on the court logging missed games into the triples quite easily.
In fact, it’s my understanding that the Rockets led the league in missed time amongst starters this season!
But despite the challenges, this team responded to adversity and faced it head on to have on the most successful seasons to date.
This team went on to earn a 56-26 record, which is good for third-best in franchise history.
This was all done with James Harden carrying this team on his back, and guys like Trevor Ariza, Donatas Motiejunas, Josh Smith, Corey Brewer, Jason Terry and Pablo Prigioni answering the bell in place of the other guys that were out.
They remained resilient and never lost more than two games in a row all season.
That’s excellence!
Although the playoff seeding was uncertain all the way up to last waning days of the season, the Rockets persevered to reel off some wins and lock down the No. 2 seed.
They had a moderate challenge against the Dallas Mavericks in the first round and were able to beat them in five games despite not playing their best basketball.
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With the Western Conference Semifinals against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Rockets feasted on a very good team, exploited their weaknesses and had perhaps one of the greatest playoff series comebacks in history.
Many naysayers counted us out but there the Rockets were battling left and right the whole contest climbing their way from a 3-1 deficit and elevating themselves 19-point deficit to win Game 6 and eventually the series.
The Rockets 49-18 run from that 3rd quarter in Game 6 — led by J-Smoove — was one all of us Rockets fans will remember for the rest of our lives.
It outlined grittiness, sweat, strain and the refusal to relent — you know, the things tough competitors are made of.
And there we were, on our way to our first Western Conference Finals appearance in 18 years.
Oh, how sweet it was!
Next: What Should Daryl Morey Do With This Roster?