Another possible advantage for the Rockets over the Suns..

Another possible advantage for the Rocekts over the Suns..

Notice I said "possible" because the Rockets many times this year (I don't need to remind you) has played very well against a decent team at home and blows chunks against a lottery team at home the next. But the advantage I'm talking about is the amount of PLAYOFF teams the Rockets and the Suns have left for the regular season.

Lets take a look at the record against the western playoff teams for both:

HOU 11-14
PHO 9-11(loss tonight included)

What I'm tryin' to tell y'all is that the Suns certainly have a tougher schedule than the Rockets in the sense that they have FIVE more games against playoff teams more than the Rockets (12 to 7) and they both have identical percentages vs. both. With the suns still playing inconsistent, and the Rockets doing surprisingly well against the playoff teams in the west (outside of Dallas) this could be the task to make up ground and pass the suns within no time ASSUMING the Rockets get up for the lesser teams. One weird that is that in the east, the Rockets are 8-4 against the teams there that are currently in the playoff picture (1-1 IND, 0-2 DET, 1-1 NJN, 1-1 PHL, 2-0 BOS, 1-1 NO, 1-0 MIL, and 1-0 ORL) while they're only 4-5 against teams NOT in the playoffs there (0-2 NY, 1-1 ATL, 0-1 CHI, 2-0 TOR and 1-1 CLE). Its at least encouraging that we're beating the bad boys in the league.

I think its have way possible that the Rockets can catch Utah (though I doubt it at the end). The Jazz have 4 more playoff teams in the west on their plate including 2 more with San Antonio (which they hadn't beaten since Feb 2000) and once more against the Mavs and the Kings. They certainly haven't been playing "up to the task" at home either. This is somewhat important because if we get the seventh seed, we'll match up against Sacramento in which we MIGHT win a game or two against them in the playoff (even if SA gets 2nd best record, they're #3 cause of them being in the same division as Dallas).

What ever the case, I think the Rockets' chances are about 60-40 for them to make their first apperance in the playoffs in the new millennium. No reason to be upset at this point nor' to fire the coach. Just keep pushing.

 

Here's the rundown:

Phoenix remaining western playoff teams @ home: DAL, SA, SAC, MIN, UTA

Phoenix remaining western playoff teams on the road:

LAL, DAL, POR,

So actually they have 8 more games against playoff teams instead of the 12 I incorrectly posted a while ago. Even if I had added Houston in there, they still would've only had 9 games left.

Phoenix only had beaten one team in the western playoffs on the road this year which was their past victory against the Spurs. The Rockets haven't been good on the road either, but they beat Utah by 30 points in their place the other night and this team on their floor by 18 pts. Our road records are probably identical.

Houston's remaining home games vs. playoff teams of the west:

POR, LAL, PHO

Houston't remaining road games vs. playoff teams of the west:

SA, SAC, POR, UTA

Phoenix has perhaps a bit of an edge there, but they're like the Rockets. Very inconsistent from game to game. Never can put forth a consistent winning streak.

March 16th is the big game though. Another sidenote is that out of all the games played this year, the Rockets are 7-3 on Wednesdays (they play this Wednesday) and 6-3 on Saturdays. They're worse days are Tuesdays and Fridays where they're a combined 12-24