The Rockets report
Rockets roll through an unbeaten week that includes easy wins over the Spurs and Cavs
Feb 5, 2018, 3:34 am
Chris Paul had a nice game against the Cavs, Houston Rockets/Facebook
Well this certainly wasn’t the worst week to be a Rockets fan. While all eyes were focused on football’s ultimate conclusion, Houston overcame an early week hiccup in heroic fashion and stormed through the remainder of last week’s games. The Rockets have narrowed the gap in the western conference to two games behind the Golden State Warriors, while expanding their division lead to six games from the Spurs.
Game 49: Houston Rockets vs Orlando Magic (W, 114-107)
The Rockets played the Magic, and two things were assumed: The Rockets would swat the Magic, and there wouldn’t be much to talk about.
Wrong. So very, very wrong.
Houston tipped off without the services of Chris Paul or Trevor Ariza, and soon lost Eric Gordon to an in-game injury. As a result, scoring options were thin, and the game was tightly contested throughout. It would take a historic performance from James Harden to clinch the victory, and he provided just that with the NBA’s first-ever 60-point triple-double.
Harden’s 60-point triple-double was an absolute beauty to behold. Not only was it fascinating to watch the feat itself, but it was also remarkable considering the circumstances that forced the performance. The Rockets were without their second, third, and fourth best scoring options, so Harden did what the greats do: He put the team on his back, and smothered the Orlando Magic. Such a performance warrants a deeper investigation into the numbers, so I played around on Basketball-Reference.com’s stat finder page. Here’s what I’ve found:
46:26: The amount of time Harden was on the court. It was a career high for Harden, who only sat for 94 seconds in the game.
95: Amount of points scored or assisted on by Harden, good for second most all time (behind Wilt’s 100 point game). Harden is also responsible for three of the top five highest scoring outputs in NBA history.
5: Number of currently active players with 60-point games, including Harden after Tuesday’s performance (Devin Booker, Carmelo Anthony, Lebron James, and Klay Thompson).
9: Number of players who have scored at least 60 points and recorded a double-double. Harden extended the list that night. Wilt Chamberlain had seven. Harden’s is the only double-double achieved with double-digit assists.
8: Number of 50-point triple-doubles ever. Harden is responsible for 3 of them.
4: Number of games Harden has scored 50+ points this season alone. He has nine throughout his career, which is second most among active players (LeBron James has 11). The Rockets as a franchise have seen 17.
Game 50: Rockets at San Antonio (W, 102-91)
I had my hair cut on Thursday, and my barber is a Spurs fan. That being said, I typically wait until he’s done before we talk Rockets/Spurs so as to avoid any “accidental” slips of the clippers. While we may not root for one another’s team, we agreed that Rockets/Spurs games are typically great basketball. It certainly was last year during the regular season.
This year? Not so much.
Both games this season have been projected as tight contests, and both have been double-digit Houston victories.
Thursday the Rockets tipped off against San Antonio for round two this season and used their defense to put the Spurs away early with a 27-14 first quarter. Houston led by double-digits throughout most of the contest on their way to stretching their division lead to five games between the two clubs. Harden showed no signs of fatigue as he poured in 28 points and 11 assists, while Clint Capela controlled the paint with 14 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Chris Paul was held to 10 points, and Trevor Ariza and Eric Gordon both sat due to injuries.
Game 51: Rockets at Cleveland Cavaliers (W, 120-88)
So Thursday was a bit of a dud, but heading up to Cleveland to face LeBron James and company should prove a tougher test than the Spurs did, right?
Nope.
Rumors have swirled all season about the possibility of Houston becoming James’ next landing spot and Saturday night the Rockets stapled their resume in the middle of the court in the Quicken Loans Arena.
The Cavaliers never led, and at one point trailed by as much as 35 points. The score was so out of hand that James didn’t play in the fourth quarter. Cleveland fans booed their own team.
Paul led the way with 22 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists. Ryan Anderson followed with 21 points, while Harden was held to a pedestrian 16 points on the night. No one on the Cavaliers scored more than 12 points.
Looking ahead:
The Rockets have a four game week ahead of them, with away games in Brooklyn and Miami on Tuesday and Wednesday, before returning home for a Friday matchup with the Denver Nuggets and a Sunday meeting with Dallas.
With the exception of the Heat, who are playing out of their collective minds this season, this might be one of the easiest weeks the Rockets have seen all season. Brooklyn sits 20 games back in their division, and lack any shred of competitiveness. Denver is a middle of the road team that could possibly take advantage of a tired team on Friday after the Rockets finish a back-to-back on the road, but Dallas should be an easy win. For the week I see Houston possibly dropping the Miami game on Wednesday because of fatigue, but finishing strong with at least three wins.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.