NO team in the NBA divides opinion like the Houston Rockets. Embracing the creep of advanced analytics, they have doubled down on their “small-ball” style, lining up lately without a traditional centre, shooting an obscene number of three-pointers and, thanks largely to James Harden’s unique ability to draw contact, benefitting from more free throws than any other team.

Some fans credit the Rockets for their experimental, uber-modern approach; traditionalists tend to rail against their unconventional tactics. Either way, having gone 7-1 through February and with their undersized strategy now seeing the best of Harden and Russell Westbrook, the team’s two superstars and former MVPs, the Rockets have to be respected.

Westbrook took time to hit stride in Houston following his move from the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he had previously been a team-mate of Harden, last summer. Recovering full sharpness after off-season hand surgery and adapting to a vastly different system in which he had to play second fiddle to Harden, the 31-year-old, so often spectacular, was merely solid for much of the season’s first half.

And, stylistically, Westbrook always seemed an awkward fit for this Rockets team. The 2017 MVP is a historically bad three-point shooter who, despite his vast athletic gifts, draws warranted criticism for, at times, poor shot selection – hardly the ideal point guard for a side who attempt (44.6) and convert (15.7) more threes per game than any other. For much of the first half of the year, Harden, the league’s leading scorer, was carrying more than his share of the offensive burden.

Westbrook’s signing wasn’t the Rockets’ first attempt at partnering Harden with a co-star, either. Dwight Howard failed to hit the heights of his Orlando Magic pomp at Toyota Center, but he did help Houston reach the Western Conference Finals in 2015. And Chris Paul, a more skilled perimeter shooter than Westbrook, represented a fine stylistic fit and aided the Rockets on another run to the Western Finals in 2018, before physical decline and a reported fallout with Harden saw him traded, along with two first-round draft picks, to Oklahoma for Westbrook.

Since transitioning to “small ball” after the trade deadline, the Rockets’ defense has seen a significant increase in its frequency of contesting shots.

Before Feb 6, Houston contested 77.8% of shots, 29th in the league. Since, they’ve contested 82.3%, good for 5th in that span. pic.twitter.com/ho6GzRZEKL

— Second Spectrum (@SecondSpectrum) February 26, 2020

It initially looked as though another Conference Finals run might be beyond the Rockets in their current incarnation. But, having experimented with line-ups in which Harden, at 6’ 5”, was their tallest starter, they decided to ship out 6’ 10” centre Clint Capela at the trade deadline in early February in return for the 6’ 7” sharp-shooting forward Robert Covington as part of a four-team, 12-player trade, doubling down on their innovative approach.

The very next day, without a conventional centre on the floor, the Rockets beat the West-leading L.A. Lakers 121-111. So successful has their small-ball style been, they have won 10 of their last 13 games, a run which includes that Lakers victory and two wins over the Boston Celtics, one of the league’s in-form teams. And throughout this stretch, Westbrook had looked unstoppable. The quality and quantity of shooting around him, plus the lack of a traditional big man clogging up the key, has opened up more driving lanes for his trademark bursts to the basket and dagger off-ball cuts from the perimeter to the rim.

For the month of February, Westbrook averaged 33.4 points per game, 7.3 rebounds and six assists. He even improved his three-point efficiency to 40 per cent, compared to his woeful season’s average of 25.3 per cent, by reducing the number of threes he was attempting and focusing on quality looks.

“I just try to find ways every year to be better and find ways to become a better player and team-mate,” Westbrook said after an over-time win against the Celtics on 29 February. “Obviously based on the changes we made and the way we line up, I have to find ways to constantly keep being effective and help my team win games and that’s what I try to do.

“Right now I think I’m moving in the right direction. I’ve just got to stay locked in on what I’m doing and my craft and keep doing what I’ve been doing since I’ve been in the league, and that’s going out and competing every night.”

“You can’t go to the supermarket and buy heart,” added Mike D’Antoni, the Rockets coach who has been named the Western Conference Coach of the Month for February, in praise of Westbrook’s form. “You know he has that. It’s pretty impressive.”

Westbrook was the second-highest scorer in the league by per-game average last month, and Harden, who still leads overall, was third. For the first time in NBA history, two players on the same team each averaged more than 30 points and five assists in the same calendar month. The Rockets are the only team in the NBA who can count two former MVPs among their number; it’s scary for the rest of the league that they have now found a way of getting both to perform to their best simultaneously.

The key to the Rockets’ small-ball working is the aggressiveness of their defensive work. They might not be the biggest guys individually but they are, to a man, physically strong and use their power and lower centre of gravity to prevent opponents getting clean looks down in the paint. Westbrook practically bullied 7’ 0” centre Rudy Gobert in a recent win over the Utah Jazz, for example, and gritty forward P.J. Tucker is one of the toughest defenders in the league.

Whether their unique style can win a championship remains to be seen – they currently sit fourth in the West, on a 39-21 record. But, like them or loathe them, the small-ball Rockets are the most fascinating team in the NBA right now.