Dallas could very well determine who they want to play in the first round of the playoffs. Win they play Portland. Lose they play NO. I would lose if I were them. Lets hope they have something else to play for that night. But hell they may want to drop to 4th to play Denver and avoid the Lakers until the western finals. Lots of strategy if they care. It will be an interesting night once again out west on the final day of the season.
Fuck that GS loss is haunting us. If we bother to show up and give the effort we expended in Utah and tonight, we'd control our own destiny.
No no.. Faulty logic. Remember, the Lakers are in free fall and have a tough schedule. If Mavs win that game, we move to 6th and the Mavs likely move to 2nd and we end up playing the Lakers (#3). The Mavs end up playing the team they just beat.
Why are you so hung up on the GS loss? We've lost 33 games! Why not be haunted by one of the other 32? How bout that loss to the Nets or the loss to the Wizards? BUT if you're gonna go that route, you have to give our guys props for winning games you yourself thought we'd lose (at Miami and last night against Lakers). Those two wins should make up for the GS loss. Or would you be resting easier if we had beat GS but lost to Heat and Lakers?
I can excuse games where it's too early in the season to really have an idea where you're end up, but we KNEW the stakes of the GS game, and blew it off anyway. Focus is the name of the game at the end of the season, and against GS, we didn't have it.
Re: GS........Yeah we could have played better. But that shit happens. When Ellis goes off from 25 feet there is not much you can do. i think GS just flat out played great. They were "on" that night. They did the same thing the next night against the Lakers. When Ellis is going 1 on1 from 25' and making them they can beat anyone. Of course he can't do that every game or they would be in the playoffs. But when he, Curry and Lee are all on......they are tough. They had no pressure. They just fired away.
We let them get those open jumpers; they didn't magically appear. We played their game. We're not like LA that can coast through the rest of the regular season. Our seeding matters and we have to have complete focus for the rest of the season. We're not good enough to take any team for granted.
After look at everything the Blazers will either play OKC or Dallas in the 1st round, and I'm guessing the Mavs. The Lakers need to keep winning games to keep HCA in the Finals if they get there and Chicago doesn't make it. They still have something to play for and they'll beat OKC on Sunday in LA. Then with them beating OKC that means OKC can't move up in the standings which means seeds 2-4 will stay the same through Sunday regardless if Dallas loses Sunday or not. Another big key though is that NO has to lose at Memphis on Sunday which I can definitely see happening. This means seeds 1-6 will be the same through Sunday as they are right now with the Blazers matching up against the Mavs in the 1st round. Also can't forget to mention that if all this happens and the Mavs win on Sunday vs Phoenix(who will probably be w/o Nash) then OKC can't pass Dallas(assuming OKC loses to LA on Sunday) in the standings as they'd be 2 GB with 2 to play and Dallas owns the season series. At this point it's up to Dallas and LA to decide the 2-3 seeds and I think it will just stay the same as it is. Assuming the Blazers win the rest of their games I still see a Blazers/Mavs playoff series.
If NO Wins against Memphis - might make sense for us to just play Babbit, Armon, Patty, A cardboard cutout of Elliot and a cardboard cutout of Oden - to ensure we miss LAL in the first round.
I agree for the most part. But that crucial 3 qtr spurt when Ellis was firing from 25 feet, what are you going to do? Double him and leave someone wide open? You can't foul a jumper shooter from 25 feet and he is so quick he gets around anyone. The dude is awesome when he is hitting the outside shot. Its not like they left him wide open. he created his shots. But I agree there was no playoff intensity like there should have been. And I absolutely agree we played their game. I have always said you can not run with the warriors and suns. They are used to firing away with no conscience knowing that sooner or later they will start hitting. But you still can't disrespect their talent. They have some great young players, and they played well that night. (and the next night too)
