The Rockets' once-scorching offense has sputtered. Discover how they can reignite their attack and reclaim their winning ways.
Through the first couple months of the season, Ime Udoka’s offense was humming. After scoring 119.7 and 119.2 points per game in November and December, they ranked 5th in the league on New Year’s Eve, per TeamRankings. That scoring suddenly slowed in a concerning way.
January saw more than a ten point decrease in the team average, dropping to 107.9 points. The first half of their games in February currently has them sitting at 104.3 points per game, as seen on StatMuse.
For reference, NBA Stats shows the Brooklyn Nets average for the entire season is 107.7 points. That puts the 2026 Rockets offense below the lowest scoring team in the league.
This elongated slump lowered Houston’s average to 114.6 points per game, tied with New Orleans for 10th lowest in the league across the entire season. From 5th ranked to 20th ranked in a month and a half.
That average is eerily similar to their 113.5 average last season, along with their points allowed per game. They ranked 6th last season, allowing 109.3 points per game, and currently rank 4th with opponents scoring 109.6 points per game.
Though this is on par with last season, there are some big differences that point to their struggles this year.
For one, their pace is down to 27th in the league after being a middle of the pack team at 17th last season. Pace is measured as the average number of possessions a team has in a game, so Houston gets the 4th least possessions in the league, per TeamRankings.
This seems surprising considering they lead the NBA in team rebounds (48.6 per game) and offensive rebounds (15.8 per game), per NBA Stats. You’d think more rebounds means more possessions, right? But offensive rebounds don't reset the possession, meaning Houston can have one possession take much longer than 24 seconds.
Their slow and methodical offense doesn’t get out in transition much either. Ranking 21st in fast break points feels like a sin with the athleticism on this roster. Just last season they were tied with the Pelicans at 7th in that category, according to TeamRankings.
With the offense largely focused on Şengün and Durant making plays this season, it just takes a while to get anything going. It’s also pretty predictable, which is one of the reasons the Rockets average the 7th most turnovers this season. They ended last season averaging the 10th least turnovers, per TeamRankings.
It seems obvious that having a true point guard would help get this team into their offense quicker, help get everyone on the same page, and possibly push the pace a bit more —— but we also know that’s probably not coming in the buyout market, as I previously covered on Roundtable.
If Houston wants to put a stop to this consistent decrease in scoring, I think they have to make a concerted effort to get out in transition. While it can be a double-edged sword, as trying to advance the ball up the court quicker could lead to more turnovers, it’s apparent that this team needs some easy offense.