The Houston Rockets are hitting their stride at a perfect time

The Houston Rockets are hitting their stride and winning some big games over the past couple of weeks. With the team nearly healthy and a playoff push ahead, this is the perfect time for them to go on a run.

The Houston Rockets have had one rollercoaster of a season, to say the least. After beginning the season in very disappointing fashion, having records of 1-5 and 11-14 at a couple of points in the year, they completely turned it around and started winning games.

Then, the injuries happened. Chris Paul went down with a hamstring issue once again. Eric Gordon spent some time injured. Most recently, Clint Capela was out for over a month with a finger injury. Despite all the stars/main players on the team hurt, James Harden kept the Rockets afloat in the standings, bringing them all the way up to the No. 5 seed after being as low as No. 14.

Now with pretty much every key player healthy, the Rockets are hitting their stride at an absolutely perfect time. This six-game winning streak has seen them rise as high as No. 3 in the West before slipping back down to No. 4 with a Thunder win last night. The streak includes wins over Golden State, Boston and Toronto, to name a few.

The schedule is set to lighten up a bit after tonight’s game against the 76ers. 7 of the 12 remaining games in the month are against teams under .500, though some (like Charlotte) are still fighting for a playoff spot. If they can stay hot and continue this type of play, they can make some serious movement in the standings.

Chris Paul

CP3 has been a huge part of the success recently. He has returning nearly to an All-Star form for the Rockets. He’s averaging 15.7 points and 10.2 assists per game during the winning streak and has been masterful at controlling the offense.

His defense has been good as always, part of the reason why the team as a whole is improving on that end of the court. He’s a great leader, no matter what some washed up point guard on the Lakers has to say.

A look at the standings

Multiple Rockets players have said they aren’t paying attention to the standings, but that doesn’t mean we can’t! The race to the finish in the West should be pretty interesting to watch with multiple teams in position to make a run for home court advantage.

The Rockets are currently 0.5 games back of the Thunder for the No. 3 seed and can tie them with a win tonight. If Golden State remains the top seed in the West, a No. 2 or 3 seed is what you want so that you can avoid them until the Western Conference Finals.

Speaking of the No. 2 seed, that may not be a pipe dream after all. The Denver Nuggets currently hold that spot and are 4 games ahead of the Rockets for it. With the way Houston is playing and the extremely tough remaining schedule Denver has, the Rockets may be able to climb all the way back and become the second seed in the West. How crazy would that be?

The most important thing right now is getting the win tonight. The Rockets must take it one game at a time, starting against the Sixers. They are a bit banged up, so I’d love for Houston to jump on this opportunity.