On March 28, the Rockets defeated the Bucks on the road to claim their 59th win of the season.

At the same time, with this victory, the Rockets broke the 1971 Bucks' 20-game winning streak, bringing the winning streak to 21, which is also the longest winning streak since Qiao Hai took charge.

On March 29, the Rockets fought against the Nuggets back-to-back, and after a hard battle, the Rockets narrowly won by 1 point and won 22 in a row! He also claimed his 60th win of the season.

In the first game in April, facing the Timberwolves, the Rockets lost 97-102 after a large rotation, ending their winning streak.

So far, from the beginning of the All-Star Weekend to the end of March and the beginning of April, the Rockets' terrifying long winning streak has finally been ended, fixed at 22 consecutive wins, and all 14 games in March!

What's more, the Rockets' 22-game winning streak ranks second in NBA history, second only to the 33-game winning streak set by the Lakers in the 1971-1972 season!

Some people even believe that if it weren't for the Rockets' need to prepare for the playoffs, Qiao Hai would have to rotate the main players significantly at the end of the regular season.

If the Timberwolves didn't rotate the main team in the last game, the Rockets' winning streak could continue.

Not counting the Timberwolves game, the Rockets still have 8 regular season games to play, and if they win all the games at the end of the season, the Rockets' winning streak will also exceed 30 consecutive wins, of course, surpassing the Lakers' 33 consecutive wins, it is already hopeless.

It is precisely because of this that Qiao Hai will decisively make a rotation in the final stage of the regular season.

The winning streak is exciting, but it's the upcoming playoffs that are even more important.

……

On April 2, the Rockets played the Lakers back-to-back.

The main force of the last rotation rest, this time all the staff were dispatched, and what Qiao Hai wanted was nothing more than four kills of the Lakers in one season.

The game started, in this game, the main players of the Rockets were in hot condition, and at the beginning, Yao Ming in the middle distance scored consecutive goals and scored continuously.

On the Lakers' side, the OK combination was also a variety of connections, and in the first half of the first quarter, the two teams played a 12:12 tie.

The game then went to an official timeout.

After a pause, Qiao Hai adjusted his defense, pinched O'Neal on the inside, did not let O'Neal take the ball, and then used Ron Artest one-on-one Kobe.

With such an adjustment, Kobe Bryant was originally reluctant to pass the ball to O'Neal, but now O'Neal was crazy and was pinched, Kobe Bryant found a reason and stopped passing the ball directly.

O'Neal couldn't receive the ball at all, but the Lakers scored one after another from the outside, especially Kobe Bryant, whose waist back hit and turned over jumpers very accurately, scoring consecutive goals, and it seemed that Qiao Hai's strategy was a failure.

At the end of the first quarter, the Rockets led the Lakers by 1 point at 31:30.

Yao Ming had 13 points and six rebounds in the first quarter, Dwayne Wade had seven points and three assists, and Gary Payton had six points.

For the Lakers, Bryant had 15 points and 2 assists, but O'Neal only scored 7 points.

In the second quarter, the game was still scorching, the Rockets continued to pinch O'Neal, Kobe Bryant's scoring was no longer as easy as in the first quarter, and his hand began to decline.

The Rockets continued to pinch O'Neal, and finally it had an effect, O'Neal couldn't score, and Kobe Bryant was struggling to support himself.

Role players like Karl Malone and Derrick Fisher are hard to do.

In the second half of the second quarter, after the Rockets changed back to Yao Ming, a wave of 17:4, counting the lead of 1 point in the first quarter, at halftime, the Rockets led the Lakers by 14 points at 60:46.

With a 14-point lead at halftime, the gap is not too big or small, and the Lakers still have a chance to turn the tables around.

But Qiao Hai knows that the Rockets have won this game, because the Lakers have no means to turn the tables, unless Kobe Bryant feels hot and breaks out in two consecutive quarters, but the possibility is obviously not large, and Ron Artest is not a decoration.

In the second half, the Rockets continued to pinch O'Neal, and then Yao Ming continued to score in the middle distance, and the Rockets continued to widen the difference.

In the end, this game turned into another game, at least in terms of statistics, Yao Ming broke Shaquille O'Neal's game.

The statistics after the game showed that Yao Ming had 29 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks, dominating both offensive and defensive ends.

O'Neal had 19 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 blocks, and he played well on the defensive end, but he didn't get many opportunities on offense.

The Rockets won the game 113-98.

Beat the Lakers four times this season and got his 61st win of the season!

……

After playing the Lakers, the rest of the Rockets' season is not important.

On April 4, the Rockets made another big rotation and then lost to the Kings.

On April 6, Qiao Hai only let the main team play half of the game, and then led the Warriors by a wide margin at halftime, and finally won the game 117-90, the 62nd victory of the season.

