After the Houston Rockets traded James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets, everyone knew it would go bad. But no one would have expected this. The Rockets dropped a heartbreaker to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 114-112, on Sunday afternoon to extend their losing streak to 20 games.
It’s the longest losing streak in franchise history, and the Rockets are now the eighth team in NBA history to lose 20 games in a row. All of this failure clearly comes with the new head coach Stephen Silas, who struggled to put words into words during his post-match press conference.
The complete exchange:
Reporter: “Hey coach, tough one like the streak continues. Did you feel your team getting stiff in the whole direction, do you feel like the weight of these losses is increasing?”
* 10 seconds silence *
Silas: “Yes.”
Sunday’s loss to the Thunder was particularly painful as it was the first time in weeks that they had a chance to win. A lost series like this is bad enough, but the Rockets have not even been close in most of these games. In fact, you have to go back more than a month – a five-point loss for the 76ers on February 17 – to find the last time they lost by less than double figures.
Against the thunderstorm, they held the last few minutes short and had the chance to draw or win the match. But John Wall fitted a three-pointer that didn’t come close, sealing their fate. What’s worse is Silas acknowledges postgame that it was supposed to be a pick-and-roll, but Wall turned it down to try to go for the glory.
All the failure clearly comes with the new head coach Stephen Silas, who concluded his press conference by saying that he needs to be better.
With this loss, the Rockets are now 11-30 on the season, which is just 1.5 games ahead of the Timberwolves for the worst record in the league. They are also just eight games away from the 76ers’ game for the worst losing streak of all time, although their 28 losses have occurred over two seasons. The longest losing streak for some seasons is 26 games by both the 76ers and Cavaliers.
When Silas accepted the post, he thought he would coach two former MVPs and make a deep playoff game, if not possible, to participate in the Western Conference. A few months later, Harden, Russell Westbrook and PJ Tucker are all gone, and the Rockets are becoming infamous. It’s not hard to see why he’s struggling to make sense of it.