With the Rockets right in the thick of things in the Western Conference playoff race and how tightly packed the top 8 or 9 teams are, it’s starting to get fun to watch what the other teams are doing. So occasionally I’ll reference what they are doing to get a better sense of the Rockets’ potential playoff opponents. Not that it really matters, though, because whatever the matchups end up being, they’re all going to be tough.

On Saturday night, New Orleans played the Spurs in San Antonio, and the Hornets came back from a 17-point deficit to tie the game with 7:05 remaining in the game, but couldn’t pull out a victory. Both teams are now tied at the top of the Southwest division at 37-17. I was pulling more for the Hornets since I think the Spurs will be a tougher opponent.

In that game, new Hornet forward Bonzi Wells played 19 minutes and made only 1-of-7 shots for 2 points. Ouch.

I was surprised that Mike James, who had hardly played with the Rockets before being traded to the Hornets, got 15 minutes of playing time – more than Chris Paul’s backup Jannero Pargo (14 minutes). The Hornets must be really desperate to play a rusty James that many minutes. James made 2-of-3 shots for 5 points and was in the game late when the Hornets tried to steal the victory. The one shot he missed shot really hurt the Hornets from being able to steal a victory.

Milwaukee amazingly came back from a 23-point deficit to beat Denver. The Nuggets have now lost 3 of their last 4 games, which is all good for the Rockets.

Atlanta gave Utah fits in Salt Lake, but couldn’t pull off the upset, losing 100-94. With Denver’s loss, that gives Utah more breathing room with a 2.5 game lead in the Northwest division, as well as give Houston a 2-game lead over Denver for the 7th seed.

Here’s what the standings look like after all games ended late Saturday night taking into account tie-breakers:

1. *LA Lakers
2. Phoenix – .5 games back from conference lead
3. *San Antonio – .5 games back
4. *Utah – 2.5 games back
5. New Orleans – .5 games back
6. Dallas – 2.0 games back
7. Houston – 3.0 games back
8. Golden St. – 5.0 games back
9. Denver – 5.0 games back

*Division leader

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 2:50 am and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.