Tag: Southwest Division

Rockets clinch third straight division title with win over Kings

With Sunday’s win, the Rockets clinched the NBA’s Southwest Division title for a third straight season and the fourth time since 2015.

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.

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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‘Magic number’ for Rockets to win Southwest Division drops to one

With four games left to play, the Rockets (43-25) have a lead of 3.5 games over Dallas (41-30) in the NBA’s Southwest Division.

With only four games left to play in the 2019-20 regular season, the Houston Rockets (43-25) now have a lead of 3.5 games on the Dallas Mavericks (41-30) in the NBA’s Southwest Division (standings).

That gives Houston a “magic number” of one, meaning that any Rockets win or Mavs loss over the combined eight games left to be played would mathematically clinch the division title for the Rockets.

It will be the eighth division title in franchise history, and the fourth since 2015. Previous Southwest winners in the James Harden era came in the 2014-15, 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19 seasons.

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Beyond adding a line to the banner at Toyota Center, the more practical benefit is that finishing ahead of the Mavs ensures that the Rockets cannot finish below the No. 6 spot in the very close race for Western Conference playoff seeding. 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.

By finishing somewhere 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 somewhat unlikely, since the Jazz (42-25) are resting four starters in Friday’s game versus San Antonio.

When the Mavs led the Rockets by seven points in the final minute last Friday, 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 now they’re on the verge of another division crown.

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The earliest the Rockets could clinch the Southwest is Saturday, when the Mavs face the Milwaukee Bucks (55-14) at the NBA “bubble” in Florida. If the division isn’t clinched then, the Rockets can do it themselves on Sunday, when they return to action against Sacramento (29-39).

Tip-off between the Rockets and Kings is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Central on Sunday, with the game televised on AT&T SportsNet Southwest.

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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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