As the NBA gears up to return from its All-Star break, the Houston Rockets find themselves in the thick of a Western Conference race that’s tighter than ever. At 33-20, Houston sits in the No. 4 spot - but the margin for error is razor-thin.
Just one game separated them from the No. 3 seed a few days ago, and now they’re only a half-game ahead of the fifth and sixth seeds. Two games back?
That’s where the No. 7 Phoenix Suns are lurking - a team currently slotted for the play-in tournament but very much in striking distance.
This is the kind of logjam that turns every night into a playoff preview. And nobody understands that better than Kevin Durant, the Rockets’ leading scorer and centerpiece. Speaking during All-Star weekend in Los Angeles, Durant offered a candid look at just how intense the Western Conference grind has become.
“It’s a crazy conference, man,” Durant said. “You can look up and drop down two spots in a night and rise up two spots in a night. It just goes to show you how much great talent there is in the league, great coaching, great GM-ing in the league to put together these good teams.”
Durant wasn’t just pointing to the usual suspects. He gave credit to teams like Phoenix and San Antonio - squads that weren’t necessarily pegged as contenders at the start of the season but have clawed their way into the conversation.
“Teams that you didn’t think would be in the running,” he said. “Like Phoenix, who nobody thought would be this good and going out there and looking like a contending team.
San Antonio.”
The Western Conference has always been competitive, but this season feels different. The margin between home-court advantage and a play-in spot is the blink of an eye.
The Clippers are trending upward again. The Timberwolves, Nuggets, and Lakers are all in the mix.
If a team hits a cold stretch - even just a couple of losses in a row - they could tumble down the standings in a hurry.
Durant summed it up: “If you have a bad little stretch, you can drop in the standings, and that’s always tough. But it’s great competition throughout the whole league.”
Last season, Houston wrapped up the No. 2 seed with nearly a week to spare. That allowed them to coast through the final stretch of the regular season, resting players and fine-tuning their playoff plan.
But this year? That kind of breathing room may not exist.
Even with some favorable scheduling luck - according to Tankathon, the Rockets have the easiest remaining strength of schedule among the five teams currently jostling for seeds three through seven - nothing is guaranteed. Denver, the Lakers, Minnesota, and Phoenix are all pushing hard, and with so much parity, every game down the stretch could carry postseason implications.
For Houston, the path forward is clear but steep. They’ve got the talent, they’ve got the leadership, and they’ve got a shot - but in a Western Conference this deep, nothing comes easy.