As playoffs near, Rockets have five potential first-round opponents

Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishHouston’s 2025 NBA playoff run will begin in a week, but there are still five teams the Rockets could face in the first round of the West’s No. 2 versus No. 7 series.The NBA’s 2024-25 regular season is only 48 hours from its conclusion, and the Houston Rockets are locked into their playoff seed at No. 2 in the Western Conference standings.Yet, there is still considerable uncertainty as to who the Rockets (52-28) will ultimately play in their best-of-seven, first-round series against the West’s No. 7 seed.Entering the season’s final weekend, five teams are still candidates to finish at No. 7: the Denver Nuggets (48-32), Los Angeles Clippers (48-32), Golden State Warriors (47-33), Memphis Grizzlies (47-33), and Minnesota Timberwolves (47-33).In a tight range from No. 4 through No. 8 in the West, all of those teams are either tied or separated by a single game with two left to play. The Rockets will host the Nuggets in Sunday’s regular-season finale, so Houston can potentially play a role in determining its eventual opponent, depending on how aggressively the Rockets decide to pursue a win.After Sunday, the list of five potential opponents will be trimmed to two, with the No. 7 and No. 8 finishers playing each other in a West play-in tournament game on Tuesday.The winner of that game will ultimately be the No. 7 seed and face the Rockets in a first-round series starting on either Saturday, April 19, or Sunday, April 20, at Toyota Center in Houston.By record, this is how Houston has fared against those five teams this season:1-1 versus Denver (one game still left)3-1 versus Clippers2-3 versus Warriors3-1 versus Grizzlies2-2 versus TimberwolvesThe remaining schedules for those five teams are available below.More: With Lakers’ loss, Rockets clinch No. 2 spot in 2025 West playoff field