Houston Rockets: Losing against bad teams has been a struggle

The Houston Rockets are coming off a loss to a severely undermanned Pelicans team that should have been an easy win. Instead, they find themselves farther down in the standings.

The Houston Rockets have created a common theme for themselves this year. They are able to show up for big games and win them, but too often, they play down to their opponents and lose the easy ones.

That was the case last night, when the Rockets fell to the mighty Pelicans. New Orleans was missing practically every key player minus Jrue Holiday, including MVP candidate and superstar Anthony Davis. This was one that the Rockets had to have, especially on national TV in front of a large audience.

These kind of losses are starting to define the season a bit for this team. Yes, there have been health concerns for the Rockets, but you have to beat teams like that, whether they are injured or not. The Pelicans had no business coming into Toyota Center and dropping 121 points.

Other examples

This obviously isn’t the first kind of loss like this during the up-and-down season. Losses to the Cavs, Wizards, Magic and almost Knicks are unacceptable for a team with championship aspirations.

Showing up for every game is something that must happen, especially in this crazy Western Conference. Losses like these happen to everyone, but when they pile up like this, it seriously starts to affect the standings.

Houston is No. 5 in the West still after this one, but now three games back of the No. 3 seeded Thunder with a tough five-game stretch coming up. Knowing this team, this tough stretch might be just what the Rockets need. They play the Nuggets, Jazz, Suns, Kings and Thunder in these five games. They’ll probably end up losing to Phoenix.

Trades?

It’s time to start looking for someone who can rebound for the Rockets. I love Kenneth Faried and his energy and offensive ability has been incredible. He is still undersized, though, and is giving up quite a few boards.

The Pelicans had a rookie, Kenrich Williams, grab 16 rebounds last night. He was averaging under two of them per game coming in and is just 6’7. Unacceptable.

I’ve preached over and over again about how Dewayne Dedmon would be a great fit for this team. Package him in a deal with Kent Bazemore and the Rockets can be back on a high-level again while Clint Capela is out.