Against Utah in Utah. Hmmmm.... Maybe they ain't so bad after all? Makes that "ugly win" and crazy loss a little better pill to swallow.
its shocking that the lineup of scola, brooks, ariza, hayes, and battier could beat the jazz (so far at home) and blazers
only reason we beat houston was cause they shot piss poor for 3 qtrs. they cut our 19 point lead to 6 in portland with 5 minutes left.
i still think though... the rockets come back to earth and struggle. thats not a playoff lineup. right now they might be feeling "them against the world" but they arent this good
Gotta say it's hard to argue with that. The dude has been a proven winner. 4 teams and 3 of them went past the second round of the playoffs. 2 of them went to the WCF and should have won against the Lakers and 1 made it to the finals twice. I would say that's a great track record.
Houston is a team with no star power but a number of average to above average players. They're definitely not a bad team and could, with some luck, challenge Phoenix for that eighth seed. Most likely, though, they'll be a late-lottery team with somewhere close to 40 wins, IMO.
Out of the 10 teams that played tonight the best team was . . . The Rockets. At least so far this season. Granted, this must have been poop night in the NBA - coming into the night 8 of the 10 teams scheduled had sub .500 records. None the less, the Rockets aren't as bad as I thought. Playoff team? Who knows - too early to tell. But I wouldn't be all that surprised. Especially if they get anything out of T-Mac when he comes back. They get more of their talent than maybe any team in the league, and they play team ball.
And didn't they have a great end of the season, when Yao went down? I seem to remember they were one of the hottest teams in the NBA 2 years ago. Maybe it's just the homer in me wanting Houston to look better than they actually are. I did say before the season started that Houston was going to give us problems. They have quick hands and play in your face defense for 48 minutes. It just tells you the importance of defense.
Houston will make the playoffs. Those scrubs (in the good sense of the word) were the only guys who could take the Lakers to 7 games last season. As for Utah? They barely made the playoffs last season. I see them in the lotto this time around.
Why do you assume that Phoenix (3-0) will only challenge for the 8th seed this season? Shaq is gone. Amare is back. Grant Hill is playing some of the best basketball of his career. And Frye's fitting in nicely. They look a lot like the team that was holding the West's top seed before Shaq joined two seasons ago.
locks for playoffs... lakers spurs nuggets likely for playoffs... mavs blazers... im being nice.. through 4 games... ??? questionable for playoffs jazz suns hornets (dont be shocked if they are left out) rockets dark horses... thunder grizz clippers
Because I base my evaluations on more than three games, which is often where you and I diverge. Grant Hill's sudden rise in performance is extremely unlikely to be sustained. Players don't suddenly return to near-prime form at age 37. Frye is simply not going to continue playing like a borderline superstar. Amare Stoudemire, a declining Nash and a couple of decent role-players (Hill and Richardson) aren't going to achieve much more than an eighth seed in a good conference like the current Western conference. If they were in the 1999-2002 Eastern conference, sure, they might contend for a higher seed.
That's not "nice," that's silly optimistic. A 2-2 record isn't going to make the playoffs. If the Blazers don't even play the remaining 78 games, they won't make the playoffs. I guarantee it. They're not good enough to make the playoffs through only 4 games.
