OKC Thunder: 26 seeds up in air in wild finish to season – Tank wars 5.0

Houston Rockets (16-54)

The one team already ensured a bottom-three finish is the Houston Rockets who’ve won just 16 games. Recently the Rockets have been more competitive despite having most of the core sidelined whether through injury or choice.

They’ve lost seven in a row but this past week pushed the Blazers (140-129) and almost beat the Lakers (124-122).

Houston’s final two games are versus the Clippers and Hawks. Given the Rockets can’t lose their bottom-three positioning so they literally have nothing to lose and could play spoiler in their final two games.

Similar to last week, the Basketball-Reference injury report lists 10 Rockets as being out. However, as we’ve learned with the Thunder a player being out isn’t necessarily cemented. Therefore, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Rockets played Chrisitan Wood dressed and played this weekend.

What better way for the Rockets to enter the offseason than with the knowledge they impacted to teams playoff seeds.

To reiterate, the Thunder get to take the two best lottery picks between their own, Houston and Miami although the Rockets pick is 1-4 protected. As such, the hope will be the lottery balls fall fifth for the Rockets!