Story by
Tiebreaker math: At All-Star break, Rockets hold advantages over many 2024-25 West rivals
- Story by
- Tiebreaker math: At All-Star break, Rockets hold advantages over many 2024-25 West rivals
As the Houston Rockets resume play after the NBA's 2024-25 break for the All-Star Game, they're at 34-21 and a No. 4 spot in the tightly packed Western Conference standings .
But there is considerable mobility in both directions.
Advertisement
Houston is only 2.5 games back of Memphis (36-18) for the No. 2 seed in the West, but they're only 3.5 games ahead of No. 7 Minnesota (31-25). That No. 7 spot means having to go through the West play-in tournament to advance to the playoffs, as opposed to directly qualifying (as the top-six seeds do).
Making matters more complicated, the Rockets host the Timberwolves on Friday night. Win, and Houston would split the season series and extend the advantage to a robust 4.5 games. Lose, and Minnesota would climb to within 2.5 games and secure the potential tiebreaker thanks to winning the season series.
Courtesy of Matt Moore's Hardwood Paroxysm , here's a look at where the Rockets stand with head-to-head tiebreakers relative to their West rivals:
-
CLINCHED tiebreaker over No. 2 Grizzlies 3-1
-
Lead No. 3 Denver Nuggets 1-0, two to play
-
Lead No. 5 Los Angeles Lakers 1-0, two to play
-
CLINCHED tiebreaker over No. 6 Los Angeles Clippers 3-0, one to play
-
Trail No. 7 Timberwolves 1-2 with one to play, can only split
-
Lead No. 8 Dallas Mavericks 2-1 with one to play, clinched split
-
LOST tiebreaker to No. 9 Sacramento Kings , 0-2 with one to play
-
LOST tiebreaker to No. 10 Golden State Warriors 1-3 with one to play (five games due to NBA Cup)
"The Rockets are in great tiebreaker position to move up and terrible tiebreaker position to fall down," Moore concludes .
The good news for the Rockets is that they have a considerable lead over those teams who they could be in tiebreaker trouble with. With 27 games left to play, Houston has five fewer losses than Dallas (30-26) and six fewer than the Kings and Warriors (each 28-27).
Advertisement
The Rockets also have the third-easiest remaining schedule in the West, per Tankathon , though two of their rivals (Timberwolves and Warriors) are the easiest two. As Moore notes, the Rockets are 16-6 with a +9.9 point differential against teams under .500.
So, should the Rockets take care of business, they should be in a relatively favorable position when it comes to tiebreakers — since they have a sizable standings buffer relative to most of the teams they're currently in a bad tiebreaker spot against.
But for that to hold, Houston needs to get back to its winning ways and not drop games at the extent it did (2-7 in the last nine games) leading into the All-Star break.
More: 'Mentally and physically fried': Ime Udoka on Rockets at All-Star break
Advertisement
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Tiebreaker math: At All-Star break, Rockets own solid position in West
