As expected, the 2022-23 season has been another long and often frustrating campaign for the rebuilding Houston Rockets, who appear poised to finish with one of the NBA’s two worst records for a third straight year. But there have been some bright spots of late within the team’s friendly downtown confines of Toyota Center.
The Rockets are a much more respectable 13-27 (.325) at home entering Tuesday’s home finale, including four wins in their last seven matchups. Now, as the No. 1 seed in the entire Western Conference comes to town, can the young Rockets pull off one more upset to build momentum heading into a critical 2023 offseason?
One angle that might help the Rockets is the uncertain status of back-to-back NBA MVP Nikola Jokic. The superstar big man has missed the last three games for Denver, which is listing him as questionable to play in Houston due to right calf tightness.
With four games left in the regular season, the Nuggets have a three-game cushion relative to No. 2 Memphis as they attempt to secure the No. 1 seed and home-court advantage throughout the West’s 2023 playoffs. Thus, they do have some standings buffer and can be conservative with Jokic’s usage, if they feel the need to do so.
Then again, if Jokic wants to make another MVP push, a chance to put up big numbers versus a young Houston squad and second-year center Alperen Sengun could potentially help his case.