EXACTLY what I said a couple days ago. I said that if we win both, weRe' in the thick of top 3 record. If we lose both, it's how you put it, "happy to just make playoffs.". They were two very crucial games and we failed. But as YOU said and I tried to say in the Positives thread, there are 19 games left. What changed? You're only settling for 8th seed now? With 19 left? You've proven my point from two days ago when we had our fight. Two losses changed everything for you. Like I said they would. I mean, we win both those games, we're 3rd seed and only two games behind OKC!
Top four finish. Second round or WCF. We haven't gotten blown out of a game since January. Pretty much all of our losses against playoff teams have been very close. I think we'll be fine.
No idea. but a re-tread isn't the answer. I'm sure there's someone out there who is a better defensive mind then what they have currently.
The roster needs to get better before we start talking about the coach actually Neil needs to decide if this starting 5 is good enough to be a championship team. It really comes down to Wes/Nic and trying to upgrade one of them (IMO)
Exactly. This is what I was criticized for a couple days ago. I said win both, we're in top 3. Lose both, we're 6th 7th. These two games were the turning point of the season.
Agreed on the wes/nic... I think we try to get pieces for them... though, with how many boneheaded plays Nic makes, he always seems to fill the stat sheet (even with 6 turnovers or whatever the hell he had tonight)... Wes is good, but his defense has been a little lackluster... though he was getting called for tick-tack fouls so I could see why he may be more hesistant... and that shot Harden made was legit over Matthews. He couldn't do anything else that wouldn't result in a foul.
I'm talking expectations. I didn't say we would "battle". I'm just lowering my expectations. You were more factual in your statements, where mine is just a tweak of expectations. Though, it wasn't a fight. It was a quarrel, and it was really cute.
There's a huge difference between tempering expectations and saying "season over". I have not once said season over. I just tempered expectations. Colossal difference.
To a degree, yes. Look at Thibide...Thibed...the Bulls coach. He was an assistant for years. There are assistants out there who would emphasize defense. They're paid the big bucks to find them. I'm no longer that upset about the loss. Barring an unbelievable collapse, the team is still in line for a top 6 playoff seeding. And considering the difference between 1st place and 5th is 5 or so games, it's not like the top seeded teams are guaranteed wins in the 1st round. Even #1 vs #8 isn't a guarantee. Does the team need to find it's mojo back? Yes. But so does Miami (losers of 3 straight), Indiana (losers of 4 straight) and Oklahoma City (losers of 4 of 7). Portland is below .500 in their last 23 games (I think?) but Indiana is 7-7 in their last 14, OKC is 6-6 in it's last 12. Miami is still playing better ball than the other two (and Portland, of course).
I said the story would change from top 3 to bottom 3. That losing both games would put us in a new race. You said NO it's only 2 games. 19 left!
Again, there's a disconnect. We're going to argue this all night, so I'll stop it now. No reason to fight over semantics of words, we have our own views of it.
My expectation is the HCP will swoop in and tell us all what bad fans we are because we're down right now. :MARIS61:
ha. Dude, that was a TOUGH loss. Stings like a bitch. I wouldn't blame anyone for flipping their lid after that. lol. And go figure, KS starts the positive thread. I give him a nice hearty round of applause for that.
