The Rockets take their 9-game winning streak on the road against the
Now comes the most difficult part of the season for the Houston Rockets.
After ripping through their easiest stretch (11-1 in their 12 games this month), the Rockets now turn their attention to the home stretch of the NBA season. Houston has 11 games left. Here’s a breakdown, courtesy of bullet points:
- seven on the road, starting tonight with the Oklahoma City Thunder
- eight against playoff teams fighting for position, including the Thunder who are fighting for the top seed in the West
- one back-to-back, but it comes against Utah and Portland
- an April 4 contest with the Golden State Warriors that will probably seal Houston’s fate if they lose
On paper, the Rockets will probably be favored in three of these games at most (at Utah twice and at Portland). That’s a tough pill to swallow if you think the Rockets could make a real run at the play-in. Realistically, the Rockets would need to go 7-4 to give themselves a shot. To reiterate: it ain’t happening.
With that out of the way, it’s still important to appreciate the fact that this squad is grinding out wins that were basically meaningless until they weren’t. They’re doing it without their best offensive player (Alperen Sengun) and their best scorer off the bench (Cam Whitmore). They’re doing it with a brand new head coach. And they’re doing it with seven (!) players who weren’t playing in Houston last season. That’s an incredible accomplishment, and certainly something to hang our proverbial hats on at the end of the season.
Tip-off
7:00pm CT
How To Watch
Space City Home Network
Injury Report
Rockets
Alperen Sengun-OUT (ankle, knee)
Cam Whitmore-OUT (knee)
Thunder
None
The Line (as of this post)
Looking ahead because we can
Friday night in Salt Lake City against the Utah Jazz