by ricealum
The Houston Rockets schedule is available in an Excel spreadsheet, making it available to anyone running Excel or a compatible spreadsheet, such as AppleWorks, Star Office, or OpenOffice.
The Houston Rockets schedule is available in an Excel spreadsheet, making it available to anyone running Excel or a compatible spreadsheet, such as AppleWorks, Star Office, or OpenOffice. To download, click here: Rockets.xls.zip. It's a zip file; use your favorite decompression utility to expand it into an Excel file. I recommend Stuffit Expander.
The spreadsheet looks something like this. Read on for features and instructions.
The spreadsheet tracks several interesting statistics as you fill it in, helping you see how the team is doing and predict how it will finish.
Current Record: The team's record as of the most recent score entered.
Last 10, Streak: These allow you to see whether the team is hot, cold,
or somewhere in between. You'll also see the team's best and worst streaks
of the season — great for remembering that 20 game streak last month! 
Margin: This is the average margin of victory. The higher, the better. Teams with a negative number here are generally lottery teams, and teams with a 5-10 point margin are playoff teams. 10+ is a dominating team with championship aspirations.
Home/Away: The teams's record at home and on the road. Teams generally do better at home. A good team tries to lose 10 or less at home and break even on the road. A great team tries to lose 6 or less at home and win at least 25 on the road.
"Redeye" Games: This is the team's record in the second half of back-to-back games with travel between games. Usually teams with a good "redeye" record are either young, deep, or very disciplined.
Projected: How the team is likely to finish based on their current record and remaining games. It takes into account how many hames are remaining at home and on the road and how the team is doing at home and on the road, but it does not take into account opponents' records.
Vs. Division/Conference: This shows you the team's current record against teams in the same division and conference. this record is used to determine playoff seeding in case of a tie in overall schedule and record between the two tied teams.
Overtime: The team's record in games that go to overtime. Teams with a good overtime record are usually smart, disciplined, and not prone to turnovers and other mistakes.
Vs. Each Division: The team's record against treams from the six divisions.
Close Games, Blowouts: Not terribly useful, but interesting. Teams with a good record in close games are usually smart and disciplined, while teams with a bad record are prone to turnovers and other lapses. Teams with a good blowout record are usually pretty good, while teams with a bad record are usually pretty bad. However, these records are determined solely by the final margin, limiting their usefulness. How many times have you heard, "That game wasn't nearly as close as the final score indicates"? This spreadsheet can't tell if the game was close or not except by the final score.
Link to Yahoo: The blue "arrows" are links to the Yahoo Sports recaps of each game. Example: Here is the link to the 2004–05 season opener against Detroit: >>
Entering Game Results: Just enter the score for your team followed by the score for the opponent. If you enter 99-90, it means your team won. If you lost, enter 90-99.
If the game went to overtime, enter something (like an asterisk) in the "Overtime" column. (It doesn't matter what you put there, but asterisks look good.) I enter an asterisk for each overtime period, such as *** for triple overtime, but that's just for my use: the spreadsheet doesn't use it.
Remember to save, and that's it!
If the font size, column widths, page margins, etc., don't look right, or if you need to change something else, the spreadsheet is pretty easy to customize. Let's say you want to change what the spreadsheet considers a close game (margin of 3 or less) or a blowout (margin of 15 or more). The "close game" stat tracks games that were still in play at the end, since a 3-pointer at the buzzer would have changed the outcome. But if you think a close game should be 6 or less, feel free to make it that way.
To change something, you must first unprotect the spreadsheet — it is locked to prevent you from accidentally overwriting a formula, but there is no password.
In Excel, go to Tools > Protection > Unprotect Workbook. If you are prompted for a password, leave the password field empty and click OK.
Now scroll all the way to the top and then right until you see the yellow "Customize" box. Enter a new value in the close or blowout box, re-protect the spreadsheet, and save. (Note that if you and a close game to be 6 or less, you would enter "7" in the "Close" box!)
That's it!