QuasiMondo

Yao Ming is out for the season with a broken foot, and the Rockets still manage to roll out a 20-game winning streak. Sure, they were on a 12-game roll when they lost him, but just by some simple statistical digging of their W-L column, I've noticed an interestng trend.

Before the injury, the Rockets averaged 100 points per game; after the injury, they're averaging 102 points per game. On the defensive side, before the injury, they allowed an average of 90 points per game; after the injury, 87 points. They've gone from defeating their oppoinents by an average of 10 points per game, to 16. If that doesn't convince you that the Ewing Theory is in effect, this will: On the night that the Rockets announced that Yao would be out for the remaineder of the season, the Rockets handed the Washington Wizards a 25-point beatdown.

How is all of this happening? It's quite simple: The Ewing Theory

An eerie phenemenom, surpassed in its legendary power only to the (now dead) Curse of the Bambino and (not dead yet) Curse of the Billy Goat, the theory is responsible for causing teams to perform better without their star player. The most famous example of this theory in action is the 1999 Knicks, who lost Ewing himself to injury, but still went on to make it all the way to the NBA finals without him.

Qualifiers for the Ewing Theory:

A star athlete receives an inordinate amount of media attention and fan interest, and yet his teams never win anything substantial with him (other than maybe some early-round playoff series).

Yao generates a lot of media attention, especially in China. But in the six years he's been playing for the Rockets, they've only made it to the playoffs three times, and were eliminated in the first round each time.

That same athlete leaves his team (either by injury, trade, graduation, free agency or retirement) -- and both the media and fans immediately write off the team for the following season.

The writeoff: From The Big Lead: "Cross the Rockets off your playoff list, and start thinking on how you’re going to unload Tracy McGrady! The Houston Chronicle reports that Yao will miss the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his left foot."

The aftermath: Houston is currently one game behind the Lakers in the Western Conference (tied with San Antonio).

If the Ewing Theory holds (and there is no good reason why it shouldn't), we may be looking at Houston upsetting the Lakers to become the 2008 Western Conference champions.

Scary stuff indeed.

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Cameron originally envisioned the Terminator as a small, unremarkable man, giving it the ability to blend in more easily. As a result, his first choice for the part was Lance Henriksen. O. J. Simpson was on the shortlist but Cameron did not think that such a nice guy could be a ruthless killer.

-From the Collector's Edition DVD of The Terminator

Ilow

Good to see another Sports Guy reader.
I am surprised at how many awesome teams never accumulated long win streaks. For instance the current Celtics streak (a modest 10 gamer) is their longest in 22 years! No Long 80's Lakers streak, no great 90's teams? I don't know, it's difficult to believe that several FOOTBALL teams would have longer streaks. [shrug]

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"Religion is the one area of our discourse in which it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about"
--Sam Harris

QuasiMondo

There were a couple of good '90s teams that had impressive win streaks. 96 Bulls won 18 straight, 96 Spurs won 17 straight, and the 91 Lakers won 16 straight, but I don't think anybody's ever going to come close to the 72 Lakers.

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Cameron originally envisioned the Terminator as a small, unremarkable man, giving it the ability to blend in more easily. As a result, his first choice for the part was Lance Henriksen. O. J. Simpson was on the shortlist but Cameron did not think that such a nice guy could be a ruthless killer.

-From the Collector's Edition DVD of The Terminator