Reeling Rockets hold 'productive' players-only meeting

Perhaps inspired by the Sacramento Kings' success in the immediate wake of their team meeting last week, the slumping Houston Rockets decided to hold one of their own.

After losing their fourth straight game to fall to 4-7 on Monday, the Rockets held a players-only meeting Tuesday, and point guard Ty Lawson called it "productive," according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.

Lawson, who the Rockets traded for in the offseason, has gotten off to a shaky start in Houston, averaging just 8.9 points in 36.2 minutes per game while shooting 33.3 percent from the field and 27.3 percent from deep. The rest of the team has scarcely been better. James Harden finished second in MVP voting last season, insisted he should've won the award, called himself the NBA's best player, and is now posting a .372/.262/.870 shooting split while regressing to "meme-worthy" at the defensive end.

"It was a good talk," Harden said of the players' meeting. "We hadn't communicated like that since season's been going. Now, it's about carrying over."

After winning 56 games, capturing the Western Conference's No. 2 seed, and making it all the way to the conference finals last season - all despite the extended injury absences of Dwight Howard, Terrence Jones, Donatas Motiejunas, and Patrick Beverley - the Rockets came into the 2015-16 season with championship aspirations.

Those were cast into doubt right off the bat, as the Rockets became the first team in NBA history to lose their first three games of the season by at least 20 points. They appeared to rebound in short order, reeling off four straight wins right after that, but they've since dropped their last four by an average margin of more than 11 points.

Their defense ranks second-last in the NBA, after finishing sixth a season ago. Their point differential (minus-7.7) ranks 27th in the NBA, and one of the three teams with a worse mark (the Brooklyn Nets) picked up their lone win of the season against the Rockets last week. Howard said the team is embarrassed by its early record.

In spite of all that, the Rockets aren't panicking this early in the season, and appear to still be keeping things loose. They were smiling and laughing as media were let into their practice on Tuesday, according to ESPN's Calvin Watkins.

The Kings have won three consecutive games since holding their meeting, after starting the season 1-7. We'll see how the Rockets respond to theirs.