For the first time in a long time, I’ll be out the next few days unable to watch Rocket games (yikes!) celebrating a family event on an out-of-town trip. But Ren is going to be blogging here after tonight’s game against Sacramento, and Friday night against Golden State. So the coverage here will continue.

I guess my trip couldn’t come at a much better time since the Kings and Warriors aren’t that good and are mired deep down in the standings. If there’s one game I’m worried about, through, it’s the game at Golden State. The Warriors run-and-gun style and athleticism always gives the Rockets fits, kind of like what Philadelphia does to them (who swept Houston this season). The Rockets have gone into Oakland before with lots to play for (this time home court in the playoffs) and have lost.

I’m going to miss seeing what happens in the standings as it plays out the next few nights. Here’s how it looks as of Thursday afternoon:

As you can see, the Rockets are tied with Portland and San Antonio at 50-28 with the 3rd, 4th and 5th seeds at stake. Denver, 2 1/2 games ahead of all 3 of these teams, has the #2 seed locked up, having gone on a pretty good tear late in the season, with a relatively easy schedule ahead of them. I don’t think anyone saw the Nuggets making the run they’ve had.

San Antonio has really struggled lately having lost 4 of their last 6 games, and with Tim Duncan’s knee giving him problems and Manu Ginobili officially out for the playoffs, they could lose home court advantage. Injuries are finally catching up with the Spurs, who were extremely lucky the past few years on the injury-front while winning their championships.

Another good thing for the Rockets is that Utah has lost 4 of their last 5 games, the latest loss coming last night in a blowout in Dallas. They’re now duking it out with Dallas for the 7th and 8th seeds. Two of Utah’s remaining 4 games are against the Spurs and Lakers ON THE ROAD, not their strong suit. So chances are high that Utah will stay at #7 or #8 and play either the Lakers or Denver in the first round, not Houston, unless they finally start bucking the trend of losing on the road against playoff-bound teams in the West.

The only caveat is that New Orleans, currently one game ahead of Utah, has a tougher schedule, having to play Dallas twice, Houston and San Antonio. If the Hornets crater, Utah could overtake them for the 6th seed, meaning the Rockets probably DON’T want to win the #3 seed and face them in the first round.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.