The Houston Rockets have not found the magic they had all of last year so far this season. The team seemed to have corrected things earlier in the year, but now that doesn't seem to be the case as they have lost six of their last eight games to fall below .500. As of right now the Rockets currently sit on the outside looking in at the Western Conference playoff picture and it has many people on the team fed up including Jason Terry, according to Eric Ringering of 750thegame.
After the Rockets' loss to the Blazers on Wednesday night, their third consecutive defeat, Terry was heard walking past reporters saying "no chemistry with that group. F-----g horrible." Ringering reported hearing this and it has since been confirmed by multiple other reporters who heard the same thing.
It is hard to blame Terry for being frustrated with how the team has played all year. This is a Rockets team that was in the Western Conference Finals less than a year ago and returns almost all of its major pieces. Houston came into this season expecting to compete for a title, but instead it is competing to just sneak into the playoffs.
Last offseason Terry was contemplating retirement, but he decided to play another season and go after a second championship. Terry had a choice between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Rockets but ultimately chose to stay where he played and was successful the prior year. The Pelicans' season has been a disaster, so Terry might have made the right choice, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been a trying year.
Terry is not the only member of the Rockets to be frustrated, though, as interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff called the team "broken," according to Calvin Watkins of ESPN.
"We're a broken team, and we all need to use this break to figure out how we're going to impact change. If we don't want to impact change, then we need to be made aware of that, too, and we'll go in a different direction. We can't continue to go out and play this way. It's easy to see it's a fragmented bunch. You can't win that way," said Bickerstaff.
These are some pointed comments from the coach, and it points to a huge problem that likely isn't solvable during the season. It seems as though the best case scenario for the Rockets is for them to grab the seventh or eighth seed in the West where they will likely be eliminated in the first round by one of the elite teams. That is a far cry from what was expected from the Rockets coming into the season, but this is just proof that chemistry goes a long way in the NBA.
