Breaking Down the Houston Rockets' Tiebreaker Scenarios

The Houston Rockets are coming into their Sunday night matchup with the Denver Nuggets on a roll. With their win Friday, the Rockets have won nine straight games and are currently 46-25. Before the streak started, the Rockets had fallen to the fifth seed as teams around them went on their winning streaks.

Over the last few days, teams like the Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies have lost mutliple games. The Rockets are currently two games up on the Nuggets and Lakers and three games ahead of the Grizzlies in the loss column.

If the Rockets continue to extend their winning streak, tiebreakers may not come into play, but in the NBA, any team can go on a losing streak. The Rockets themselves have had a six-game losing streak, and prior to the current winning streak, they had lost three games in a row.

Tiebreaker Scenarios

The Rockets will face one of the teams chasing them in the standings. The Nuggets have lost two in a row and will be playing without their MVP, Nikola Jokic, for the fourth straight game. In a weird scheduling quirk, the Rockets have only played the Nuggets once since December 2023.

The Rockets won the matchup in January, which also injured Jokic. The Rockets only face the Nuggets three times this season, so a Rockets win Sunday guarantees them the tiebreaker over the Nuggets. A loss would mean the Rockets would have to win the last game of the season in Denver to win any tiebreaker scenario.

Another team chasing the Rockets is the Los Angeles Lakers, who the Rockets also have only faced once so far this season. Like the Nuggets, the Rockets defeated the Lakers in January 119-115. Also, like the Nuggets, the Rockets only face the Lakers three times this season, so the March 11 matchup could determine the season series if the Rockets can defeat the Lakers in Los Angeles.

The other team still with a chance to catch the Rockets is the Grizzlies, which have a more difficult road to surpassing the Rockets than the Lakers or Nuggets. That is because the Rockets have already defeated the Grizzlies in three out of four games and are currently three games ahead of Memphis in the loss column.

That means the Grizzlies would have to make up four games on the Rockets in only 11 games. That would take a monumental collapse by the Rockets for that happen. A win tonight would not only add another loss to a team chasing them it would also give the Rockets the advantage in another season series.

The Rockets are back in action Sunday night as they host the Denver Nuggets.