30 Days, 30 Teams, 30 Facts: Houston Rockets

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March 23, 2020

With the NBA on hiatus for at least 30 days, I'll be coping by posting an article every day with 30 random/interesting facts from each of the 30 teams. Hopefully, the season will resume when I hit publish on the Wizards' article.

Day 11:

Houston Rockets

Stats are mostly from Cleaning the Glass, but also RotoWire, NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.

James Harden is assisted on just 14% of his shots – the 100th percentile in terms of isolation scoring.
James Harden has only attempted 11 long mid-range jumpers this season.
Opponents score 16.6 more points per 100 transition plays with James Harden on the court – a difference ranking in the seventh percentile.
Russell Westbrook takes 49% of his shots at the rim – the 91st percentile for point guards.
PJ Tucker's 8.4% usage rate is in the second percentile for bigs, and he's one of only eight players in NBA history to play 2,000+ minutes with a less than 9.0% usage.
PJ Tucker attempts 53% of his shots from the corner – the 100th percentile for bigs.
Five players on the Rockets are in the 90th+ percentile in points per 100 shot attempts for their position: Tyson Chandler (145.5), Jeff Green (131.5), Isaiah Hartenstein (140.3), James Harden (125.6), Ben McLemore (125.6).
Eric Gordon and Austin Rivers average only a combined 2.2 turnovers per 36 minutes.
Eric Gordon has the lowest point differential (-5.6) on the Rockets of anyone who has seen 400+ minutes with the team.
Robert Covington has zero unassisted threes with the Rockets.
Robert Covington has the highest point differential (+7.3) on the Rockets of anyone who has seen 400+ minutes with the team.
Robert Covington is averaging 2.8 blocks and 1.2 steals per 36 minutes with Houston.
With Robert Covington on the court, Rockets opponents shoot 10.4% worse at the rim – the best difference on the team and in the 98th percentile.
10 of the 15 players who have seen 100+ minutes with the Rockets have taken at least half of their shots from three.
With the Rockets, Jeff Green is 21-of-23 (91%) at the rim.
The Rockets score an extra 9.7 points per 100 halfcourt plays with Ben McLemore on the court – the biggest positive difference on the team (min. 400 minutes) and in the 96th percentile.
With Clint Capela on the court, Houston's halfcourt plays lost 7.2 points per 100 possessions – the biggest negative difference on the team (min. 400 minutes) and in the 12th percentile.
With Clint Capela on the court, the Rockets forced opponents to take 3.0% more long mid-rangers – the biggest difference on the team and in the third percentile.
Out of all Rockets lineups that have seen 100+ possessions, the best was +24.5. It contained James Harden, Austin Rivers, Ben McLemore, PJ Tucker and Clint Capela.
The worst Rockets lineup with 100+ possessions played was -34.8 and contained Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Eric Gordon, PJ Tucker and Clint Capela.
Rockets' small-ball lineups – no Clint Capela, Isaiah Hartenstein, Tyson Chandler – are +3.8 points per 100 possessions.
Houston has the third-worst spread differential (-1.8) in the NBA.
At home, against bottom-10 point differential teams, the Rockets have the third-best net rating (+18.4).
On the road, against top-10 point differential teams, Houston has the fifth-best net rating (-1.1).
On the second night of back-to-backs, the Rockets have the second-worst spread differential (-9.9).
Against opposing teams that are on the second night of a back-to-back, the Rockets have the fourth-best net rating (+10.8).
Since the All-Star break, the Rockets have the fifth-worst spread differential (-3.1).
Since the break, the Rockets score the most points per 100 transition plays off of live rebounds (160.0).
Since the break, the Rockets have the second-best shot profile (55.4 location eFG%) and third-best effective field-goal percentage (56.5%).
Since the break, Houston allows opponents to shoot just 27.8% from the corner – the lowest mark in the NBA.