Who owns the tiebreaker between Denver and Portland? Because Portland would have to win both their remaining games and Denver lose theirs to TIE. And with Denver playing Golden State at home and Utah at Utah... yeah, not happening.
If we're honest, we're going out in round 1 whatever happens (barring sudden massive injuries to the two best players on the other team), so why not go out fighting the Lakers? Maybe we can take out a couple of their players in the process. Dallas does seem weak at the moment, and have an unfortunate history in the playoffs, but Dirk Nowtizki has been kicking this team's ass for a long time. And we want no part of San Antonio, not with a healthy Ginobili.
DEN would have to lose to UTA in order for us to tie, meaning they would lose to another division opponent, giving US the tiebreaker.
Portland would own tie breaker if they won out. Denver easily could lose out. Neither of those games are gimmees. Both teams beat the Lakers last week.
Agreed: Jackson teams always always lose some strange games in the month or so before the playoffs. Even the 72-win Bulls did, I believe. And if you look at the Lakers' record in the second half of last season, they were 25-16, tied (with us and San Antonio) for 6th in the West. Didn't matter, did it?
I disagree. We can beat anybody in the playoffs this year as long as we're healthy. And San Antonio would be an excellent matchup for us. They have no size and we have more overall team speed than them.
The Lakers already had HCA wrapped up last year. They don't this year. I predict that it WILL matter.
The Lakers are the 2 time defending champs. If you can avoid them, you do. Doesn't mean the other teams will be easy. We will still be big underdogs to all of them. But common sense says the Lakers would be the toughest obstical to over come. I would prefer Dallas, then OKC, then SA, then the Lakers.
I don't agree with that even when I'm being honest. I think Portland is legitimately the underdog in any first-round match-up and therefore most likely will exit in round 1, but I don't think it's certain against any team other than LA (due to a combination of factors). I think Portland would have a significant chance of upsetting Dallas, Oklahoma City or San Antonio. Less than 50%, but still significant. And if I'm being dishonest, I don't even think the Trail Blazers are an underdog to any team in the playoffs and are, in fact, the defending champions.
Duncan's 6-10. McDyess is 6-9. Blair is 6-6 and Splitter doesn't even play. They don't match up with us inside.
Of course they are. We've won every championship since '77. There's a reason the Larry Portland Trail Blazers O'Brien trophy is named the way it is. I want Dallas, SA, OKC, Lakers. barfo
Dallas is on their way out, and Stern hates Cuban. I think if we play OKC or LA it will be a contest of who can shoot the more free throws... Kevin Durant or the Portland Trail Blazers as a whole.
In that case, I hope we play LA. I don't think Durant will get many free throws in a Portland-LA match-up. (Maybe only 4-5.)
Right. And for that time, how many games have we had Gerald Wallace D'ing up on Dirk? Dallas is a great matchup for the Blazers in the first round.
We would have a better division record than Denver and we have tied the regular season series. So if we both ended up with identical records; we would be 5th seed.
