Houston Rockets Daily Rockets Science – Three Point Prowess

In today’s Daily Rockets Science the news on the Houston Rockets has pundits discussing their unbelievable offense and  all those threes!

The Houston Rockets were predicted to be a strong offensive team. In fact, even prior to Mike D’Antoni joining the team the offensive strategy was always always focused on lay-ups or three pointers. Yet, the stat from last week versus the Kings where the Rockets put up 50 attempts had the top notch NBA.com Blogtable crew discussing which stat was the most impressive: the Rockets 50 three point attempts, the Warriors 47 assists or Kevin Love’s 34 point quarter.  Only one of the eight contributors picked Houston.

Lang Whitaker: Honestly, to me the most amazing part was that Love scored 34 in the first 0quarter and then only took one shot in the second quarter. Usually when a guy is hot like that you try to feed him and fan him, right? But of the three stats given, to me the most incredible is the Rockets firing away from deep. And honestly, 50 attempts is probably a little low for that team — in an overtime game down the road wouldn’t be shocked to see them get to 60 three-point attempts. And until they stop messing around in the bottom 10 in the League in defensive rating, maybe jacking up threes is their best defense.

Again, this perimeter heavy offense  isn’t new for the Rockets. However, this season the roster additions are translating into a higher 3-point field goal percentage. Case in point, the Houston Rockets feature 3 of the top 4 who’ve made at least 50 three pointers.  he category:

The #Rockets currently have 3 of the top 4 spots in #NBA three-pointers made:

2. Harden (53 3PM)
3. Ariza (52 3PM)
4. Gordon (51 3PM) pic.twitter.com/EhQj5u8QIT

— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) November 28, 2016

While the Rockets offense and copious threes has resulted in a winning record, the return of Patrick Beverley has had an interesting effect as Maurice Bobb of Bleacher Report points out .

With Beverly in the starting lineup, Houston has gone from scoring 115 points per 100 possessions to 131. When he’s running the point for the second unit, scoring has gone up from 103 points per 100 possessions to 118. And with Harden dominating the ball, his three-point shooting percentage has improved from 40 percent last season to 43.8 percent this year.

That’s a pretty impressive effect for one player to have on the starting and reserve line-up.  Of the 3 areas he effects though,  one  has to only look back to the losses versus teams capable of a quality defensive effort (Raptors, Jazz) to recognize the Rockets will need more than one player committing on that end of the court.

Moving forward, if Beverley can help inspire a team defensive effort, the upside of that might just be a very deep playoff run.

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