Is Portland the best team in the West?

Are we good again now? Lol

On the serious, I love the grit to not give in and keep fighting.
AnotherwinforLanny!

 

Don't get it twisted your prediction was 39. UNDER Vegas odds.

 

Only there due to injuries....but then you knew that.

 

Zion continues to wreak havoc on opponents' defense. His most underrated skill that makes him that much more unstoppable: ball handling. Ain't a 270+ pounder on the planet that can handle it as well as he does. Low center of gravity; he's only, what 6'6?? Look at the way Zion handles the ball vs another 7 ft 270 pounder in Nurk.

 

The funny thing is that even after going 4-9 over our last 13 games the question posed in the thread title is still relevant. There isn't a best team in the West. I get it that NOLA is on a tear right now but I'm not afraid of that team or any other team in the West.

I still think we should make some moves at the trade deadline to make our roster make more sense but even if we don't, there isn't a team in the West that we couldn't beat in a seven game series.

 

Blazers this season:

win against 1st seed
2 wins against 2nd seed
win against the 4th seed

Pels 3-2 against top 4 seeds, 0 wins on road. Blazers 4-2 against top-4 seeds, 2 wins on road

Blazers 1-0 against Pels.

Blazers 3 more road games than home games. Pels 3 more home games than road games. Blazers 4th in SOS; Pels 25th

 

Great post til the end there my friend. You think if we matched up with ANY team in the west in a seven game series, we would win? ANY team?

 

And yet after all that research we are STILL behind them in the standings?

 

That's the spirit!!!

I like this.

 

That research explains WHY were behind them in the standings and how it will even out. Like fouls even out in games. SOS evens out records as the season goes on.

 

To be fair he said could not would. Lots of unlikely stuff is possible, but a team being a legitimate contender means it's viewed as one of the favorites to win it all not just by homers.

STOMP

 

Yes, having the 25th hardest schedule in the league could definitely put you ahead of some teams who could beat you but have among the most difficult schedules in the league. For sure. 4 games difference? Pretty reasonable...

That will even out over the season.

 

This team is not playing good defense. Until that takes a 180 they aint beating squat in seven games. Its doable. Look at Boston last year. Takes work desire and coaching.

 

LOL, c'mon man....."research".....took 5 minutes at BBREF.

and as I pointed out, a 6 game differential between Home/Road between the teams as well as the huge gap in SOS can explain a lot of the gap. I mean, yeah, the Pels have been hot lately, but look at how easy their 'lately' has been: over the past 14 games they have had 11 at home and only 3 on the road; and 2 of the 3 road games were against the Spurs. And their 2 losses at home were against Boston....and Portland (look at that...more research!)

the Pels are a better balanced team than Portland....their GM has been at the job a lot longer than Cronin, and Cronin has been burdened with Olshey's wildly unbalanced and length challenged roster. And of course, everything in New Orleans rides on Zion's health. He's all that stands between potential HCA in the playoffs vs the lottery. Coming into this season, in his first 3 years Zion had played 85 games; Greg Oden played in 82 games in his first 3 years; 88 if you count playoffs. That's an incredibly shaky foundation for a #1 seed that is only 2 games away from losing HCA, 4 games away from the 8th seed and Play-in, and 5 games away from the lottery

 

Ohhh “could”. You “could” win the lottery next week too. Good luck to you sir.

 

So you believe then that we will finish ahead of the Pels in the standings?

 

So you think we will finish ahead of the Pels in the standings?