Fun with interesting statistics
by Tom Martin on Nov 18, 2009 3:06 PM CST
in Whimsical Posts
12 comments
Thank the lord for Roland Beech and 82games.com. Otherwise, I really don't know what I would do with my free time.
I went treasure hunting for some obscure Rockets statistics and found the following three to be particularly compelling.
1. Hayes/Scola tandem has much higher effective field goal percentage than Landry/Scola
Really? We actually produce better on offense with the Chuckwagon instead of Carl Landry? That's odd. Perhaps it's due to usage, but you'd still think that Luis Landry, accompanied by Brooks, Battier, and Ariza, would have a higher eFG than .364.
2. The second-most used unit is significantly worse than all the others.
Maybe we shouldn't play our worst unit so often. Clearly, our defense struggles when Brooks, Hayes, and Ariza are all off of the floor. Also: collectively, Rockets are better defensively with Dave Andersen on floor than Chuck Hayes. Weird...
3. Shane Battier has the worst plus/minus on the team, as well as the third-worst Def rating (opponents points per possession while on the floor).
Well, Battier does play a good chunk of minutes and guards the opponent's best player. But wow - this is pretty stunning. Then again, +/- is a pretty flawed statistic in many, many ways.
There - your Wednesday fun post is finished.
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Game 11 Recap: Fourth quarter defense propels Suns to 111-105 victory over Rockets
by Tom Martin on Nov 17, 2009 10:54 PM CST
in Game Recaps
10 comments
You knew Jarron Collins was going to blow up at some point. Er, perhaps not.
He didn't exactly "blow up" either. Six points in twelve minutes is hardly a combustible stat line. But on three of three shooting, with six rebounds, two blocks, and the dagger in the final minute, Collins' contribution might have made the sliver of a difference down the stretch for the Phoenix Suns. Alvin Gentry knew he wasn't substituting dead air for Channing Frye to end the game. At least not on this night.
Shoving particulars aside, the Rockets couldn't have started any hotter, nor could they have finished any colder. Trevor Ariza and Aaron Brooks hit four out of the five three pointers that Houston knocked down to start the game. The Rockets controlled the first quarter and much of the second quarter before losing their mojo to finish the first half with a three-point lead. That, and Amare Stoudemire realized that beating 6'6 Chuck Hayes one-on-one wasn't as hard as everyone said it was. For a while I thought that Stoudemire might drop another President Grant on us.
You know what else I was thinking? That this game eerily mirrored the first half of the Dallas game... which ended in us getting blown out. Not exactly the script you want to keep following.
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Tuesday Afternoon Dream Links
by Only_A_Lad on Nov 17, 2009 3:36 PM CST
in Links
15 comments
I don't know about y'all, but I'm really excited about tonight's game. We have two teams that relatively few writers and fans thought would be doing much off to great starts facing one another. The total line for tonight is set at 221.5, and that sounds about right. It's going to be a fun game.
John Hollinger has the Rockets and Suns ranked 6th and 7th, respectively (thanks to Rockets4Life for making a fanshot about this). "What?" I hear you all saying. Well, that's true - ESPN's resident stat-dude has the plucky scrappy resilient talented Rockets ranked slightly ahead of the 9-2 Suns. Most of that has to do with scoring margin and opponents' winning percentage. And, indeed, if you look at B-Ref's Simple Rating System (here's a description of the stat), the Rockets are 7th in the league, while the Suns are 14th. And Tas at TBJ has taken the Rockets in their "book-off" tonight. Yes, the plucky little Rockets have come a long way from Barkley's "worst in the league" prediction.
Let's get to some news!
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Monday Afternoon Dream Links
by Only_A_Lad on Nov 16, 2009 1:42 PM CST
20 comments
The Rockets did good last night: an offensive efficiency of around 1.02, a defensive efficiency of around 0.84. They outrebounded the defending champions by 22 and were +6 on turnover ratio. They boxed out, hustled after every loose ball, and just generally did all the little things that make teams win basketball games. And, oh yeah, they shot well. Go figure. Probably had something to do with Brooks.
