http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/train...umnist=hollinger_john&page=LakersForecast0809 One of the poorer pre-season predictions I read about us. He was in love with Utah last season too. Drew was very good for us last year but we would have won more games with just Kobe and Pau alone for the whole year.
Farmar is playing much lower than expected, Drew is gone, and we still win 58 games by game 72 with a makeshift bench.
The difference between the 2nd and 7th seed in the West isn't astronomical, I could see various contenders for that. But the total wins for us seemed low considering everything he said.
2nd through 7th in the West is separated by a whopping 2.5 games, so we could still see some shifting in that when all is said in done. In theory, SA could drop all the way to 7th if Houston or New Orleans wins that division, which would be insane to think. This makes me laugh at the people who thought the East might have been catching up to the West at the beginning of the year because of all the crap teams out West. There's still only 3 teams in the East that would make the playoffs in the West right now, and that's the top 3 seeds. The top 8 seeds out West would be no lower than 4th in the East, and the 9th seed Suns would manage to be the 5th seed by a game over the Heat in the East. Plus the East still has two teams below .500 making the playoffs, though both the Bulls and Pistons could still pull above .500 before seasons end. Regardless though, the East is still putrid.