In back-to-back games against the Clippers on April 7, the Rockets played again as a half-main force and half-bench, and the fierce four-quarter game was fiercely attacked, Dwayne Wade hit a key two points before the end, and the Rockets led by 4 points, and then the game entered a penalty shootout.

In the end, the Rockets defeated the Clippers 97-90, winning two consecutive games and getting the 63rd victory of the season, so far, the Rockets have locked the first place in the league!

Then, two more back-to-back games, the Rockets beat the Nuggets and then lost to the Jazz, and after one win and one loss, the Rockets got their 64th win of the season.

In the last two games of the regular season, the Rockets beat the SuperSonics and lost to the Mavericks, and then ended their 2003-2004 regular season journey.

With a record of 65 wins and 17 losses, the Rockets are ranked first in the league, and the first round of the playoffs will continue to have home-court advantage until the Finals.

The rankings of the West are as follows:

The Rockets are in first place with 65 wins and 17 losses, followed by the Timberwolves, who played steadily in the first half of the season and exploded in the second half of the season, who have won 57 games and are second in the West.

Third in the West is the Lakers with 55 wins, but in reality, their record is a little worse than the Spurs.

The Spurs have a 56-26 record, but because of the rule that the division champion must be in the top three, the Spurs are the Rockets, so they can only finish behind the Lakers and fourth in the West.

The Kings, with 54 wins, are fifth.

The 51-31 Mavericks are in sixth place.

Then there are the Grizzlies, who have 50 wins, and they are only seventh in the West, well below expectations.

The Jazz last to make the Western Conference playoffs have a 42-40 record, which is directly a notch below the top seven in the West.

The Trail Blazers, who are eighth in ESPN's predictions, have a 41-41 record and are close to making the playoffs, but ultimately fall short.

At the end of the final game of the regular season, the Trail Blazers announced that head coach Morris Cheeks had failed to lead the team to the playoffs and was officially out of class at the end of the season.

And Morris Cheeks showed great helplessness in his resignation speech: "If Portland was in the East, we would be fifth or sixth in the East, but unfortunately, we are in the West, and we have to face seven super strong teams with 50 wins, including a Rockets ...... with 65 wins."

The eastern part of Morris Cheeks' mouth is ranked as follows:

At the top of the list are the Pistons, who have exploded this season with 61 wins, followed by the Nets, who are 52-30, and the Pacers, who are 49-33.

These three teams are the three strongest teams in the East, and the next few teams are immediately a notch weaker than the top three in the East.

In fourth place is the Hornets with 42 wins and 40 losses, the Raptors are fifth with 41 wins and 41 losses, and the Bucks are also 41 wins and 41 losses in sixth place.

The 39-43 Knicks are seventh, and the 36-46 Celtics are narrowly missing eighth in the East to make the playoffs.

The Cavaliers led by the little emperor LeBron James, although the winning rate at the end of the season has increased significantly, they only won 35 games and finally missed the playoffs.

The race for the best rookie has become confusing, with LeBron James having good stats but a poor record, Carmelo Anthony having a mediocre stats and record, and Wade having a good record and mediocre stats.

……

Obviously, the Rockets' final regular season record was to break the predictions of all North American media reporters, commentators, and experts, and they ended up in first place in the league, far exceeding ESPN's prediction of sixth place in the West and also surpassing Hoop Sports' prediction of second place in the West.

Qiao Hai's team has once again become a dark horse, but no team will treat the Rockets as a dark horse, because in the regular season, the Rockets showed some dominance, as evidenced by the 22-game winning streak.

In terms of the stats of the Rockets regular season:

Yao Ming averaged 27.8 points, 10.9 points, 2.3 assists and 2.0 blocks per game in the regular season, playing an MVP-level individual performance.

Then there is Dwayne Wade, who averages 17.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.8 blocks per game, and Gary Payton, who averages 15.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 2.2 steals per game.

Ron Artest also averaged 14.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.9 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 0.7 blocks per game, and Chris Anderson, who only got a two-year contract at the beginning of the season, averaged 6.9 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game.

The best bench stats are Jamal Crawford, who averages 9.8 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game, followed by Boris Dio, who averages 7.0 points and 1.9 assists per game.

Overall, the Rockets are averaging 104.5 points per game this season, second in the league, behind the Mavericks, who have the most offensive firepower, and ahead of the Kings, another offensive powerhouse.

Hoop Sports' assessment: "There is no specific system, Qiao Hai attacked again in Houston and then played again with at least a very spectacular attack, but at the same time, their defense was not bad......"

The Rockets' defense was still ranked in the top five in the league in the first half of the season, and in the second half of the season, it declined slightly because of its focus on offense, but it was still ranked in the top 15 in the league, which can be regarded as the defense in the upper reaches of the league.

Both offense and defense are good, and naturally no one dares to underestimate this Rocket, not to mention, the head coach of this Rockets is still Qiao Hai, who has won the O'Brien Cup three times in the past five seasons.