{"id":645482,"date":"2026-03-07T15:05:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T15:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/645482\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T15:05:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T15:05:36","slug":"sb-nation-reacts-results-most-likely-playoff-outcome-for-the-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/645482\/","title":{"rendered":"SB Nation Reacts results: Most likely playoff outcome for the Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedreamshake.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Rockets<\/a> fans and fans across the country. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartsurvey.co.uk\/s\/8SCRL8\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up here<\/a> to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Actually, you\u2019re just realistic. Who can blame you for that? It\u2019s best to remain grounded somewhere in the realm of reality. What\u2019s what? What are we talking about?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Well, the results are in. SB Nation asked you how the Houston Rockets\u2019 season would end. A stout 55% of you said that the team would flame out in the Conference Semifinals.<\/p>\n<p>Rockets predicted to win one series<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Frankly, this feels right on the money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Rockets currently sit fourth in the Western Conference. If the season ended today, they\u2019d play the Nuggets. The Rockets\u2019 5.2 Net Rating comfortably edges Denver\u2019s 4.4 mark. Nikola Jokic will give the Nuggets an advantage in any series, but for all their struggles, the Rockets have been the better team this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">After that, they\u2019d presumably play the Thunder. Article over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jokes aside, Houston can easily chase down the third seed heading into the postseason. That would likely pit them against the Spurs in the next round. San Antonio is a tough matchup for the Rockets. Victor Wembanyama\u2019s ability to shut down the paint will mitigate a team that relies on two non-shooters like Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Nothing is set in stone. Injuries happen. The Rockets could get hot at the right time. The Rockets still have a (very) outside chance of winning the NBA title this year:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">But you shouldn\u2019t bet on it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">On that note, if you do want to bet on your Houston Rockets, <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsbook.fanduel.com\/navigation\/nba\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">head on over to FanDuel<\/a>, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,65342,4066,6,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-645482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houston-rockets-discussion","12":"tag-houstonrockets","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116188514206842184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645482","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=645482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}