So, here is how the new year shapes up for the Blazers. A fairly even split of home/road games, with only one back-to-back. 1/2 Hornets 1/4 at Lakers 1/7 Pistons 1/10 Warriors 1/12 at Bulls 1/14 at 76ers 1/15 at Nets 1/17 at Bobcats 1/19 Bucks 1/21 Cavs 1/24 Wiz 1/26 at Clips 1/28 Bobcats 1/31 Jazz I am hoping for 10-4 and expected 8-6. Anybody else have any predictions?
If we DONT get 10 wins out of that schedule, I'd be pretty upset. Outside of 2-3 games, just a bunch of cream puffs, esp on East Coast Road Trip. But I imagine we'll prolly beat the Cavs then lose at the Clipps....
I'm torn, b/c to me there are only 7 "potentially losable" games: NO, @LAL, DET, @PHI, @NJN, CLE, UTH. In my mind, even if we went 0-7 in those, the worst we'd do it 7-7. And I think it's more like 11-3. But I'm not convinced that we can dominate bad teams yet like we're supposed to. I hope we can, but I haven't seen that with consistency yet. I'd like to say a hay-making 11-3. And I will. But I wouldn't be shocked if we give up a couple of chippies against bad teams and don't make 11-3. If we go 7-7 though, we're kind of hurting for the playoffs, imo.
1/2 Hornets W 1/4 at Lakers L 1/7 Pistons W 1/10 Warriors W 1/12 at Bulls W 1/14 at 76ers W 1/15 at Nets W 1/17 at Bobcats W 1/19 Bucks W 1/21 Cavs L 1/24 Wiz W 1/26 at Clips W 1/28 Bobcats W 1/31 Jazz W 12-2 baby!
With the confidence gained from the Boston win, I don't see any of those game as losses... However, knowing that Joel's hurt and that we're having trouble figuring our rotation out with regards to backup bigs, I don't think I can say 14-0 and mean it. We should get 10 at least. Rodolfo's prediction of 12 feels really good too, though I think we'll win one or the other of LA/Cavs. *winces* 13-1? Dare I risk jinxing it?
We were 8-6 last January. I hope we can at least maintain that.Our record on 1/1/2008 was 18-13. Came out of January 26-19, but then we went 5-9 in February which sucked. Then 10-13 to finish out the season. If we can just go 2 games above 500 the rest of the way we will end up with 48 wins, but I don't know it that is enough to hold on to the playoffs. I imagine to win our division we will need around 51 wins.
10-plus wins would be great, and a very achievable goal if we can get Brandon back soon and with the return of Martell.
It's interesting that we have 9 games against teams we should beat (Warriors, Bulls, 76ers, Nets, Bobcats x2, Bucks, Wizards, and Clippers), 4 games against tough teams at home (Hornets, Pistons, Cavaliers, and Jazz), and one tough road game (Lakers). I'll go with 10-4, because we'll probably lose at least two to the tough teams at home, once to a team we should beat, and once to... *ahem* another team.
1/2 Hornets Win (we usually play well against NO at home.) 1/4 at Lakers Loss (refs are going to own us) 1/7 Pistons Win (Detroit sucks now) 1/10 Warriors Win (we're due) 1/12 at Bulls Loss (I think we might fall asleep on these guys) 1/14 at 76ers Win (they're injury riddled) 1/15 at Nets Loss (something about New Jersey says loss to me) 1/17 at Bobcats Win (god if we lose to the Cats I'll be pissed) 1/19 Bucks Win (I think this will be a close one though) 1/21 Cavs Win (cleveland is overrated. Washington should have beat them) 1/24 Wiz Win (washington is terrible) 1/26 at Clips Win (god I hope so) 1/28 Bobcats Loss (just one of those days) 1/31 Jazz Win (payback time) 10-4
I'd rather play them than our current stretch of Boston, LA, Detroit, New Orleans, etc. I don't think OKC is as bad as its record is, they've got talent, but they're not great by any stretch.
I'm going to predict 11 - 3. I think we could hit 12, but I'm going to leave a little lee-way for a bad night.
1/2 Hornets L 1/4 at Lakers L 1/7 Pistons W 1/10 Warriors W 1/12 at Bulls W 1/14 at 76ers W 1/15 at Nets L 1/17 at Bobcats W 1/19 Bucks W 1/21 Cavs L 1/24 Wiz W 1/26 at Clips W 1/28 Bobcats W 1/31 Jazz L 9-5
I forgot to point out that there's only one back to back the whole month (76ers and Nets). There should be some good rest in there.
