After the Houston Rockets left James Harden for the Brooklyn Nets, everyone knew they were doing badly. But no one would have expected it is. On Sunday afternoon, the Rockets defeated Oklahoma City Thunder, 114-112, to extend their losing streak to 20 games.
This is the longest losing streak in the franchise’s history, and the Rockets are now the eighth team in NBA history to lose more than 20 consecutive games. All of this failure is clearly affecting new coach Stephen Silas, who struggled for words during his post-game press conference.
The complete exchange:
Reporter: “Hey, coach, difficult as the streak continues. Did you feel that your team was getting tense along the straight? Do you feel that the weight of these losses is increasing?”
* 10 seconds of silence *
Silas: “Yes.”
Sunday’s defeat to Thunder was especially painful because it was the first time in weeks that they really had a chance to win. A losing streak like this is bad enough, but the Rockets didn’t even come close to most of those games. In fact, you have to go back more than a month – a five-point loss to the 76ers on February 17th – to find out the last time they lost by less than double digits.
Against Thunder, they held the lead for a brief period in the final minutes and had a chance to tie or win the game in the final possession. But John Wall put a 3 point that didn’t come close and sealed their fate. What’s worse is Silas admitted post-game game that was supposed to be a pick-and-roll, but Wall waved to try to go to glory.
All of this failure is clearly affecting new coach Stephen Silas, who ended his post-game press conference by saying he needs to improve.
With this defeat, the Rockets are now between 11 and 30 in the season, which means just 1.5 games ahead of the Timberwolves for the worst record in the league. They are also just eight games away from matching the 76ers in the worst losing streak of all time – although their 28 losses have occurred in two seasons. The longest losing streak in a single season is 26 games for the 76ers and the Cavaliers.
When Silas took office, he thought he would be training two ex-MVPs and making a long run in the playoffs, if not possibly fighting in the Western Conference. A few months later, Harden, Russell Westbrook and PJ Tucker are gone, and the Rockets are approaching infamy. It is not difficult to see why he is struggling to make sense of it all.