Which is More Significant: Finishing 3rd in the West or the Playoff Sweep?

I guess so. However, in 1994, the Magic were swept in the first round (granted it was a best of 5) but then made the NBA Finals in 1995 with basically the same team. So there's still hope!

 

In this analogy, who's our Shaq? Nurk?

 

Dame is our MVP candidate.

 

You completely failed to address my first sentance.
It absolutely holds water.
If the other trams around us went 5-5, but could have gone 10-0, then we would have been out of hca just like that, but when we were losing so was our competition for hca.

 

smh. Still need a break from this. Haven't stepped away far enough to laugh and just brush off these responses

 

By the way, before Shaq won his first title, he was swept out of the playoffs 4 or 5 times. Off hand, I remember he was swept by Pacers, Jazz, Bulls, and Rockets.

 

How many teams ion the Western Conference do you see finishing with 50 plus wins?
I'd guess, maybe 3/4 is that will.

 

You're not doing math correctly. For us to be out of HCA "just like that," they would've had to go 10-0. 5-5 means they don't have a chance to catch us. Not the other way around. I'm not sure I understand you.

 

No, you are reading my post wrong. That's exactly what I just said....

"If the other teams around us went 5-5, but could have gone 10-0, then we would have been out of hca just like that,"

 

Orion- How are 3 teams going to go 10-0? They play each other.

 

How could 3 teams have gone 10-0 and passed us?? The West teams play each other down the stretch. That would be impossible.

 

I'm still of the belief that you have to consider the match-ups when you look at these things. The Blazers had problems with New Orleans all season. They split their four regular season games, but the Blazers' wins both came against the Pelicans in games where Davis got injured. The first game he only played 5 minutes before injuring his knee. The second win came when he sprained an ankle in the third quarter. He still finished that game, scored 33 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, but you wonder if Dame's 41 points would have been enough to get the win if Davis was at full strength. Davis is just a problem for which the Blazers have no solution.

I think that the Blazers would have won a series against either the Thunder or the Jazz. They swept the Thunder in the regular season and split with the Jazz, but killed the Jazz in that last game of the season when the Jazz had everything to play for and the Blazers had nothing to lose. Would winning a series against one of those two teams have changed the narrative over getting swept by the Pelicans? Absolutely. Would it have made any material difference in the Blazers chances next season? Nope. Only perceptions would be different.

 

I agree with this.

 

You do realize that Nurk had pretty similar stats last year compared to his "Nurk Fever" 20 games the year before right? If you look at January on his numbers were even better.

 

Dead on, very bad match up!

 

Well in the Blazers defense, Anthony Davis usually appears to get seriously injured in just about every game he has ever played in until the playoffs this year. I compare Davis getting hurt to Nurk getting hit in the face. They both happen ALL the time.

 

Sigh. you arent getting it.

I'll leave it at this. You have a completely unique way of seeing things.....and omitting things....

 

You say that now, but you would also melt the heck down watching us get swept because your expectations would be so high.

 

What about POR's 13 game winning streak made it improbable? Was is the only improbable winning streak in the NW division, or were all the other winning streaks probable? Was UTA winning 11 in a row and 19 of 21 any more or less improbable? NOP's 10 game winning streak after Boogie went down? How probable was that?

I get so tired of people poo pooing the Blazers winning streak like it didn't actually happen or they didn't deserve those wins. Every win counts in the standings, but it's almost like people would place more value on those 13 wins if there were a couple losses sprinkled in to give those wins some added credibility.

They beat some very good teams during that streak including GSW twice - once at full strength. They also broke UTA's 11 game winning streak by beating them by 19 on their home court.

BNM.

 

One thing I'll say about last season....New Orleans beat us...shoutout to them...they played the best ball of their season in the first round and we had Mo out and ET hobbled with shoulder problems....we were out coached and out played for 4 straight games...much respect to New Orleans for that display...unlike Laker fans...when we get beat, I prefer to give the team that beat us their full credit...not excuses for losing. We lost....still doesn't discount how well we played for 49 wins or even how many we came close to winning and lost by a few points...Stotts went back to the tape and addressed what went wrong with our playoff series...he was honest about it...lot of it was bench scoring and a lot was a lack of 3 pt shooters to take the pressure off Dame. Some was not having a dangerous mid range scorer in the front court.....New Orleans deserves all the credit for our sweep and we deserve all the credit for getting the 3rd seed in a stacked western conference...door swings both ways