At least by record, the Rockets are one of the NBA’s worst teams. While the young group has won five of its last nine games, and three of its most recent four, the totality of the evidence from the 2022-23 season suggests that Houston is clearly among the bottom feeders.
But somehow, at least when it comes to performances away from home, the defending champion Warriors are right there with the Rockets. Golden State, which visits Houston on Monday to wrap up a six-game homestand at Toyota Center, is just 7-29 on the road. Overall, the Warriors enter having lost six of their last eight games.
As the 2023 playoffs approach, could the defending champions be due for those statistical oddities to start evening out? After all, they’ve still yet to come close to securing a playoff berth, which means they should be heavily incentivized to win by any means ncessary.
Going back to the Warriors-Rockets rivalry days of the mid-to-late 2010s, “Splash Brothers” and future Hall of Famers Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have almost always shot well in Toyota Center. That trend continued in an earlier trip to Houston last November, which is one of Golden State’s only road wins all season.