With a victory on Sunday night over Sacramento (box score), the Houston Rockets (44-25) officially clinched the Southwest Division title.
The win by the Rockets puts them 3.5 games ahead of Dallas (42-30) in the standings. Since there are only three games left for both teams, the Mavericks are unable to make up that deficit, no matter what happens over the final week of the 2019-20 regular season.
This is the eighth division title in Rockets franchise history, and the fourth since 2015. Previous Southwest champions in the James Harden era came in the 2014-15, 2017-18, and 2018-19 seasons.
Beyond adding a line to the Toyota Center banner, the more practical benefit is that finishing ahead of the Mavs ensures that the Rockets cannot finish below the No. 6 spot in a very close race for playoff seeding in the Western Conference. There’s a clear incentive to avoid the No. 7 seed, since the West’s No. 2 (the first-round opponent) is likely to be reigning NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers.
The division title is also very helpful in some tiebreaker scenarios.
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By finishing between No. 3 and No. 6, Houston is likely to play either Oklahoma City, Utah, or Denver in the first round. Even the No. 6 seed appears to be becoming unlikely, since the Jazz (43-27) have now lost two consecutive games and are two back of Houston in the loss column.
If the Rockets *want* the 3 seed, it's still possible. Should Houston keep winning, Denver would only need to lose two of Lakers/Clippers/Raptors.
That said, even though it'd be Utah in the first round… not sure if Houston would want that, since it means Clippers in Round 2.
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) August 8, 2020
When the Mavs led the Rockets by seven points in the final minute on July 31, Dallas was only 45 seconds away from trimming Houston’s division lead to a half-game and putting the No. 7 seed squarely in play. But the historic comeback by Harden and the Rockets quashed that notion, and barely over a week later, it has led to another division crown.
Houston returns to action on Tuesday vs. San Antonio, with eyes on moving even higher in the race for West playoff seeding. Tip-off between the Rockets and Spurs is set for 1:00 p.m. Central, with a national broadcast on NBA TV and regional on AT&T SportsNet Southwest.
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