With today’s 97-88 loss at the hands of the Miami Heat, the Houston Rockets are now officially eliminated from playoff contention, meaning the draft pick they owe to New Jersey will wait until they get to Brooklyn.
Houston seemed like a lock for the playoffs just two weeks ago, but lost six straight games to drop them out of the race. Despite winning Saturday against the Golden State Warriors, the Rockets’ loss puts them two full games behind the Utah Jazz with just two games remaining. The Jazz took two out of three games from the Rockets, thus holding the playoff tiebreaker.
The Nets traded their own first-round pick (top-3 protected) to the Portland Trail Blazers. Their chances of keeping the pick depend on how they finish in the standings, but will likely be somewhere between 15 and 30 percent.
