oh yes. Cause it happened last year then it means it will happen every year. This is a different team and a different year. OKC lost to a lower seed last year. Does that mean they are doomed to repeat it? What about the Spurs? They lost in the first round as well. I guess 3/4's of the first round is already decided.
Another day, another thread derailment over pedantic detail, another instance of condescension by calling someone 'son.' I really need to gtfo this forum. Ignore list is not helping when the damn button is still there to see ignored content.
I'm definitely not going to argue the coach effect, but do you consider the Blazers unbeatable at home? The reason I ask is that the Spurs are only 1 game ahead of us in home record.
Sure. But if the home team wins the first 6 games in a series, I really don't like our shot of winning game 7 vs Pop, even if it's at home.
No. New Orleans was better last year. If they were as healthy during the season as they were in the playoffs they'd have been a top 3 seed.
I think you have to look at matchups in a very simple way; Can we match up with the other teams superstars? Thunder: George? No thank you. Westbrook can shoot his teams out of games but he’s also completely capable of dominating Lillard. Clippers: Do they have one? Not overlooking them, but this would be my first choice. Jazz: Mitchell can go off, but I feel like Gobert and Nurk would neutralize each other. Spurs: Nurk did well against Aldridge last time, but this still isn’t a favorable matchup, plus I’d like to avoid Pop in the playoffs thank you very much. So my order of best matchups would probably be Clippers, Utah, San Antonio, and Thunder.
I think we beat the Jazz in a first round matchup..save the travel time for later in the playoffs...get one early close to home
It makes Nurk's injury even worse that with the Houston loss, Portland moves into the #3 seed at least temporarily. What a gut punch. My worry is that now even another year of Dame's prime is down the drain and likely most of next if not all of next season. So this may have far more ranging effects than just a lost Playoff run. I hope they battle as much as they can but it won't take long to where they are just out-manned.
Keep your chin up. We have the deepest center rotation in the league. We will miss Nurk but that doesn't mean we can't still find ways to win. As for Dame's career, Olshey and Dame don't necessarily have to wait around for Nurk to come back to improve the team. We know that Hood and Curry can cover for CJ so maybe now, Olshey gets aggressive with a CJ/Zach/Picks trade for Anthony Davis. Dame/Hood/Harkless/Aminu/AD Not a bad starting lineup.
While Portland is on the road for 4 games, Houston gets DEN, SAC, @Sac, @LaC for their next 4. If the Blazers can somehow go 3-1, I think they can hold their position.
I’m calling it... Por 6-3 the rest of the way Hou 4-3 the rest of the way We are getting the 3 seed and will be playing the Clippers in Round 1, Den in Round 2. We are a Nurk away from making the WCF.
http://www.playoffstatus.com/nba/trailblazersstandings.html We should have a great idea of if we get #3 by the end of this week. If HOU loses to Denver tonight, our chances of getting 3 increases to 70%, and we'd pretty much all but be guaranteed to have HCA. A DEN win and if we manage to win in ATL, we'd pretty much seal our spot. I really hope we rest everyone if this happens. Giving Dame a 5 game break before the playoffs would be huge. As it is, our chances of keeping HCA right now before all these games are > 85%. Also based on these probabilities, it looks like either LA or Utah will be our opponent.
On the flip side if Houston beats Denver we'd only be 3 games behind them. It's probably not worth going all out for but the door would still be slightly open for the 2nd seed.
Getting 2 also increases our chances of getting OKC round one. If we want LA/Utah in the first round with HCA and try like hell to avoid GS second round, #3 should suffice.