As big as the win against the Celtics was tonight, I have next Thursday against the Clippers picked as the most important regular season game left in the season. After tonight the Rockets only have 8 games against top playoff teams: Clippers @Lakers @Mavericks @Bucks @Pacers @76ers Toronto @Mavericks The other 15 games are against teams with .500 or worse records. Having gone 13 - 6 while facing the Celtics twice, the Jazz three times, the Lakers twice, the Nuggets twice and the Mavericks and Thunder over the past 19 games, they have only one more difficult stretch left (a 5 game road trip against the Mavs, Bucks, Pacers, Pistons and Sixers - ouch....). Unless the Lakers lose a bunch of games or the Mavericks go on a long win streak, the Clippers game is the last time this season that the Rockets will play a team who is directly competing with them for playoff seeding. If the Rockets win on Thursday, they hold the tie breaker against the Clips and (assuming they beat the Knicks on Monday) the Rockets will move up to the 3rd (or possibly 2nd, if Denver loses its next two games) seed. The team can't look past the Knicks, but I think the Clippers game is a very big deal. If the Rockets can get the #2 / #3 seed and push the Clippers to #4 / #5, that would seem to be the best possible situation with both LA teams having to face off in the 2nd round.
Yea it would be nice to see clippers down in 4 but I don't think they will let it happen. It would be more likely Denver falls IMO
"Most important game left" is a toss-up between the Clippers game and the Bucks game, imo. Clippers because you're at home and you want to see what your team is like, going up against probably the best 2 wing defenders in the league. Bucks because you're away and you want to see Harden poop on Giannis instead of on himself. Also, statement game against the best team in the league, record-wise.
