Vaunted Rockets stumbling out of the gate

Down in the rubble of NBA mediocrity at this early stage of the season, we find the Houston Rockets. A revival seems likely. An encore performance as the Warriors’ biggest challenger — that could be difficult.

“Right now, they are a very bad basketball team, and they know it,” wrote Jonathan Feigen in the Houston Chronicle. “The defense has been atrocious, the offense mediocre. Even the shooting that seemed so reliable has betrayed them.”

Coach Mike D’Antoni made some bold preseason predictions about his team being “even better defensively” than last season’s squad but nobody took him seriously, and the evidence is glaring.