If we beat OKC and bucks beat OKC as their last home game, then spurs and clippers can both lose and OKC will still be 8th spot.
One thing about playing Spurs.... They are featuring DeRozan now, who has been a perennial playoff choker in his time in Toronto. I would rather Rockets not play OKC. No matter how much they are struggling, they like to get up to play the Rockets and have some wings to bother Harden.
I want no part of the Jazz in the playoffs because of their horrible fans, and Ricky Rubio is a worse flopper than Harden. I don't want the Thunder neither because they will get the Rockets tired. Spurs/Clippers in the first round, then Nuggets in the second round are the best match up for the Rockets.
obviously no body wants any playoff team, because every team is practically a 50 win team.. but lets be honest in the order of ranking the rockets are the second worst team that any playoff team wants to see, with warriors being the least favorite and for warriors we are obviously the last team they want to face.. So take solace in the fact that as much as you don't want to see them, they don't want to see you even worst.
If the Rockets are the 2nd seed, the only team they need to worry about is the Warriors. Sure, their first round opponent may be a tough out, but they should still be the favorite to advance to the 2nd round. Shoot, the T'Wolves were actually a pretty tough 8th seed last year all things considered. Let's not forget that the Rockets barely eeked out Game 1 against Minnesota, lost Game 3, and it was a 1-point game at the half in Game 4 before that 50-point 3rd quarter put that series out of reach.
Utah tanking to face the Blazers is not a lock. OKC wins out. Portland loses one. Jazz lose two. Rockets 3, Portland 4, OKC 5, Jazz 6. Jazz play Rockets in the first round anyway. Utah may try anyway, but its still a gamble. And the way Denver is trying to manipulate the bracket, they probably want Utah to win, so that they stay in the opposite half of the bracket. Denver might rest some starters again.
No way OKC goes to 5th and Jazz play Rockets. I don't see that happening. That's so unlikely. You watch, we will end up playing the Spurs and LAC take 7th and OKC 8th.
I think we’ll end up playing OKC. They will have a lot of motivation for our game. They’re basically a loser team that shows up every once in a while, tomorrow will be one of those days
I don't think its likely either. I'm just countering that Utah might tank to avoid the Rockets. We will see what Denver does again. They actually might tank to keep Utah in the 5th spot since they don't match up well with them either. They are already gambling that OKC will beat the Rockets. They can lose to Utah to keep them in the 5th spot, hope OKC beats the Rockets, win their last game against Minnesota and still keep the 2nd spot. Best case scenario for Denver is to get Houston/Utah in the 4/5 spot with the winner facing Warriors. Losing to Utah will help the cause. We might see a tank off with both teams trying to lose.
Yeah out of al first round opponents , id want to play OKC the least . You just know PG will get away with being very physical with harden
Seriously doe, **** the nuggets, if this ends up backfiring on them I hope the team remembers in the post season
Their post-All-Star schedule is a joke though. They've had maybe 5 tough games in that stretch and they're 3-2 in those(both losses are to OKC).
Utah is my preferred first round matchup. They're good, but every matchup seems pretty tough and we destroyed their defensive gameplan in last year's playoffs. Our last game against them we beat them by 27 points on the second night of a back to back. Gobert cannot check James Harden or CP3 on those switches.
Well if the Rockets lose to OKC will it be because they hope to come in 4th and play Utah instead of the Spurs? I just don't see teams losing on purpose personally. Just because some teams are smart and rest players instead of risking unnecessary injuries like we do so many times when already winning by 30 points doesn't mean they are tanking for seeding. Too much conspiracy theories made over keeping players healthy for when it counts. Our guys are some of the few who don't even rest when injured and that isn't necessarily a smarter approach. Guess we will see come playoffs If our guys hold up after running them way more than necessary.
The remaining schedule for the Western playoff teams will go down like this: Golden State @ New Orleans = Golden State wins Golden State @ Memphis = Golden State wins Denver @ Utah = Denver wins Denver vs. Minnesota = Denver wins Houston @ OKC = Houston wins Portland @ Lakers = Portland wins Portland vs. Sacramento = Portland wins Utah @ Clippers = Clippers win OKC @ Milwaukee = Milwaukee wins San Antonio vs Dallas = San Antonio wins ..resulting in the following playoff seeds: 1. GS - 58-24 2. Den 55-27 3. Hou 54–28 4. Port 53-29 5. Utah 49-33 6. Spurs 48-34 7. Clips 48-34 8. OKC 47-35 Houston will play the Spurs in the first round of the playoffs. NOTE: the Spurs and Clips will have a tie by having the same record. They also tie again because neither team has a winning record against the other team. They aren't in the same division, so they don't qualify for tiebreaker #3... so it resorts to which team had a higher winning percentage against opponents in the Western conference. Spurs will have a better record (30-22) than the Clips (28-24) against Western opponents. Therefore, Spurs will get the 6th seed.
