A little help from some "friends"

Not only did the Rockets win last night, but a lot of teams in their way lost:

Portland lost 99-87 to Seattle: The Trailblazers are out of the playoff picture now, but they are a winning team, and a loss is still good to solidify one less team to worry about

Golden State lost 117-110 to Atlanta: Somehow they lost this game at home, that's awful. That's losing to Philly at home awful. Atlanta was previously 6-19 on the road. Wow

Denver lost 135-121 to Chicago: This Chicago team was without any of the awful players it traded for, so maybe that actually helped them. Hey! Look at that! You let your young guys play and get back to letting Ben Gordon be awesome and you win! I still have no clue why they are so lukewarm on Gordon, I love that guy.

Utah lost 114-104 to the LA Clippers: This is my favorite loss of them all. Not only is LA terrible, but I hate the Jazz. The game wasn't even that close as the Jazz were down by 20 at the end of 3. Boozer and D-Will both showed up, but no one else did. Plus that now puts them at 18-4 in the New Year, and the fact that I left them out of the hottest team in the league debate yesterday no longer matters. The Rockets now own that outright at 20-4 in the New Year. And we are both tied at 35-20 on the season.

That's 3 bad losses and one not so good loss (Denver), good night overall for the Rockets!

NBA Tie-Breakers Part Deux

So in my haste to put up the tie-breakers I neglected to find the rules for a three way tie. A tie of which we currently find the Rockets, Warriors and Nuggets in.
(Editors Note: I was wrong and so is ESPN, the Rockets are actually in 9th place right now, or at least they are until tomorrow night.)

According to ESPN, here they are:

In the event two or more teams are tied in the standings, a series of tiebreakers are applied to determine which team receives the higher seeding.
Two-Team Tiebreaker
1. Better record in head-to-head games
2. Higher winning percentage within division (if teams are in the same division)
3. Higher winning percentage in conference games
4. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in own conference
5. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in opposite conference
6. Higher point differential between points scored and points allowed

Three-Team Tiebreaker
1. Best head-to-head winning percentage among all teams tied
2. Highest winning percentage within division (if teams are in the same division)
3. Highest winning percentage in conference games
4. Highest winning percentage against playoff teams in own conference
5. Highest point differential between points scored and points
allowed

Silver Lining From the Almost Choke Win

With the Denver Nuggets losing to the Magic tonight, the Rockets are finally back in the top 8 teams in the Western Conference. The Rockets are 1-1 against the Nuggets, so the next tiebreaker is winning percentage in conference. The Rockets are 18-13 in the conference and the Nuggets are 17-14. So by tiebreaker number two the Rockets are in the playoffs if the season ended today!!

It's been a long hard run and a 17-4 record in 2008 to get back into the playoff picture. That's right, an .809 winning percentage in 2008. I'm going to pretend that only the win happened tonight, and not the circumstances that led to the near choke.


Tiebreaker recap:
1. Better record in head-to-head games.
2. Higher winning percentage in conference games.
3. Higher winning percentage within division (if teams are in the same division).
4. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in own conference.
5. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in opposite conference.
6. Higher point differential between points scored and points allowed.