Looks like were playing the Lakers in the 1st round

Yeah when Gasol and Odom are their only big men and they have nobody off the bench they are much less intimidating. Kobe is a good player but if the defense can focus primarily on him he will force shots ending up with inefficient games even though he gets a lot of points.

 

Kobe played 41 minutes in a game they "wanted to lose"? Gasol 43 minutes?

Hmmmmmmmmm.

 

Neither the refs nor the league read Oregonlive.com. Your theory doesn't hold water.

 

Pop has won championships and his quote was in a national article. You can't compare him to Miller who has never gotten out of the first round of the playoffs.

 

Even though the scoreboard shows a dominant Laker victory, the Jazz pretty much controlled the game from halfway through the 1st quarter to halfway through the 4th. The Lakers are not playing good basketball. BUT I do buy into the theory that they've had nothing to play for. On the other hand, if they had won these recent games (OKC, Hornets, Hawks, Spurs), they'd be in it for HCA throughout the playoffs. And don't look now but they're losing ground on Orlando.

 

So quitting on your team is okay if it's on a big enough stage?

 

I guess being in a national article makes all the difference.

 

[video=youtube;hBJCH5BLYsc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBJCH5BLYsc[/video]

 

You're not very keen on this 'passing the message along', or 'long distance instant communication via e-mail and cell-phone' development, are you?

 

We will lose to the lakers by the 5th game. Quote me like a Mixum post!

 

I'm a bit surprised at Ron's 12.4 PER

 

[video=youtube;nozOfWQpcKI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nozOfWQpcKI[/video]

 

No. If you read the thread, you'll see that TSE was saying that Miller was sending a message to the league with his quote. I stated that the league and the refs don't read Oregonlive.com. But Pop's quote was to ESPN.com, a much more visible source so in that case, I can believe that he is sending a message to the league and the refs. He knows what he's doing. He's won titles. Miller just came off as a jaded loser talking to the local paper.

 

I'm pretty sure the Oregon article was quoted on ESPN insider, Hoopshype etc., since they collect all the stuff from local papers.

 

link?

 

Way too soon to be saying that the Blazers are going to end up in the 8th spot. Looking just at the loss column, the Blazers have 30 losses, the Spurs 29, and the Thunder 28. Here are the remaining schedules:

Blazers: Wed 07 @ LA Clippers, Fri 09 vs Dallas, Sun 11 @ LA Lakers, Mon 12 vs Thunder, Wed 14 vs Warriors

Spurs: 06 @ Kings, 07 @ Suns, 09 vs Memphis, 10 @ Denver, 12 vs Minn, 14 @ Dallas

Thunder: 06 @ Utah, 07 vs Denver, 09 vs Suns, 11 @ Warriors, 12 @ Blazers, 14 vs Memphis

The Blazers have no back to backs, 3 games against playoff teams, and 2 of those are at home. Assuming that they take care of business at home against the Mavs and Thunder, they could finish with 31 losses.

The Spurs also have 3 games left against playoff teams. All of them are on the road and 2 of them are the second game in back to back situations. The other is against the Jazz in Salt Lake. The Spurs have been playing great lately, but it would be pretty easy for them to lose 2 or 3 of those games and end up with 31 or 32 losses. The Blazers have the tie-breaker over the Spurs having beaten them 3 straight times this season.

The Thunder have 4 games left against playoff teams, with 2 of them on the road. Two of them, including the game against the Blazers are the 2nd game of back to backs. I'd say it's pretty likely that they lose at least 3 of the games against the Jazz, Denver, Suns, & Blazers and end up with at least 31 losses. The Blazers will have the tie-breaker over them if they beat them on the 12th.

My crystal ball's not too good, but I'm not pencilling in a first rounder against the Lakers just yet.

 

So quitting on your team is okay if you send a message to refs? That message being "We're losers and thus have to blame you guys!"

Wow, your endorsement of quitting on one's team is a bit disturbing, KingSpeed.

 

I think he's confused by his own attempts at logic.

 

Lakers and OKC is a back-to-back.