Houston Rockets '97-98

But are back-to-back games really a problem? Do they really hurt the aging teams like the Rockets?

In general, there is an indication that teams do worse on no rest. Teams won only 44% of their games when playing without rest last year, which was worse than when they had 1 or more days of rest.

Whether back-to-back games hurt older teams is a different question. There really was no indication that old teams got hurt worse than young teams. The Bulls, for example, were the second oldest team in the league last year, but they still won 19 of 22 back-to-backs, a winning percentage better than their season record. Perhaps the best team on back-to-backs was Miami, which was just about average age-wise. The youngest team was Portland and they won 11 of 21 back-to-backs with an overall winning percentage of 0.598.

The Rockets, however, did seem to lose more often than they should have. They started off the season very well, winning their first 6 back-to-backs. through early January. After that, they started getting blown out by good teams and beating only Dallas and Golden St. Probably not coincidentally, Charles Barkley got injured in mid-January, missing another 22 games over the rest of the season. Clyde Drexler also suffered significant injuries in the second half of the season.

There is no disputing the talent that the Rockets have. Even though Barkley, Drexler, and Hakeem Olajuwon have seen their numbers decline somewhat in the past few years, they combined for roughly 30 wins and only 6 losses last year. That makes for an outstanding trio when healthy. But predicting the effects of their age on their health is still not an exact science. The Rockets are destined to lose a bit more this year, but they should be tough once again in the playoffs if everyone is healthy.