Bulls need to go 6-2 to reach 60. I see them making it if Thibs doesn't rest the starters for 3 games. To put 60 wins in perspective, only Cleveland won 60 (61) last season. The Celtics, Lakers, and Cleveland won 60+ the season before.
I called 60 wins a month ago The #1 seed too We need it because we likely drop two games in the run home and Miami may win out from here Therefore 60 wins or bust
I might add that should Miami win out and we drop 2 of our 8 then we are tied at 60 wins , but , the 1 seed is ours due to our tiebreaker advantage. Bottom line is if Miami keeps winning so must we. If we get to our last two games and we already have 60 wins then our guys would only be rested at at that point as we would already have it secured. Luol would still be playing 48 minutes a game though
I stand corrected Even if the heat win out they are at 59 wins Boston have to win out to get to 60 which is unlikely A 3 game loss string is the maximum we can afford unless Boston keep winning And then it's a 2 game loss string
Since our 9-8 start, we've been playing near .800 ball. It's hard to see even a 2 game losing streak.
Assuming the Spurs lose tonight (which I think they will) to the Lakers, the Bulls will only be 2.5 games back of the #1 overall seed. I'm not sure I would rest the starters if I'm within arms reach.
San Antionio has to go 3-4 to finish at 60 wins. They've lost 5 in a row and 6 of their last 10. We're 32-5 at home, 22-15 on the road. Home court advantage in every round of the playoffs is obviously ideal.
I'm just worried about beating the Lakers and I'm not sure it's going to happen. They Lakers are ahead of the Bulls in terms of the tie-breakers because they (somehow) have a better record against the West than the Bulls do against the East. I'm not sure that the Lakers will lose another game so I'm not sure it's going to be possible to catch them.
I think it's the other way around. It's our record against the other conference that matters, and we're ahead in that regard. But we don't catch the Spurs.
As far as finishing in front of as many of the Heat, Boston, Lakers and Spurs as possible, Heat play Celts again and Lakers play Spurs again. I don't think that is right. I think it works the opposite way in that Bulls are better against the West than Lakers are to the East.
Every stat about the Lakers before the all star break is irrelevant. Everyone knew they weren't into it. They're a totally different team now.
And we're 1.5 games back from the Spurs after tonight. I have a feeling they lose to both the Lakers and the Hawks so we'd essentially have to win all our games through.
This has certainly been one heckuva regular season. Seems like this team just keeps moving past each new "if they could only" that's in their path. Now we're looking at moving back the Spurs for best record in the whole damn league. Unreal.
Yeah. Everything on the web was saying record against your own conference. The ESPN guys are saying it's just a mass confusion and it's actually the other way around.
I'm becoming convinced that Charles Barkley is a basketball genius. He makes seemingly absurd predictions and they almost always seem to come true. Barkley predicted that the Lakers would win the West at all-star break, when the Spurs had a seemingly insurmountable league. The Lakers had to go almost undefeated for that to happen and the Spurs would have to play around .500 ball. The Spurs were 46-10 at that time and have been 10-9 since. The Lakers were 38-19 at that time and have been 17-1 since. That's a fucking crazy prediction and he was right on the money. The other prediction that I remember was picking Arizona at Duke at halftime when Duke was ahead 44-38 and seemingly in control of the game. All of the rest of the announcers were piling on Arizona. The game was far from over but I wouldn't have picked Arizona. I think Barkley able to see the game of basketball better than almost anyone else. I really wish someone would give him a job as a GM because I think he has the talent to be one of the greatest ever.
There's a big difference between watching games and making predictions and putting teams together. But Barkley has been on a hot streak lately.
