The 2017–18 Rockets and the 27 Bricks That Sunk Their Title Hopes
The 2017–18 Rockets were easily the best team to come out of the James Harden Era of Rockets Basketball. Harden had put up dominant numbers that year to the tune of 30 points a game, nearly 5 and-a-half rebounds, and almost 9 assists while also leading the Rockets to the number one seed out West over the powerhouse Warriors.
You can’t just have a one-man basketball team, though.
The other four starters on this stacked Rockets team were superstar point guard Chris Paul, sharpshooter Eric Gordon, glue guy P.J. Tucker, and brick wall center Clint Capela, all four of them combining to average over 56 and a half points per game.
Their bench also included more prolific three-point shooters such as Gerald Green, Trevor Ariza, and Ryan Anderson along with bucket-getter Joe Johnson, who on the wrong side of thirty-five still managed to put up respectable numbers.
Long story short, this team was good.
They had the number one rated offense in the whole league, had the best point-differential in the whole league, were second in points scored as a team per game, and had the sixth-best defense.
On offense, they had so many options for how to score the ball. Whether it was James Harden pulling up for step-back threes…
