But with Denver losing, and Utah playing a close game with the B-cats, the Jazz, Nuggets and Blazers have 20, 20 and 22 losses. And if the Jazz lose tonight (doubtful), they'd be 1 game better in the loss column. I don't know if that says more about how Utah and Denver are (quality wise) or how Portland is (quality wise) considering the incredible # of games lost to injuries by Portland.
Zach's revenge. expected wins..team 48.2 Denver - 6th seed 45.2 Utah - 7 43.3 Portland - 8 43.0 Memphis 40.0 Houston 39.3 Phoenix http://www.coolstandings.com/basket...sn=2010&col=expw&sort=desc&run=1033&sim=s&v=c
Nate and the coaching staff have done an amazing job the past two seasons. Most other teams would have just curled into a ball and given up. We keep fighting, not matter how undermanned.
43 wins would be Zach's peak as a max contract player. He has been traded 3 times during that contract.
Don't look now but Memphis is projected to finish ahead of the Blazers in his playoff predictor http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/playoffodds
OKC is 97%, yet if we pulled out wins instead of 1 and 2 point losses against them we'd be exactly one game behind them in the standings. not sure how meaningful those odds are at this point in the season.
We see what happens to Utah when they have injuries. I'm guessing the same effect if Denver loses Carmello. Blazers have Camby and Roy coming back after the all star break and find themselves in the thick of the playoff race. This could be a fun second half of the season. Still hurts for me to see OKC. They are what the Blazers were and they look like they are reaching their potential that we never reached. Then there is the whole Durant leading the way and if we got he 2nd pick . . . good for OKC, but it pains me . . . that should be us damn it!
OKC is reaching their potential? as i just noted we are 3 points from being 1 game behind them in the standings. in fact despite injuries we are only 1/2 game behind them in conference. if anything i think OKC is underachieving a bit this year.
They aren't quite as 'hungry' as they appeared to be last year, but after a somewhat slow start they've been playing much harder on defense lately and they are still on pace to win 50 games (at least according to Hollinger's playoff prediction tool). The only thing that really matters though is how they perform in the playoffs, and after the scare they put into the Lakers last year I'd say that with two legit All-NBA caliber players in Westbrook and Durant, plus the emergence of Ibaka they're going to be in a pretty good position to make a run. Time, of course, will tell.
I think it's pretty cool that we're still in the thick of things despite how badly things have gone for us. It's nice to have something to feel good about. But I look at the schedule ahead and it's a little bit terrifying. San Antonio and Denver back to back. I'd like to think Indiana and Cleveland are W's but it's another back to back on the road. And then we play the #3 team in the east. I wouldn't be too surprised if we're up at 27 losses this time next week.
