I've been eyeing 50 wins for this time for about a month now. I really think it can happen. It would be truly incredible if we pulled it off. We have gone 16-6 in the last 22 games. An 8-2 finish gets us 50 wins. We would have finish the season on a 24-8 run going into the playoffs. I really really think we can do this. If we had Gerald Wallace from the start of the season, I think we'd be the 4th seed, ahead of the Thunder. Now we have a chance to prove it on Sunday on ESPN. It's an extremely important game because our tie breaker with Denver (who we tied the season series with 2-2) will come down to division record. Right now, the Nuggets are 8-4 and we are 8-5. We have three divisional games left, against the Thunder Sunday and then 5 days later. We play the Jazz on the 7th. The Nuggets' remaining divisional games are 2 vs Thunder, 1 vs Wolves, and 1 vs Utah. I think we have to win all three of our games to have a chance. 50 wins and a 5 seed with confidence against the Thunder (provided we can beat them on Sunday and Friday) is about the best we can ask for, all things considered. For the entire series, all they would do is talk about how we should've drafted Durant and it would be liberating to beat Durant's team in a series. As I posted before, that would set us up for a very winnable series against the Spurs in the second round that could propel us into the conference finals against the Lakers. That is the way I see it going down. Go Blazers!!!
I'm really confident (and hopeful) that we can at least make it out of the first round. This team has the talent and the attitude to win in the playoffs. I'm looking forward to it.
If my memory serves me correctly, we finished with 49 wins in '76-77. I think we'll finish with 49 again this year....and I think we'll conclude the '10-11 season celebrating a second Cinderella Story! NBA Champions - David (Portland) slaying Golliath (Miami) in 6 games.
