<a href=""http://www.justbball.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=44"" target="_blank"> <font color="Black">San Antonio Spurs</font> (18-4)</a> <font color="Blue">Dallas Mavericks </font>(17-6) <font color="Purple">Memphis Grizzlies</font>(13-8) <a href=""http://www.justbball.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=52"" target="_blank"> <font color="Blue">New Orleans Hornets </font>(10-8)</a> <font color="Red">Houston Rockets </font>(9-12)
Southwest W L Pct GB Home Road Div Conf Streak L10 San Antonio 8 2 .800 -- 5-0 3-2 1-1 3-1 Won 3 7-2 Dallas 7 2 .778 0.5 4-0 3-2 2-0 4-1 Won 5 6-2 Memphis 7 3 .700 1.0 3-1 4-2 0-0 4-0 Won 4 7-2 New Orl/OKC 4 5 .444 3.5 2-3 2-2 1-1 2-2 Won 2 3-5 Houston 3 6 .333 4.5 1-3 2-3 0-2 2-2 Lost 2 3-6
1. San Antonio Spurs Best-case scenario: shuts down the best perimeter players in the game. The Spurs pick up where they left off in June. Tim Duncan dominates the lane, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili slice up opponents with their penetration and Bruce BowenNick Van Exel and Michael Finley add scoring off the bench, and San Antonio waltzes to the division title. Outlook: Popovich is a master at handling egos, and the winning culture is already in place in the Alamo City. If chemistry is an issue, Pop will fix it one way or another. The Spurs will win the division and be the favorites to win the NBA title. 2. Houston Rockets Best-case scenario: Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady form the league's best inside-out combination, Stromile Swift gives the Rockets consistent defense and rebounding at power forward and the Houston backcourt complements the frontline with solid shooting and strong defense. The Rockets break through and win the division. Outlook: This is an emerging, well-coached team. The Big Two will be great, and Swift is the kind of athletic "four man" the Rockets desperately needed last season. If Houston gets solid play from newcomers Derek Anderson, Rafer Alston and Luther Head in the backcourt, watch out. 3. Dallas Mavericks Best-case scenario: Dirk Nowitzki has an MVP-type season, and he is perfectly complemented by the wing corps of Josh Howard, Jerry Stackhouse and Marquis Daniels. Erick Dampier emerges as a defensive force and the Mavs shrug off the loss of Michael Finley to remain one of the West's best teams. Worst-case scenario: Nowitzki's production suffers now that both Steve Nash and Finley are gone, and the team becomes too one-dimensional. Avery Johnson's efforts to make the club more defensive-minded don't pan out, as Dampier can't fit in with the up-tempo pace his teammates prefer. Dallas falls out of the playoffs for the first time in six years. Outlook: The Mavericks have the potential to be very good ? they just have to put the pieces together. Johnson's defensive approach will be helped by the arrival of Doug Christie, but Dampier is the key. He must fit in and be a force. Dallas will enjoy another 50-plus win season, which is no small feat in this division. 4. Memphis Grizzlies Best-case scenario: The addition by subtraction theory works. Without Bonzi Wells and Jason Williams, the Grizzlies have great chemistry and defend the way Mike Fratello likes. Also, Pau Gasol emerges as a star working the low post. Memphis finds a way back to the playoffs for the third straight season. Outlook: Rumor has it that Jerry West really likes this club. The Grizzlies will be very competitive under Fratello, and if Warrick is ready to play they could surprise some people. Still, it's tough to see Memphis making the playoffs in a ridiculously deep Western Conference. 5. New Orleans Hornets Best-case scenario: Chris Paul is the second coming of Isiah Thomas, J.R. Smith is the next Joe Dumars, and the Hornets become the Bad Boys of the new millennium and storm to the division title. (Just checking to see if you were paying attention). Actually, if all goes perfectly, they might win 22 games. Anything more than that would be a miracle. Outlook: Paul will help, as will Lithuanian rookie Arvydas Macjiauskas. But without a true scorer, the Hornets will have a difficult time putting points on the board. And in the toughest division in the West, that's a problem. Finishing anywhere but fifth is out of the question. Rest of article Where do you think Dallas will place
We are almost 10 games into the season, heres a little outlook on the Southwest Teams 1. San Antonio Spurs The top team, standing at 8-2 the Spurs have only lost to the Mavericks (by 19) and the Wizards (by 15). Top scorer: Tony Parker (21.1 ppg) Top Rebounder: Tim Duncan (11.1 rpg) Top Assister: Tony Parker (6.3 apg) Miscellaneous stat: Michael Finley is averaging 8ppg on roughly 35% FG, he's been injured for half the season and it seems the Mavericks aren't missing him at all 2. Dallas Mavericks Ah Dallas, fresh of a 37 point victory over Detroit, the Mavericks are standing tall at 7-2..only losses have been to Utah and Philadelphia. Everyone has been contributing to the team Top Scorer: Dirk Nowitzki (25 ppg) Top Rebounder: Dirk Nowitzki (8.9 rpg) Top Assister: Jason Terry (3.8 apg) Miscellaneous Stat: Desagana Diop is averaging 2.5 blocks per game off the bench and 5.8 rebounds in only 18 minutes. Compare this to Erick Dampier, the starting Mavs center who is averaging 5.6 rebounds in 19 minutes and 0.6 blocks. Think about this as production for dollar, and