The NBA on Monday announced Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni as the Western Conference Coach of the Month for February.
D’Antoni has won the award 10 times in his career, including five times since joining Houston before the 2016-17 season.
The Rockets won their final six games to finish February with a 9-2 mark. Going back to Jan. 22, Houston has the highest winning percentage (.765) in the West, with wins in 13 of the team’s last 17 games.
Houston is 39-20 heading into Monday night’s game at New York (18-42). With a victory, the Rockets will have won 40 games within the first 60 games of a season for the third time in four seasons under D’Antoni. Prior to his hire, the Rockets had done it just six times in franchise history.
Since Coach Mike D'Antoni became head coach of the #Rockets in 2016-17, Houston has the best winning percentage in the league (.695; 212-93 mark). https://t.co/ZjA8znXed5
— Alykhan Bijani (@Rockets_Insider) March 2, 2020
Seven of Houston’s nine wins in February were by double digits, with the Rockets outscoring teams by an average of 7.9 points per game. Players listed taller than 6-foot-8 played a total of just 33 minutes for the month amid D’Antoni’s well-chronicled change to a smaller lineup.
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As a team, the Rockets averaged 17.5 made 3-pointers in February, which was 6.2 more per game than their opponents. Houston averaged 10.2 steals per game for the month while forcing 17.8 turnovers, all while committing just 12.8 turnovers of their own.
With Saturday’s win at Boston, D’Antoni tied Mike Fratello for the 20th-most wins in NBA history at 667. Since becoming head coach of the Rockets in 2016-17, Houston is 212-93 (.695) in regular-season games, which represents the NBA’s best winning percentage of any team.
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