Rockets-Warriors-Jazz-Lakers | Race to the Playoffs Tracker (Projections & Results)

Golden State and Utah maybe. Not the Rockets. Want to bet?

 

While I agree that GSW has been the weakest on many power rankings compared with us, Lakers, Jazz and Mavs, I haven't forgot that they do have one of the easiest remaining schedule like ours.

I do want us to take the 6th seed from GSW, but I also have been telling myself not to believe that they will continue to slip down, just like I had the hunch that we would lose to the Suns at their home in our first match with them when they were pretty much lying flat on the floor before last night. In short, it's regression to the mean at work.

Same for the Lakers. I don't believe that Kobe will be able to continue to over-achieve at the level that he has been demonstrating after he said he'd guarantee playoff for the Lakers. It's humanly impossible. He too will regress to his mean in the majority of their remaining games. They will have a chance to get around 42 or 43 wins, but that's it.

As for the Mavs, they won't be able to catch up and go over .500 because of a much tougher remaining schedule compared with GSW, ours and the Lakers. I also believe all the teams before them would not allow that to happen.

 

In general I agree with what you said above. And it is mostly likely that we would end up at the 7th seed except for a prolonged slump of the Warriors.

The Thunder however has a great chance overtaking the Spurs and get to the top in standings, in view of Parker out for injury and the Spurs' recent performance, especially the unbelievable blowout loss to the Trail Blazers.

So if the Thunder ends up at the first seed and us at either the 6th or the 7th, there won't be a chance for us to meet them in the first round.

 

I don't look at it game by game, rather the overall schedule strength and teams' style.

The Rockets & Warriors played over .500 ball before the all-star break, I think they will be worse than .500 from here on. The reason is their style. When teams pay attention to them, these two team just won't be able to score as they'd like to, and they don't have defense to stop anyone. Last few games, neither team could score well, hence the loss. Neither team will be able to win more than 45 games this season.

I dislike the Lakers, but they definitely will move past the Rockets & the Warriors, they are just too talented. Bryant's selfishness is the only thing prevents them from moving forward.

Jazz is a puzzle to me, but their home court in the remaining games should help them to win more than half of the games. I look for them to battle the Warriors for the last spot.

 

I don't expect the finish to be according to plan, somehow we will make the playoffs and I don't think it will come down to the last game like most people are predicting. It would not surprise me one bit, if Dallas takes over Golden State. One thing for sure is we will not catch up to Denver, otherwise we are in a dogfight and I believe we will make it.

 

Wow man AWESOME thread...respect...will be checking this one daily

 

Houston Rockets | 33-29 (20 games left, Currently 7th)

Opponent | Prediction | Result

@ GSW | Win|
@ PHO | Loss |
vs PHO | Win |
vs MIN | Win |
vs GSW | Loss |
vs UTA | Loss |
vs CLE | Loss |
vs SAS | Win |
vs IND | Loss |
@ MEM | Loss |
vs LAC | Loss |
vs ORL | Win |
@ SAC | Win |
@ POR | Win |
@ DEN | Loss |
vs PHO | Win |
vs MEM | Win |
vs SAC | Win |
@ PHO | Win |
@ LAL | Loss |

My Rockets Projection: 11-9 ( Final 20 games) | 44-38 Overall - 8th seed

 

Da_Spark predicting 6-1 home stand. I expecting at least 5-2 record which put us 7 games above .500. I don't think the Rockets have been over 5 games above .500 all year.

 

Houston Rockets | 34-30 (18 games left, Currently 7th)

Opponent | Prediction | Result

vs PHO | Win |
vs MIN | Win |
vs GSW | Loss |
vs UTA | Win |
vs CLE | Win |
vs SAS | Loss |
vs IND | Loss |
@ MEM | Loss |
vs LAC | Loss |
vs ORL | Win |
@ SAC | Win |
@ POR | Loss|
@ DEN | Loss |
vs PHO | Win |
vs MEM | Win |
vs SAC | Win |
@ PHO | Win |
@ LAL | Loss |

My Rockets Projection: 10-8 ( Final 18 games) | 44-38 Overall - 7th seed

 

I see us sweeping Golden State with the last game being at home... I just have that feeling I don't know. I hope we can beat San Antonio that last time we play them. We won't beat the clippers this year. We will even things up with Portland. Nuggets seem to have our number similar to how the clippers do. OKC... Depends on Westcrook lol I meant Westbrook. Indiana they just seem to out hustle us. We must beat the teams that are under us record wise.

 

The Clippers and Spurs game will only count as two Wins...but those are probably two of the biggest games left...winning them will mean a lot for this team going into the post season....if they get there.

 

They were 21-14 at one point before they went on that tragic 7 game losing streak

 

I'm not feeling it right now. The recent trade appears to have affected chemistry. May not be enough time to get in another comfort zone. Somebody has to "take off," preferably several players. Got to get hot and stop losing to the weak teams.

 

If Houston don't win their next 5 games, they're going to miss the playoffs. They're playing Phoenix and Minnesota (If they cant beat these teams now why bother talking playoffs), Cleveland (without Kyrie), Golden State and Utah (Gotta beat the teams you're trying to overtake. If we don't get all these games, we're in trouble cuz we could potentially be facing a 4game losing streak vs San Antonio, Indiana, Memphis and Clippers. All teams who can more or less whoop us when need be.

 

You are scaring me.

 

I've said it before, but as long as we win our home game against the Jazz, there's almost no way we would miss the playoffs...it would give us the season tiebreaker...we've got 2 days of rest for that game, so I'm sure we'll be well rested and we'll come up with a good gameplan to beat them.

 

Jazz is overwhelmingly stronger than Rockets in the low post. Their 3rd string big men can outrebound and outplay our starting big men. This has been a problem all year long, and it's no wonder we keep losing to teams like Timberwolves, Kings, Trailblazers, Wizards .... because even though those teams supposedly suck, their frontcourt is usually solid.

Rockets need a solid power forward who can score and defend in the paint. We can't count on raining 3's at a high rate, every night.