At 15-6, the Houston Rockets have moved just past the quarter pole of the 82-game regular season. That total of six losses is tied for the second-fewest in the 2025-26 Western Conference.

Yet, the Rockets aren’t entirely satisfied. They rank second in the NBA in overall net rating (+10.8) and defensive rating, trailing only the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. They are fourth in offensive rating.

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Of those six losses, five were games that could have been won in the fourth quarter. Crunch-time execution, particularly in half-court situations, has been an occasional issue. So, with a team led by a pair of 2025 All-Stars in Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun, the Rockets believe they’re capable of more.

Coming off Saturday’s short-handed loss at Dallas on night two of a split back-to-back, the Rockets are currently in a rare scheduling break, with their next game not coming until Thursday (home versus the Los Angeles Clippers).

So, in the aftermath of a stretch with five games in seven nights, head coach Ime Udoka allowed his weary team to take Sunday and Monday off, entirely.

But Tuesday, the Rockets were back at it inside their Houston practice facility, and team activities included both a film session and a competitive practice.

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Speaking post-practice, Udoka offered this assessment to local reporters (via Space City Home Network, SCHN):

It’s always good to dive into what we’ve done, and look at some trends. And then, we attack those on the court.

We want to be great, but I think we’ve been good, overall. If you look at the record, 15-6, there are some positives there. But we also feel like we let some (games) slip away, so we’re trying to find the areas where we’ve grown or had some slippage in. Overall, it’s good, but we’re trying to be better than good.

What we looked at, today, was where we were at after the first 10 games, and what was happening in the last 11. You see some good and bad trends, overall. But for the most part, when your plus-minus is where we’re at, and offense and defense is where we’re at, we’re taking some good strides. We understand there’s another level we can get to.

As far as identifying potential issues beyond crunch-time execution. the Rockets are also 0-2 on night two of back-to-backs and 15-4 in all other settings. Fortunately, they have only one back-to-back (at Denver and Sacramento on Dec. 20 and 21) remaining this month, and they hope to have additional roster reinforcements — namely, Tari Eason and Dorian Finney-Smith — before the volume of back-to-backs increases in January.

Thursday’s tipoff versus the Clippers (6-18) is at 7:00 p.m. Central from Toyota Center, and the game will be televised regionally on SCHN and nationally via NBA League Pass.

More: Tari Eason, Dorian Finney-Smith hope to rejoin Rockets in coming weeks

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Ime Udoka: 15-6 Rockets are good, but striving for ‘better than good’