Is there a chance we could miss the playoffs?

Seems pretty unlikely, but then again, some teams that were supposed to be good (e.g., Memphis, Minny) and were very bad, are looking decent again. Here are the current rankings:

Team W L +/- GB PCT
1 OklahomaCityThunder 36 10 13 - .783
2 SanAntonioSpurs 33 12 9 2.5 .733
3 PortlandTrailBlazers 33 13 10 3.0 .717
4 LAClippers 32 15 11 4.5 .681
5 HoustonRockets 30 17 4 6.5 .638
6 PhoenixSuns 26 18 4 9.0 .591
7 GSWarriors 27 19 6 9.0 .587
8 DallasMavericks 26 20 4 10.0 .565
9 MemphisGrizzlies 23 20 -2 11.5 .535
10 DenverNuggets 22 21 1 12.5 .512
11 MinnesotaT-wolves 22 22 2 13.0 .500
12 NOrleansPelicans 19 25 -2 16.0 .432
13 UtahJazz 16 29 -6 19.5 .356
14 LALakers 16 30 -4 20.0 .348
15 SacramentoKings 15 29 -9 20.0 .341

Again, it would take a pretty disastrous collapse. But we've shown last year that we're certainly capable of it. And this team is very vulnerable to injuries. Our first half has been ridiculously, unsustainably healthy, and if one of our starters goes down for any length of time, I wouldn't fancy our chances against any half-decent team.

 

True but the Spurs have gone through significant time lost due to injuries. Their starting center has missed a 1/3 of the season, top 6th man Ginobilli has battled some nagging injuries, starting SF Leonard has missed a couple of games and last years playoff hero Danny Green has missed 7 games as well.

It's like looking at the Grizzlies. Without their all-star starting center...not so good. With him? Killing teams and 9-1 in their last 10 games. Portland has a 7 game lead on them but they are playing at a much higher level with all of their players together than Portland is right now. Hopefully the Blazer can get that turned around.

 

I have not paid ABM yet, so there is a chance.

 

Memphis also started the year with a coaching change and recently traded for Courtney Lee. I think if Gasol went down again, they would play better than the horrific record they started with.

 

A chance? Of course. Anything that does not violate the physical laws of the universe COULD happen. There is a chance the planet could be wiped out by a stray asteroid before the NBA playoffs begin. Don't lose sleep over it.

 

Oh you didn't know?

 

I have literally not seen ABM since the day he had a lunch date with that Kass "chick". I fear someone has turned him into a skin coat.

 

That would completely suck; and this forum would esssssplode!!!

 

There is always a chance, but most likely not. They still have 13 games vs. the Eastern conference and with games at Miami and Indy, they could go 11-2 or 10-3. Against the East for the year, the Blazers could very well go 25-5. In looking at the schedule, they should go 8-4 in February and then March gets tough again, with them possibly going 10-7. By April though, they should be rolling, possibly going 6-1. I still have the Blazers ending up 57-25 and the #3 seed in the West. These last 2 games are a small bump in the road on a long journey.

 

Yeah, Memphis has played very well over their last 10 games. Too bad seasons are longer than that. We won 24 of 29 games at one point. Good thing we did that - kind of trumps their 9 of 10 and is the reason we have that 7 game lead - it's not like that was gifted to us.

 

Bump.

We are now in fifth place, so we've already fallen out of home court in the playoffs.

 

I am going to give this a shot and see how it goes.

Obviously, I have been very boisterous in my thoughts about the Blazers being less than awesome. That being said, the team has played so far over it's head in the early part of the season, that missing the playoffs seems unlikely at this point. They do seem to be playing closer to average than elite though right now. There are just some fundamental things that true contenders have that this team doesn't, at this point.

1. Defense. Portland is a horrible defensive team. people seem to point to Dallas as the exception to the rule that defense wins championships, but even they were 8th in defensive rating the year they won. Right now Portland is 23rd
2. Bench. Our bench being so much better than last years really is more an indication of how truly bad it was last year than how good it is this year. Our bench is last in minutes and points, I believe.
3. Experience. Portland is still so young, and we don't have many players with true playoff experience.

As for playoffs, yes, they will probably make it, but some things to remember are that we have been EXTREMELY healthy this year (the only team where every starter has started every game, i think) And our schedule is going to get harder, while some teams behind us will get a slight schedule break. So I'd still say 6-8 seed

 

The point was, they didn't play well when they were without their DPoY/All-Star and now that they are full strength, they were playing much better. Portland isn't missing any all-stars so they don't have the same very legit reason for such record discrepancy.

 

Yes, they said that in the game last night. I think if a starter goes down (Batum or Lopez in particular) we're almost a dead cert to miss the playoffs (unless all the other teams fall apart too).

 

i think we could weather an injury to wes or nic, maybe even Dame. CJ and Dorrell have been looking good lately and I think they could fill in in a pinch. Our SG rotation is pretty deep. Mo and CJ could do a decent job of putting up some of Dames stats as well. I am more worried about will happen if Lopez or LMA lose any time, especially while Freeland is out. That puts Meyers or T Rob in the starting 5.

 

I don't think we're playing particularly badly. I think we're playing better competition. It's not like we're getting the doors blown off of us. We've been on the short end of some extremely close games (IND, OKC and LAC). Those games could have easily gone our way.

We've gone through a really rough stretch of games against some really quality opponents without many punching bags. After the ASB, our schedule gets much easier. We have 29 games left and 17 of those games are against sub-.500 teams. Of those twelve games against above .500 teams, only four of those games (twice with SA, once with HOU and once with MIA) are against teams with a record equal to or better than ours.

We should be well into the 50s in terms of wins and have an outside chance of getting to the 60s.

 

7 game lead on the 9 seed with 29 games left. If we go 14 and 15 that means the Grizz will have to finish out the season going 22-8 to pass us.

 

Well there's a good reason to sit on our hands at the trade deadline.