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 With Monday's blowout 129-105 victory over Minnesota, and Utah's
loss to Dallas, the Rockets (40-41) climbed back into the eighth and
final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
They can clinch a post-season berth with a victory against
Sacramento in the season finale on Wednesday.
It is a small consolation for a franchise that reached the
conference finals a year ago, but considering Houston appeared
buried late last week they will gladly take the turnaround.
"The fire under us, it is lit," Rockets guard Patrick Beverley told
reporters after he helped the team win a second straight game to
catch Utah (40-41).
"This is not how we wanted it to be at the end of the season, (but)
better late than never."
 Houston’s intention of repeating last season’s success was deflated
early when they lost their first three games by 20 points each.
Team leader James Harden struggled out of the gate as there were
rumblings that he showed up out of shape for the campaign.
Coach Kevin McHale was fired after just 11 games, with the team 4-7,
and replaced by assistant J.B. Bickerstaff but that did little to
fix the team’s troubles.
The defensive efforts of Harden and lack of chemistry between him
and center Dwight Howard were just some of the questions surrounding
the team.
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After their third defeat in four games on Thursday, Houston trailed
eighth place Utah by a game and a half with just three remaining.
The Jazz suffered a pair of last-second defeats last week that aided
the Rockets and now they are positioned to crawl into the playoffs
and make the best of a rocky season.
"We control our own destiny. It’s our playoffs (right now)," Harden
said. "It’s our last game (Wednesday) and we have to go out there
and win. We'll figure (everything else) out once the game is over."
(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; editing by Amlan
Chakraborty)
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