When the pundits gathered to prepare their preseason predictions there were some who suggested the OKC Thunder would potentially be the worst team in NBA history. Others opined the Houston Rockets could be a squad that surprised and vied for a playoff tournament seed.
Six weeks into the season and with three times the victories of the Rockets it’s going to be a battle for the Thunder to lose enough games to compete with the Rockets for that bottom seed Thunder Nation so highly covets.
The Rockets’ two wins include one against the OKC Thunder but that match took place on the second night of the season. Since then the teams met again, and this time it was the Thunder who got the “W”.
OKC Thunder face Rockets in home and home series this week
While teams in the same conference play three to four times a year these clubs will complete their scheduled matches this week. The first occurs this evening (November 29th) in Houston. The second is in OKC via the home and home series to open the month the December.
That’s a bit odd to play all four matches prior to the halfway mark and poses some questions for both teams. Do you want to go full bore and show which team is better? Or as a franchise do you take steps this early to ensure you have an advantage at season end — for those coveted bingo balls?
The Thunder enter this week having lost five games in a row and seven of their last eight. It seems light years ago since the four-game winning streak. And yet, this scrappy youthful squad has been in more games than they haven’t. In the five losses the average point differential was under seven points (6.6) and that’s padded by the 12 point loss to the Hawks.
Conversely, the Rockets just ended a 15-game losing streak with a surprising win versus the Bulls and followed it up with another victory versus the Hornets to register their first back-to-back wins of the season.
During the Rockets’ 15-game losing streak their differential was a gaudy minus -13.7 points with the majority of games lost by 10 to 12 points.