who wins.. 3. Memphis Grizzlies After losing half the team in the offseason, the Grizzlies are fairing extremely well at 7-3 including victories in 4 of their last 5 matches. With the use of addition by subtraction, the Grizzlies have improved by getting rid of headcases such as Stromile Swift, Bonzi Wells and Jason Williams and brought in veteran leaders such as Eddie Jones and Bobby Jackson Top Scorer: Pau Gasol (19.6 ppg) Top Rebounder: Pau Gasol (7.8 rpg) Top Assister: Damon Stoudemire (4.6 apg) Miscellaneous Stat: The Grizzlies, at 7-3, are at their best record in their 11 year 4. Oklahoma City/New Orleans Hornets Last season's worst team has got off to a decent start, getting themselves to 1 game behind .500 at 4-5. The good thing is, they are beating equally bad teams such as the Hawks/Hornets, showing they aren't as bad as last year. Top Scorer: Chris Paul (17 ppg) Top Rebounder: PJ Brown (9.3 rpg) Top Assister: Chris Paul (6.1 apg) Miscellaneous Stat: Despite being 4th in the Southwest division, the Hornets are at #8 in the WCF ladder 5. Houston Rockets After being expected to be one of the top teams in the league, the Rockets are really struggling at 3-6, with the wost record in the West. Although, T-Mac has been having some bad back problems Top Scorer: Tracy McGrady (21.7 ppg) Top Rebounder: Yao Ming (8.8 rpg) Top Assister: Rafer Alston (4.1 apg) Miscellaneous Stat: Mike James is averaging almost 18 points per game in Toronto, whilst Rafer Alston is injured
After todays games, the Dallas Mavericks are now not only leading the South West divsion -- but also leading the West and tied with the Pistons
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"><font size="+2">Mavs' division is a tough neighborhood </font> <font size="-1">03:07 PM CST on Friday, December 9, 2005 </font> <font size="-1">By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News </font> <font size="-1"> </font> MEMPHIS ? Mike Fratello, the Memphis Grizzlies' coach, gets a little envious when he looks around the NBA and sees a sub-.500 team leading the Atlantic Division. He's not jealous of New Jersey's 8-9 record. It's the neighborhood the Nets live in that has Fratello looking on longingly. "If you want an automatic spot in the playoffs, you win your division and you're in, right?" Fratello said Thursday. "So ultimately if you had a division with only your team being good and everybody else being bad, that's one way of getting in." That would be the easy way. There's nothing easy about the Southwest Division, where the Grizzlies and Mavericks, who meet tonight at the FedEx Forum, reside. Any way you slice it, the Southwest is as tough as any division in the league. The numbers bear it out, no matter what criteria you use to determine divisional strength. You want at least one team playing .700 ball? The Southwest has three, including San Antonio with an .833 winning percentage. Only one other division (Pacific) even has two teams winning at a .700 clip or higher. You want depth? The last-place team is Houston, which has suffered from injuries, but has two All-Stars on the roster and massive room for improvement. You want surprise contenders? Memphis is flourishing under Fratello, tied for the second-best record in the Western Conference. New Orleans, the team everybody had pegged for last in the Southwest, has been hovering near .500 all season. For those reasons, the Southwest is every bit as difficult as the Central ? which has every team over .500, leading many observers to deem it the beast of the East ? and the Pacific, which has four teams at .500 or better. As Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said recently: "You better bring your hard hat with you in this division." Divisional titles don't fetch a meaningful banner that a team can hang from the rafters. But they do come with one of the top three seeds in the playoffs, which is a terrific benefit. Fratello is right when he says, given his druthers, he'd rather be in a softer division. If you don't win the division, and San Antonio is going to be tough to unseat in the Southwest, then the only other way to finish with a home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs is to have the best record of the nondivision winners. That's why it's a guarantee that San Antonio, Dallas or Memphis is going to start the playoffs on the road in April, even though nobody has a better record than them right now in the West. "Tell me a division that's tougher," Fratello said. "Think about this, Houston hasn't even played close to [its potential] because they got four key pieces that have been injured. When they get healthy, they're going to make a move. It's a tough division." Arguably tougher than the Central because those five teams have the benefit of playing more games against the Eastern Conference, which is markedly weaker than the West. It's a lot easier to be above .500 when you get 10 percent of your games against the likes of Atlanta, Charlotte and Toronto, a combined 10-47. As for the Pacific, the rise of the Los Angeles Clippers has turned that division into a powerhouse. But Sacramento has faded to last place, and the Lakers no longer intimidate anybody. "In the end, you have to play 'em all," Fratello said. "But it just seems like there's no nights off in our division." </div> He's damn right, Southwest and Central are the hardest divisions in the league
