3 reasons why small ball has improved the Houston Rockets so far this season

#2 The stats speak for themselves

PJ Tucker in action against the Phoenix Suns earlier this month

The Rockets have won seven of their nine games played since Capela's departure. In this stretch, they have beaten teams including the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and Utah Jazz - while improving to 36-20 for the season, where they sit fourth in the Western Conference and pose a threat to the other championship contending teams.

Offensively, the team has been led from the front by the dynamic duo of James Harden and Russell Westbrook, with the pair producing exceptional numbers on a nightly basis. To our surprise, the defensive statistics have not been declining either. With a defensive rating of 110.6 in the post-Capela phase thus far, they have improved across most categories.

They lead the league in steals per game, while recording five blocks per game over the same strretch. Defensive rebounding is a category where they are unsurprisingly lagging behind without a traditional big man on-court, but we can expect that to improve during the business months of this NBA regular season.