Hard to believe we are this close to the end of the NBA regular season, but it’s true and, minus a miracle, the Rockets will miss out on the postseason yet again. But, that doesn’t mean we haven’t seen progress under new coach Ime Udoka. In fact, this is a team that has already outperformed last year and has a chance at a 10-12 game improvement over 2022-23. That’s not insignificant.
With fewer than two dozen games left in the season, need just five wins to improve by 10 full games over last year, and the schedule indicates that may very well happen.
March 8 – March 21
Four on the road, Three at home.
Toughest: Cavs
Easiest: Wizards
After Wednesday’s loss to the Clippers, the next stretch of games is a mix of good and really bad teams. Opening on the road against terrible Portland, the Rockets go to Sacramento, a team that is just OK at home, followed by the the Cavs, two of the tougher tests, which sounds weird considering the reversal of fortunes for the three franchises involved. The mediocre Bulls come to Toyota Center at the end of this spate of games, while the Rockets will attempt to pummel the Spurs (again) in San Antonio and the woeful Wizards twice in a home-and-home set of games.
Projected Record: 4-3
March 23 – April 4
Four at home, Three on the road
Toughest: At Minnesota
Easiest: Portland
Without question, the most difficult set of remaining games on the schedule. They get Portland at home to start and go to Salt Lake City twice but the remaining contests include OKC, Dallas, Minnesota the first half of a back-to-back home game against Golden State and Miami. Yikes.
Projected Record: 2-5
April 5 – April 14
Two at home, Four on the road
Toughest: At Clippers
Easiest: At Portland
In a rather odd quirk of the schedule, the Rockets face Portland and Utah three times each in the final 19 games. Once again, they are up against the Trailblazers and Jazz in this set, both on the road. The second half of that pair of games is a back-to-back in the Pacific Northwest. They also face the feisty Magic, the Mavs in Dallas and a very good Clippers team on the last night of the season. The Clips might be resting their starters depending on their record, but it’s never easy to win there. Oh, and there is right out of the shoot against Miami the day after the Warriors.
Projected Record: 2-3
Projected Final Record of the Season: TKTK
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
