Will the Rockets’ Defense Woes Haunt Them Later?

As we were coming into the season, I had a lot of questions about the Rockets and how they were going to work. Most of my questions were how they would work offensively. But ashamed to say, I was thinking like a casual and forgot a whole element to the game of basketball which is the defense. The Rockets defensively have been horrendous, to put it mildly. I mean whenever you let a bottom feeder like the Wizards score 158 points on you, that’s an obvious sign that there is a problem.

Rockets Defense Stats

Currently, they rank last in points per game allowed with 127. That’s 6.2 more points than any other team in the NBA. Even if I took out that Wizards game, the Rockets’ defense still is tied with the next worst team defensively in the league, that is the Golden State Warriors at 120.8. This Rockets team also allows the other team to have an efficiently high FG% at 50%. This is not to mention that they let other teams shoot efficiently at the 3 point line at a high rate at 43.3%, roughly 4% more than the next worst team defensively. 

The Rockets’ defense is already being labeled as a disastrous defense. This then begs the question: Will this haunt them later on in the year? Especially when the games count? Hypothetically, let’s say the Rockets make the playoffs, as most people predicted. This defense will not suffice in the playoffs against the best teams in the NBA, much less the Western Conference. It’s still early in the season, and the Rockets still have time to figure it out. But Mike D’Antoni is not exactly known for his defensive schemes. Right now this team isn’t even clicking on offense half the time. James Harden can’t win a championship with his playstyle. Also, it’s as I said, the James Harden and Russell Westbrook duo won’t work. At this moment in time, the only thing that wins the Rockets games is their offense. If their offense isn’t working, the Rockets are gonna have a long season.