There are the winter doldrums and then there is whatever happening to the Houston Rockets right now. In their last 11 games, they are 4-7 with losses to the Kings (twice!), the Blazers (twice!), the Clippers and the Mavs. That’s ugly no matter what time of year it is.
There is plenty of blame to go around, but this is a team at essentially full strength that is coughing up some really bad losses. They have fallen all the way to seventh in the Western Conference.
**Road Woes**
The Rockets are a respectable 11-12 on the road thus far this season having played more road games than any team in the league. But dropping two in a row in Portland, two games in Sacramento and one in Dallas is a nightmare scenario. Getting back to Toyota Center for a stretch of games should help except, oops, it’s against really good teams.
**Three Point Flailing**
The Rockets were the number one team in the NBA (surprisingly) in three point shooting through the month of December. They have slid to fourth with some hideous shooting performances. Even worse, they are shooting way too many threes. They had been shooting fewer than any team, but they’ve gotten trigger happy and volume shooting from distance clearly is not their strength. While they still have several guys who shoot well from beyond the arc, too many of them do not and it’s starting to show.
**Defense Disappears**
Still a top 10 defense, the Rockets are now eighth in defensive rating, way too low for an Ime Udoka-coached squad. The problems have come across the board with teams outshooting and generally out-hustling the Rockets, which should never happen. This is still something they should turn around but their general commitment on that end of the floor has been wanting.
**Not Getting Easier**
The Rockets have a five-game home stand that includes the Bulls and Pelicans. Problem is it also includes the Thunder, Spurs and T-Wolves. The Thunder seem to have righted the ship after a few losses while the Spurs are struggling a bit and the T-Wolves have blossomed into one of the league’s best teams. The Rockets have generally performed pretty well against the better teams. That will need to be the case over the next 10 days.
This article appears in [Private: Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026](https://www.houstonpress.com/?post_type=newspack_collection&p=402482).