Five Games Til Christmas. Time To Turn the Corner.

Wins against garbage teams mean nothing if we can't win against teams we would actually meet in the playoffs.

 

I agree that this team has more wrong but not even having Nurk & Collins together is a factor. So you think based on your stats that if Nurk and Collins were healthy, even without Melo we'd pick up 1 win?

 

I would think if we had the following team healthy from day one we have at least 5 more wins than we do now? I may be wrong?

Center - Nurk/Whiteside/Collins/Skal
Big Forward - Collins/Melo/Skal/Tolliver/Herz
Small Foward - Hood/Baze/Ant/Melo
SG - CJ/Ant/Baze/Hood/Trent
PG - Dame/Ant/CJ/Baze

 

We probably dont get Melo without the injuries (which Im ok with).

 

Even more of a reason to let off the gas this year. We Will be fine next year. Whats wrong with that?

 

They mean everything. You have to win them to get a good playoff seed. Also regular season games against good teams don’t tell the story about how playoffs will go. Blazers were 1-7 vs Nuggets and Thunder last year and took out both in the playoffs.

 

Btw, the Blazers were 24-35 in 2016-17 season and still made playoffs. It’s a long season.

 

do you mean the year they only won 41 games, getting the 8th seed, and got swept in the first round losing by an average of 18 points a game?

 

Not exactly something to look forward to...especially if it costs you a good Lottery pick.

 

I dont care about previous years. They arent this year. THIS years team sucks against actual talented teams. I dont seek comfort in stats thst have no bearing on this year. Don't get fooled by them, they mean nothing with this current crop of guys.

We suck this year against good teams. Why make the playoffs to get stomped? Theres more pride in retreating then whopping their ass when we are healthy.

Its really not that hard of a concept.

 

At this point, you can't play the "These games are winnable, if we win them all then we'd be here" game. Every time that game is played by a Blazer fan, they have a huge letdown loss to a team they shouldn't lose to. I've played this game so far this season, and it hasn't been fun.

We just lost to OKC at home, but we're going to act like the Suns on the road or the Magic and Timberwolves at home aren't tougher than that?

This team has to start doing the fundamentals and playing better. Until then, we can't look at our schedule as "If we could just win all five of these games"....

 

* I just checked again and yes, currently Portland is 1-10 against teams with winning records (13 teams with winning records with several hovering within a couple of game of .500)

* if I counted right, in 2017-18, thru 27 games, Portland was 6-9 against teams with winning records (17 teams had winning records that year)

* last year, 2018-19, Portland was 6-6 against teams with winning records (15 teams with winning records & 1 team at .500)

obviously, what Portland has done so far against teams with winning records isn't necessarily predictive of the remaining season (hopefully). Starting on the first of Jan (thru Feb 9), Portland plays 13 teams with winning records over a 20 game stretch. Between now and Feb 9, Portland plays 15 of 28 against teams with winning records; and 15 of 30 between now and the all-star break. Besides being 1-10 against winners, the Blazers are only 9-6 against losing teams; that might be just as big an issue. If Portland matches exactly what they've done so far over the next 30 games, by the all-star break they'd be 21-35....yikes!

I think it's a pretty safe bet they'll do better than that (barring any more injuries). The question is going to be how much better? Portland has played 4 more games on the road than at home to this point, and 5 more after tonight. Over the next 30, they have a 15-15 home road split, which means a 15-11 home-road split to close the season after the all-star break; and only 10 of 26 against teams with winning records. That will be the part of their schedule when they can make up a lot of ground; they just can't keep digging a deeper hole before then

 

3-0 on Eric's 5-game surge!