With the Spurs losing Friday night to the Nuggets, Houston is only 2 games back in the standings for the top seed in the Southwest division, currently good for the #2 seed in the West. The Rockets are still 1 game behind New Orleans heading into Saturday night’s showdown with the Hornets (I’ll be there to report on it). Amazing.

Not that it means much, but San Antonio’s loss also puts alot of distance between Houston’s 17-game winning streak and the next longest current win streak in the league (Boston has won 7). Before Saturday’s loss, the Spurs had won 11 in a row.

Kenny Smith is hatin’ on the Rockets in this video that looks like it was recorded sometimes over the past couple of days. He says there is no way they can win a championship without Yao, are a 6th seed in the West “at best,” and he doesn’t even think their chances of winning a playoff series this year is possible, shaking his head emphatically when asked the question.

Sorry, Kenny, but you might end up looking really bad on at least 2 of those predictions. If the Rockets prove you wrong, I hope Charles shows this prediction to the world on your TNT show like you guys show when the Chuckster is wrong.