With Utah’s 122-114 defeat (box score) in Dallas on Monday afternoon, the Houston Rockets have now officially clinched one of the top five seeded in the 2020 Western Conference playoffs.
The Rockets (44-25) are currently in fourth place in the West, with three games to play in the 2019-20 season. Number 6 Jazz (43-28) follows three games in the losing column, and since Houston holds the tiebreak, there is no scenario left for the Rockets to pass on the leaderboard.
It is also unlikely that Utah will overtake Oklahoma City (43-27), which currently holds number 5. As the Thunder also hold the Utah tiebreaker, the Jazz are expected to win their regular season finale against San Antonio (which is fighting for a place in the playoffs) is make the Thunder lose the last two games, to go to number 5.
As a result, a first round match between # 4 Rockets and # 5 Thunder is becoming more likely every day. Although the suits may change, since Oklahoma City holds the tiebreaker over Houston, that is quite irrelevant in this case, since the games are played with no advantage on the home court in the NBA’s Florida “bubble”.
The winner of that series would likely face the seeded Los Angeles Lakers (51-18) in the second round. Houston might prefer that matchup, as they defeated the Lakers in two of three fights this season, over the likely second-seeded Clippers (47-23).
Led by NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers have defeated Houston twice this season, including one defeat in March after Houston’s well-documented transition to a smaller formation. Conversely, the Rockets went 2-0 against the bigger Lakers following their stylistic change.
On paper, the Rockets could still catch the Clippers or the No. 3 (46-24) in the West standings, thus moving to the other side of the playoff group and drawing Utah or Dallas (43-30) in the first round. But if they prefer to potentially face the Lakers in the second round, rather than the Clippers, they may not want to.
The Rockets are resting superstar guard James Harden on Tuesday and All-Star mate Russell Westbrook on Wednesday, which seems to indicate they aren’t giving a huge priority to victory. Since they need to recover two games on the Nuggets and / or the Clippers in order to rise further, winning the last three games is probably the only plausible path.
As it stands, the Rockets seem happy to stay at No. 4 or no. 5 and on the side of the Lakers of the group. If so, Monday’s loss to Jazz makes it increasingly likely that Oklahoma City – and former Rockets guard Chris Paul – will be on hold as a first-round opponent.
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