What a weird and disappointing season for the Blazers so far. I don’t think the biggest pessimist on the board had them at 25 - 34 at the break, let alone that Dame would miss do much of the season and that a big chunk of the core of the roster would be traded away for such a small return. And then, the team goes on a four game winning streak, lead by Ant, Nurk and newcomer Jeff Hart. So, given the unexpected place we find ourselves, what do you predict the final regular season record to be? Here’s the remaining schedule: Thu, 2/24 vsGS Sun, 2/27 vsDEN Wed, 3/2 @PHX Sat, 3/5 @MIN Mon, 3/7 @MIN Wed, 3/9 @UTAH Sat, 3/12 vsWSH Mon, 3/14 @ATL Wed, 3/16 @NY Fri, 3/18 @BKN Sun, 3/20 @IND Mon, 3/21 @DET Wed, 3/23 vs @SA Fri, 3/25 vsHOU Sat, 3/26 vsHOU Mon, 3/28 vsOKC Wed, 3/30 vsNO Fri, 4/1 @SA Sun, 4/3 @SA Tue, 4/5 @OKC Thu, 4/7 @NO Fri, 4/8 @DAL Sun, 4/10 vsUTAH
If we win, we win by gaining valuable experience. If we lose, we win lotto balls. Either way, we win. #Qui-Gon Gin
problem is there's a big unknown lurking over the horizon: if Dame returns because the Blazers have decided to make a push. If he does return I would not be surprised if Bledsoe is activated too if Dame doesn't return 38-44
There are 6 games against opponents they should lose to regardless of location (GSW, DEN, PHX, UTA x2, DAL). I'll give them 2-4 in those. There are 6 games against opponents they should beat regardless of location (IND, DET, HOU x2, OKC x2). I'll give them 5-1 in those. That leaves 11 games against comparable play-in-caliber teams (MIN x2, WAS, ATL, NY, BKN, SA x3, NO x2). I'll give them 7-4 in those. That would be 14-9 the rest of the way, taking us to 39-43.
Just the way I see it, we should definitely get a win out of one of the Wolves games. We should get two wins out of the four game run of Wizards, Hawks, Knicks, Nets. I don't see a reason why we should lose any of the following eleven games. The last two are interesting but on their face we should lose to both the Mavs and Jazz. So we will definitely drop a game or two we should win but we'll also likely win a game or two that we should lose. I think we'll finish 40-42. If the Lakers pick up some talent on the buyout market we might not get past them but both the Clippers and Lakers have much harder schedules than us. 40-42 might be enough to get into the 8th spot, so we'll only have to win one play in game to get into the playoffs. At this point with the 11 games out of the final 23 being games that we should be heavy favorites in, 4 other games that we should have a coin flip chance of winning and the last two games being really iffy as far as if our opponents will be playing to win, plus the fact that I didn't even think we would win any of the last 4, I wouldn't be surprised if we won more. There's also the chance that Dame comes back and boosts our number of wins. So I think the 8th spot and the playoffs are well within reach. I want our team to make the playoffs for the experience but more so because the ability to have all of our future firsts available to trade during this off season is more valuable to this team than the 9th-14th pick would be in trying to make us a contender as soon as possible.
If you gives victories to the favorites, and then Blazers wins vs. teams they most likely will beat , i see 38. But if the team continues to play great, 44 is very possible.
