The Houston Rockets will close the regular season against the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday with Kevin Durant, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun all sitting out for rest. Houston is locked into the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference, so the result will not change its playoff path, but it will give the Rockets one last tune-up before the first round.
The Rockets have won eight of their last 10 games and will head into the postseason either against the Los Angeles Lakers or the Denver Nuggets. Memphis, meanwhile, has lost seven straight and nine of its last 10, a slide that has left it 5-23 in 28 games since the All-Star break. The Grizzlies also carry a minus-12.2 net rating in that span, ranked 28th in the league and dead last in defensive rating since the break.
That gap has made the matchup look less like a race for seeding and more like a measuring stick for where both teams stand entering April. Houston’s playoff position is already set, which has turned Sunday into a rest game for four Rockets starters, while Memphis has spent weeks trying to survive with a thin roster and little margin for error.
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One player to watch is Reed Sheppard, who has averaged 13.5 points per game while shooting 39.5 percent from 3. In three games with Durant out this season, Sheppard has averaged 16.3 points, 5.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds, giving Houston a bench storyline even as the bigger picture is already settled. Prop odds had not been released at the time the game preview was written, leaving the final numbers to wait until Sunday.
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For Houston, the night is about staying sharp without asking for more from the lineup than it needs to give. For Memphis, it is another chance to stop a collapse that has stretched across most of the second half and has turned a once-normal finale into one more test of how far the season has already slipped away.