I hope to write a more extended post on this subject later, but there seems to be a burgeoning realization among Rockets fans, NBA fans, and analysts that, yeah, this team is actually pretty good. Jason Friedman expresses this pretty well:
Words like "heart," "hustle," and "hard-working" will be tossed Houston's way which, while complimentary (and accurate), often tend to thinly veil the fact that the giver of such bouquets believes the beneficiary is overachieving with a roster of middling talent. Don't be so deceived. These guys can play, as the rest of the league is (hopefully) beginning to learn. What's more: they love to play together.
I also like this line:
"I talked to Carl and Chase and told them we can’t ever have a game like the one we had in Sacramento again," said Lowry.
My sentiments exactly, Kyle.
Kelly Dwyer analyzes the game, and I like what he has to say about Artest and Kobe's games. I think this is something that sometimes goes unmentioned when talking about defense (though it was talked about quite a bit last year in Michael Lewis's Battier article).
Artest, superficially, had a good game. 22 points on 16 shots, but his and Kobe's singular offensive focus made it easy for the Rockets to load up on everyone else. Scorers are meant to be all-around players in this offense, and both Bryant and Artest made it so the teammates' hands were cold, and not ready to contribute.
The ability to isolate the other team's primary offensive player, force him to take shots, and make life difficult for him in general is a key part of team defense. This should be obvious (after all, we always talk about the importance of ball movement), but it often isn't.
Henry Abbot also looks at the Rockets' defense, but he focuses on Ariza and Budinger, who took Shane's place after he went to the bench early with foul trouble:
In place of Battier, Houston coach Rick Adelman played Budinger. Along with some missed wide-open jumpers, Budinger brought the kind of youth that causes problems for veterans like Bryant, Lamar Odom and Ron Artest.
One key play occurred with the Lakers clingking lackadaisically to their early lead, up six in the second quarter. As the crowd was still clapping for a Shannon Brown putback, all ten players jogged the length of the court. In transition, the Lakers were pointing at Budinger, who was a step ahead of Bryant as he headed down the left wing. Everyone realized Bryant had to catch up. But he did not. Budinger turned on the jets, Kyle Lowry got him the ball, and before Andrew Bynum could get in position to meet him at the rim, Budinger had swooped to the hoop for a reverse layup, and youth had been served.
Altogether, this was obviously a great game for Houston, and it's nice to see them bounce back from Friday's loss. I think we also need to start thinking of the Rockets as a real matchup problem for the Lakers: the Rockets give the Lakers a lot of trouble in virtually every category. I'll leave it to better analysts than me to figure out why that is, though.
More links after the jump.
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Houston Rockets Tickets: The Dream Shake Discount - Dallas 11/25
by UofTOrange on Nov 16, 2009 8:33 AM CST
in Dream Shake - Rockets Ticket Deals
3 comments
In what we hope to continue being a great success, The Dream Shake, along with The Houston Rockets ticket office and John Donovan are bringing you another discount night. This time it is to face the first place Dallas Mavericks on the night before Thanksgiving. Many of you will be home for the holiday anyway, might as well take advantage of some great ticket prices!
This game is about revenge. The Rockets had the Mavericks dead to rights, but let them slip away and take them behind the woodshed. Be there live and in person to cheer them on to a revenge victory!
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NBA Broadband League Pass – Where "WTF!" Happens aka Thoughts on Rockets 101 Lakers 91 (Game 10)
by Xiane on Nov 16, 2009 1:29 AM CST
36 comments
Yet More Bullet Points - The Lazy Man's FriendTM
- When does a "fluke" become a "trend"? Over the last nine games (playoffs plus 09-10 thus far) LA's record against the Rockets is 5-4. One extra bucket last week and it would be 5-4 in our favor. This recent "dominance" has largely been accomplished by a full-strength LA team competing against a Houston team playing 40% of its payroll. At this point, it would be reasonable to hear Laker fans say something like: "Wow, Houston is just a good team. Hats off to you guys. Glad we made it past you last year."
It's a nice dream, anyway. Instead we've largely been subjected to the output of the Los Angeles Excuse Factory, operating at near-full capacity:
"We didn't have Pau Gasol."
Well, boo-freaking-hoo.
"Kobe's wittle gwoin hurted ‘im!"
That IS sad. Maybe he'll have to microfracture it.
