{"id":614797,"date":"2026-02-21T01:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T01:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614797\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T01:00:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T01:00:55","slug":"rockets-rise-to-no-3-in-west-standings-now-11-5-in-last-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614797\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets rise to No. 3 in West standings, now 11-5 in last month"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between an inactive trade deadline<\/a> and a controversy over alleged social media \u201cburner\u201d comments (possibly by Kevin Durant<\/a>), the Houston Rockets<\/a> haven\u2019t had ideal publicity over the past two weeks.<\/p>\n

Yet, on the floor, the results are showing clear signs of improvement.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s victory<\/a> at Charlotte, coupled with Denver\u2019s loss later that night to the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>, launched Houston (34-20) into the No. 3 spot in the Western Conference standings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dating back to Jan. 16, the Rockets are 11-5 (.688) in their last 16 games. Among West rivals, only the second-seeded Spurs (11-3, .786) have been better over that span<\/a>, and one of those three losses was to Houston<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the Rockets, their margin of error remains quite small. Though they have climbed to No. 3, they remain 4.5 games back of San Antonio (39-16) for the No. 2 spot, and three teams \u2014 the No. 4 Nuggets (35-21), the No. 5 Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> (33-21), and No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> (34-22) \u2014 are hot on Houston\u2019s heels.<\/p>\n

In other words, climbing higher than No. 3 is a heavy lift, and it wouldn\u2019t take much for the Rockets to fall back to anywhere between No. 4 and No. 6.<\/p>\n

But regardless, the Rockets are playing much better basketball, and that\u2019s welcome news after a stretch from Dec. 1 through Jan. 15 in which Houston went just 10-11 (.476). Dating back to Dec. 15, Friday is only the third day in which the Rockets have woken up in the West\u2019s top three<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Down the road, a top-three finish in the regular season could be critical, since that will likely be on the opposite side of the 2026 playoff bracket<\/a> from the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> (who, at 42-14, continue to rank atop the West).<\/p>\n

Led by Durant, a perennial All-Star, the Rockets will look to build on their recent momentum when they travel to New York\u2019s famed Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Tipoff versus the Knicks (35-21) is at 7:30 p.m. Central, and the game will be broadcast to a national audience on ABC.<\/p>\n

More: With 35 points, Kevin Durant burns Hornets as Rockets improve to 34-20<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Rockets rise to No. 3 in West standings, now 11-5 in last month<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between an inactive trade deadline and a controversy over alleged social media \u201cburner\u201d comments (possibly by Kevin Durant),…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,301,685,292,194,4066,938,304,135,150,152,6,302,179,211,969,534,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-614797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-hornets","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-rockets","13":"tag-houstonrockets","14":"tag-kevin-durant","15":"tag-knicks","16":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","17":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","18":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nuggets","21":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","22":"tag-rockets","23":"tag-san-antonio","24":"tag-spurs","25":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116105923226895946","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}