The Rockets are on pace for the franchise’s best season ever

With their sizzling hot start, the Houston Rockets are on pace for their best regular season in the history of the franchise.

At the quarter mark of the season, the red-hot Houston Rockets are on pace to have their best record in franchise history. Through 21 games, the Rockets have a 17-4 record. The franchise record for wins in a season belongs to the 1993-94 Rockets, who won a championship that year.

The Rockets are on pace for 68 wins this season, and they’ve never looked more dominant. Houston kicked off the season with a statement win in Golden State, but then they lost Chris Paul to a knee injury for the next month. Houston won four of their next seven games in October before dominating the month of November.

The Rockets blew out New York 119-97 on Nov. 1 followed by another double-digit win in Atlanta. The Rockets came back home and ran over Utah behind a career-high 56 point and 13 assist game from James Harden. Houston followed that up with another statement victory against the Cavs before winning two more against Memphis and Indiana.

Then, the Rockets got a taste of their own medicine after they couldn’t slow down Toronto as the Raptors cruised to a 129-113 win. The Rockets got back on track against Phoenix, as Chris Paul finally returned and Harden had a 48 point game. The Rockets went on to win their next five games by double-digits to end November 12-1.

By the numbers

In the month of November, the Rockets led the NBA in points per game (119.8) and finished sixth in defensive rating (101.6). They also finished fifth in rebounds (45.6), fourth in assists (24.9) and third in steals (9.8).

The Rockets have been even more dominant in the six games since Paul has returned. They’ve led the league in points per game (120.7), 3s made per game (18.8), defensive rating (97.2), effective field goal percentage (59.0), true shooting percentage (62.4) and net rating (21.3). The Rockets have also made at least 18 3s in six consecutive games. No other team in NBA history has a streak longer than two.

The Rockets have finally gotten everyone healthy and the next stage will be further developing the team chemistry. It’ll be nice if Houston can reach the 68 win mark, but the most important thing is that the Rockets are healthy and in rhythm heading into the postseason.

Next: James Harden: 3 things we learned from November

*All stats are from basketballreference.com and landofbasketball.com.