"You guys played above your heads. We were: flat/loafing/uninterested/conserving our energy/oddly un- beloved of the refs/pre-occupied-with-callipygian-Armenian-Americans."
Yes, it's amazing how often these freak wins happen, isn't it? So, why did it happen after the Denver Debacle?
"Kiss the ring, mofo! LoLZ! ROCKETS SuXoRz!"
Sigh.
Haven't seen a lot of LA Trolls® on TDS tonight, though. Odd, that.
36 comments | 0 recs |
The last time Kobe gave someone a ring that big...
by Xiane on Nov 15, 2009 11:33 PM CST
4 comments
. 
Note from Tom: NBA League Pass is having a meltdown, causing me to have a meltdown because I can't watch the game replay and write a recap. This. Is. So. Frustrating.
4 comments | 1 recs
Rockets take advantage of karmic gift - come back to beat Lakers by double digits
by grungedave on Nov 15, 2009 11:10 PM CST
in Random Commentary
13 comments
The Rockets started slow tonight. Real slow. As in, 16 quick points without much resistance for the Lakers.
Then Ron Artest pissed off the basketball gods.
Now, as much as I love you Crazy Pills - when Trevor Ariza lost his shoe and you intentionally threw it into the crowd - that probably wasn't the best idea. Karma is a bitch, dude.
Plus, you now owe Trevor Ariza breakfast, as that was a dick move.
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Rockets @ La Lakers Preview-ish
by Xiane on Nov 15, 2009 7:27 PM CST
0 comments
Warning: Not a real preview.
9 out of Houston's last 17 games that count (including tonight) have been against La Lakers. I feel I know them far better than I'm happy with, and perhaps La Fans feel the same. Not that I care about them.
So, what's to talk about? A few things.
LA is still without The Grubby Catalan aka Pau Gasol, with one of those "minor" LA injuries that seem to go on for months. When I hear medical reports out of LA I am usually reminded of the Monty Python sketch where the colonial Brit gets his leg eaten by a tiger and is told things like "A mere scratch! In the meantime, favor the other leg, old boy!". Doubtless Rocket fans everywhere are full of sympathy for LA's sad sad plight.
LA was taken out behind the Pepsi Center and beaten by Denver on Friday - then they started playing basketball and it went downhill from there for La Lakers. Truly, a beatdown of epic, legendary proportion. It wasn't as close as the scoreboard indicated. What does that mean for us? Well, either LA is pissed, and loaded for bear, or they're sitting around feeling sorry for themselves. If it was a few years ago, I'd pick the latter. These days? Probably the former.
Trevor Ariza's "homecoming". The way this is built up, you'd think they named a freeway or something for him. Its not like he's a legend out there. I think he was overexcited about the matchup last week, and played into Artest's hands to some extent. Hopefully he'll be icy this week, and display some deadly shooting, and the high basketball IQ he's known for.
We played a bad game against a team that is, let's say, finding its identity in Sacramento and lost. It was still a winnable game despite the Rockets generally looking ugly. I hope we're ready to put that behind us, and no better way than beating LA at home. Realistically though, La Lakers by 6. At home, angry, Phil has been salting their wounds for almost 48 hours. I haven't see the refs for this one, but let's just say I expect to be appalled.
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Weekend Dream Links: Could Be Worse
by Only_A_Lad on Nov 14, 2009 4:22 PM CST
in Links
10 comments
Yes, my friends, it could be a lot worse.
In Jeff Bower's first game as head coach, the Hornets played an ugly contest (as I recall, the scoring was in the 30s for each time at the end of the first half) against the Blazers. And, from the 2/3 or so that I saw, it was clear that Hornets just weren't in this one. But fate didn't stop there in its continued onslaught against New Orleans, leaving Chris Paul with an ankle sprain (he'll be out for at least a week). To make it even worse, Bower didn't seem to be doing much as head coach. Chris Paul was the often the only one speaking during time outs, and he was clearly pissed at his teammates (though, to be fair, I remember a lot of that during the Byron Scott era, too). So, it could be worse: we could have our star player injured (wait...).
The Lakers were destroyed at home (on national television) by the Denver Nuggets, who held LA to just 23 points after the first half. Holy crap. Yes, much worse losses than ours were to be found around the league Friday evening.
More links after the jump.
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