Re: Portland's Magic Number: 11 we have 17 games left... 7 at home 10 on the road that could be a problem considering our home games are vs utah, suns, lakers its safe to say OKC games, Grizz games, and clippers are MUST WINS 50 is not anywhere near a lock... infact i say we get 48
our magic number is 11 a combination of 11 total blazer wins or phoenix losses and we are in the playoffs!
Re: our magic number is 11 hell yeah we win a few, they lose a few, and we will only need to win 5 or 6 games the rest of the year even if they go undefeated. that made no sense sorry.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 11 I predicted earlier that we will clinch on March 31st against the Utah Jazz in the RG.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 11 Indeed. It's the fans who are worried about 8 seed / not making the playoffs. I'm sure the team isn't just hoping to make the playoffs, but going for the division.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 10 A lot of things would need to go our way for us to clinch by April 1, but the optimism is refreshing!
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 10 We got the magic number to single digits. If Phoenix can get upset the number will be 8!
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 17 Never would happen, see Western Conference Finals, 2002, Kings-Lakers, Game 5
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 If we lose to Cleveland, but beat the Bucks, we'll have 44 wins with 12 games to go. 7 and home 5 on the road. If we can beat the Clippers, Thunder and Grizzles at on the road, and win the rest of our home games, that's 54 wins. Pretty incredible 10-2 finish, but it's do able if we're on our game every night. I project the Jazz to finish with no more than 50 wins, with their tough schedule, so I think we're good for at least the 6th seed. But 54 wins may win us the division. Denver has 5 really tough road games coming up. So that would probably do it.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 11 If by "team", you mean Nate and the players, I agree. Not to be a cynic, but I doubt KP cares, and I know the Vulcan bean-counters don't. No matter what seed the Blazers get, they are guaranteed 2 play-off games in the RG. Ka-ching!
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 11 That's who I meant. The people who have an influence on the rest of this season. The front office can really only influence future seasons, at this point. I think that's true. As a GM, I think that's the right approach, too. You have to be concerned with process, not so much results. I mean, obviously you want to see great results...but you can't completely control results, only the process. Pritchard probably concerns himself with running the franchise the best he can, putting the best team he can on the floor and the rest is out of his hands. The players and coaching staff have to take it from there. Plus, this wasn't supposed to be a title-contention year. Winning more games, players becoming better and having some signs of greater success (like reaching the playoffs) is probably the main thing. Extras, like winning the division or a round or two of the playoffs would just be gravy.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 Up 6.5 games with 14 to play. Looking good. Phoenix has a brutal week next week: vs. Denver, vs Utah, @ Portland, @ Utah ..... OUCH.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 54 would be phenomenal, but fairly unlikely. I went through the schedule and came up with 47 as the low number, 52 as the high, and 49 as the most likely number of wins. All in all, a great season and even more impressive that it didn't take some fluky 13 game win streak to make it happen, just good, mostly consistent performances all season long.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 How do you figure 49 is most likely? We have 14 games left, so if you think we'll only muster 49 wins, that means you're predicting us to go 6-8 over our last 14 games. 49 is way too low!!
