We’re getting to a time in the regular season where it’s good to be more and more critical of teams and what they’re doing on the court. We’re nearing Christmas Day, and that tends to be when a lot of people really start paying attention to what’s happening out there. Some wonder if Christmas and its slate of games should be the official tip-off of the NBA. Because for many, that’s when they start to care about the long season.



However, at this point in the season, we’ve gone through around one-third of the action and we have plenty to dissect. We generally know what a team is at this point, and start trying to minimize its flaws. For a team like the Houston Rockets, their flaws have been bandied about ever since they traded for Russell Westbrook this summer. Maybe even before that because they tend to lend themselves to such critiquing.



After losing three straight games in the middle of November, the Rockets have won...