That's one way of looking at it. I'm not optimistic of our chances to essentially have to run the table to make the playoffs. At least... that's how I understand this scenario now. Let's see what they come up with after it's ratified tmrw.
These are the games we won't play now that we had on our original schedule: vs MIN @ MIN @ CHA @ DET vs CLE @ GSW That's 6 gimme games.
Just an observation. On that list, everyone is listed as their team mascot while the TRAILBLAZERS are listed as their city.
Remember that game in Utah that the refs stole from us? God damn, that one is gonna come back and bite us in the ass now isn't it?
Relax. We’re good. Nurk and Collins back, Dame with something to prove. Winning 6 of 8 we are playing at should be good enough to make the play in.
No one is going to have any “gimme games” as only playoff caliber teams are playing. It’ll be an even playing field, and Portland’s destiny is pretty much in their own hands as they play Memphis twice.
Catching the Grizzlies for the 8th seed is going to be tough given their 3.5 game lead and only playing 8 games. That said, I’m not sure that they are up to finishing strong against playoff-caliber teams. The important thing is to hold onto 9th and finish within 4 games of them so we force the play-in. I like our odds of doing that. We’d still have to beat them twice as compared to the Blazers being in single-elimination mode, but with Nurk and Collins back I think the Blazers would be favored.
Our 8th game can be scheduled vs MEM but it would be their 9th game. Not set in stone that we play them twice in the reg. season. I don't think it's an even playing field at all. The current standings and their lead over us is a direct function of the easy schedule MEM played early in the season. It was supposed to get easier for us now-- it won't. Still waiting to see how the schedules play out.
We have a better chance of getting 9th and staying within 4 games of Grizz than we had back in March when there was no play in and we were 4 losses behind Memphis with a game against Memphis looming.
Staying within four games is only part of it. We also have to beat out three other teams for the ninth spot to begin with, and each of them have one less loss.