Standings update: Rockets edge closer to top three in West

The Rockets (34-20) haven’t played since Tuesday, but they benefited from a pair of losses by the Nuggets (38-17) and Clippers (37-18).

The Rockets finished up their schedule before the 2020 NBA All-Star break with Tuesday’s 116-105 home victory over Boston. It was Houston’s fifth win in seven games, lifting them to 34-20 overall and maintaining their position at No. 5 in the Western Conference playoff race.

But even though the Rockets didn’t play Wednesday or Thursday, they still improved their relative position in the standings.

Of the four teams in front of Houston in the West, two of them lost their final games heading into the All-Star break. Denver (38-17) lost at home Wednesday to the Lakers, while the Clippers (37-18) lost Thursday at Boston. That brings the Rockets within two games in the loss column of the No. 3 seed, and three games of the No. 2 seed.

Going by current winning percentage, the Rockets have the easiest remaining schedule of any current West playoff team. The Nuggets, who currently hold the No. 2 seed, have the hardest schedule by winning percentage of any team in the West’s top seven spots.

The Rockets also have an easier schedule on paper than No. 6 Oklahoma City and No. 7 Dallas, who are currently just two games behind Houston in the loss column. In particular, Houston needs to hold off the Mavericks, since winning the Southwest Division could give the Rockets a significant boost in potential tiebreaker scenarios.

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By standings impact, Houston’s biggest remaining games are Saturday, Feb. 22 at Utah and Thursday, March 5 at home versus the Clippers.

The Rockets trail No. 4 Utah by two games, which means they could cut the deficit in half with a win in their second game after the All-Star break. Since eight teams make the playoffs in each conference, getting into the top four assures home-court advantage in at least one round.

More importantly, because the Rockets and Jazz only play three times, the winner of that Feb. 22 game in Salt Lake City will secure the season series and potential tiebreaker between the teams. Both Houston and Utah have now won on the other’s home floor following Bojan Bogdanovic’s shocking buzzer-beater at Toyota Center earlier this week.

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There’s similar importance to the March 5 matchup with the Clippers. Based on current standings, it would be an opportunity to halve the deficit. Moreover, it could also determine the tiebreaker, since Houston currently leads Los Angeles in the season series by a 2-1 margin.

If the Rockets and Clippers split the season series at 2-2, as Houston already did with Denver, then winning the Southwest could prove critical — since the next tiebreaker in two-team scenarios after head-to-head results is whether a team won its division.

Going by the all-important loss column, Houston leads the Southwest Division by two games over Dallas, while the Clippers trail the Lakers in the Pacific by a whopping six games. The Nuggets do have a lead in the Northwest, but only by a game over the Jazz.

Thus, whether the Rockets can hold off Dallas could prove critical in not only being ahead of the Mavs in the standings, but also with potential tiebreakers involving other teams. The Rockets and Mavs, who have split their two games so far, play March 23 and Apr. 7, both in Dallas.

Houston likely needs to win at least one of those games, since allowing the Mavs to take both would give them the head-to-head tiebreaker versus the Rockets while also making up the current two-game gap.

The Rockets resume play next Thursday at Golden State (12-43), who has the NBA’s worst record this season. Tip-off is at 9:30 p.m. Central, with the game televised nationally on TNT.

If the Rockets can take care of business there, in a way that they did not on Christmas Day, that could give Houston a chance to continue its move up the standings — since other West playoff teams (such as Denver at Oklahoma City on Friday) have tougher games out of the break.

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