The Rockets spent the night in Utah watching Denver lose in Phoenix and Portland lose to Philadelphia in Portland. That is tremendously helpful for the Rockets to hang onto one of the top 4 seeds. The dream playoff seedings are the following...keep in mind I'm going with a very plausible scenario.
1. LA
2. Houston
3. Denver
4. San Antonio
5. Utah
6. New Orleans
7. Portland
8. Dallas
That would put the three teams least likely to be beaten by the Rockets in the postseason all on the other half of the bracket (LAL, SA & Utah).
Houston has ten games remaining - 4 at home (LAC, Port, Orlando, New Orleans). They must win each of those games and there is no reason they shouldn't. The 6 remaining road games are very challenging - (Utah, Phx, LAL, GS, Sacramento & Dallas). A split leaves the Rockets at 54-28. That should be good enough for no worse than the 4th spot considering they'd be handing Portland and New Orleans each a loss.
Here are the remaining schedules for the 6 teams that trail the Rockets - their schedules look awfully tough don't they!
DENVER (12)-HOME (6): 3/28 GS, 3/31 NY, 4/2 UTA, 4/4 LAC, 4/8 OKC, 4/13 SAC.
ROAD (5): 3/25 NO, 3/27 DAL, 4/5 MIN, 4/9 LAL, 4/15 POR.
SAN ANTONIO (13)-HOME (6): 3/24 GS, 3/27 LAC, 3/31 OKC, 4/8 POR, 4/10 UTA, 4/15 NO.
ROAD (7): 3/25 ATL, 3/29 NO, 4/3 IND, 4/5 CLE, 4/7 OKC, 4/12 SAC, 4/13 GS.
NEW ORLEANS (13) - HOME (5): 3/25 DEN, 3/29 SA, 4/5 UTA, 4/8 PHO, 4/12 DAL.
ROAD (8): 3/27 NY,3/31 SAC,4/1 LAC,4/3 GS,4/7 MIA,4/10 DAL,4/13 HOU, 4/15 SA.
PORTLAND (11)-HOME (6): 3/26 PHO, 3/28 MEM, 3/31 UTA, 4/10 LAL, 4/13 OKC, 4/15 DEN.
ROAD (5): 4/3 OKC, 4/5 HOU, 4/7 MEM, 4/8 SA, 4/11 LAC.
UTAH (13) - HOME (6): 3/24 HOU, 3/28 PHO, 3/30 NY, 4/3 MIN, 4/11 GS, 4/13 LAC.
ROAD (7): 3/25 PHO, 3/31 POR, 4/2 DEN, 4/5 NO, 4/8 DAL, 4/10 SA, 4/14 LAL.
DALLAS (12)-HOME (8): 3/25 GS, 3/27 DEN, 4/1 MIA, 4/5 PHO, 4/8 UTA, 4/10 NO, 4/13 MIN, 4/15 HOU.
ROAD (4): 3/29 CLE, 3/31 MIN, 4/3 MEM, 4/12 NO.
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