The Houston Rockets are definitely peaking at the right time.
After their first meeting against the Oklahoma City Thunder in early December, the Rockets were ranked 28th in defensive rating but have managed to win a lot of games mostly due to their high-octane offense led by the league's fourth leading scorer, James Harden.
Only less than a month since they first squared-off this season, the team has shown tremendous improvement on the defensive end and following their win on Monday against the Washington Wizards, are now ranked 15th in the league.
What's more impressive is that they were able to achieve this while missing two of their starters, Patrick Beverley and Clint Capela, who both suffered injuries last month.
Head coach Mike D'Antoni recently spoke about what difference he's seen from the Rockets and gave credit to Montrezl Harrell and Nene who have both stepped up big time in Capela's absence.
“We're better. We haven't played a whole lot of games with Clint and Patrick together and that's pretty fundamental for your defense, your one and your five. We think we can even get better with Clint coming back. But we're much happier today than we were a month ago.”
“Montrezl can do it. He's done it. He's done a great job without Clint. Adding one more body would help. Montrezl and Nene, they'll get it done.”
With their vastly improved defense and their lineup nearing full strength, it will be bad news for the opposition as the Rockets are geared up for more success and will look to make a deep run in the playoffs after the regular season.
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