Is Terance Mann paying attention to the standings?

Heck yes.

Is he hoping the Denver Nuggets stumble and give up enough ground that the Clippers have a shot at catching them and taking their spot as the sixth seed in the Western Conference?

“Hell yeah,” Mann said. “Hell yeah, I’m hoping.”

Entering play Tuesday in Houston, the Clippers had won three in a row and five of six games to improve to 32-31, which meant they were nestled in eighth place – five games back of the Nuggets (36-25) and a game and a half behind the seventh-place Minnesota Timberwolves (33-29). (Minnesota faced Golden State on Tuesday; Denver was idle.)

Including Tuesday’s tilt in Texas, the Clippers had just 19 games to try to move up. But still, to Coach Tyronn Lue and team, it’s a tantalizing carrot, the possibility of finishing among the top six teams and avoiding the play-in tournament (seeds 7-10).

“You keep trying to play, keep trying to get to that sixth seed,” Lue said, via Zoom, before tipoff. “It’s going to be tough for us, but we got to continue to keep grinding so we don’t have to be in the play-in situation … Being the seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th spot it is tough because the play-in game, anything can happen.

“But if we’re in the play-in situation, that’s just what we got to do,” Lue added. “You can look ahead and see how far ahead teams are and what you got to do to try to catch them. It’s just part of the season, I think everybody does that to see where you’re going to end up at.”

Agreed Mann: “I’m locked in on it just because I want to know what’s going on around me, so yeah I look.”

And how’s the view?

Despite not having All-Star Kawhi Leonard (ACL) at all this season, All-Star Paul George (elbow) for just 26 games and then Norm Powell (foot) for just three after he was acquired in a trade with Portland, the Clippers are in the mix for at least the play-in tournament, which is scheduled to begin April 12.

Teams with the seventh- and eighth-highest winning percentages in each conference each will have two opportunities to win one game to earn a playoff berth. The teams with the ninth- and 10th-highest winning percentages (early on Tuesday, those spots belonged to the 27-33 Lakers and 25-36 New Orleans) both will have to win two consecutive games to earn a playoff spot.

“We know where we’re at, everybody knows where we’re at,” Clippers’ wing Amir Coffey said. “It’s time to make a push for the playoffs.”

THE ZUBAC EFFECT

Entering play Tuesday, Houston’s 14-45 record was one of the worst in the NBA, but the Rockets lead the league in free-throw attempts, averaging 24.8 per game.

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But even that stalled in their 99-98 loss to the Clippers on Sunday, when they took only 18 foul shots – just the 12th time all season they’ve taken so few.

And to what did Rockets coach Stephen Silas attribute that?

“Zubac.”

The coach clearly had the Clippers’ center on his mind for the two days between games, noting that he’d made sure to address Ivica Zubac’s sensational six-blocked shot effort in the game – when the Rockets shot just 17 for 44 in the paint, a “crazy” percentage, Silas said.

“He was a factor, he was in the paint most of the game, we didn’t do a great job of moving him around and not allowing him to just be in the paint,” Silas said. “He was allowed to just kind of stand there and it was hard for us to draw fouls, it was hard for us to get to our drive and kick. We have to do a better job of moving him around.”