Great job, entity. I was coming to do it today and you were a step ahead! Its nice to be able to wake up and click this thread and see exactly who won/lost and where we stand in the playoff race.
Even though the Eastern Conference has won more of the games versus the West, Portland has been really good against them, and could conceivably finish (23-7) against them this season. If 50 wins are what Portland needs to get to the playoffs (probably less), then they'd need to go (27-25) against the West to get there. Here's my reasoning: Portland is already (15-5) against the East, and (8-3) on the road with four road games left. The remaining schedule looks like this: Jan 28th vs Charlotte Feb 8th vs New York Feb 20th vs Atlanta Mar 2nd vs Indiana Mar 13th vs New Jersey Mar 15th @ Atlanta Mar 18th @ Indiana Mar 19th @ Cleveland Mar 21st @ Milwaukee Mar 23rd vs Philadelphia It wouldn't be unreasonable to think Portland could win all six of those home games, and at least two of those road games. Portland has 14 games remaining against the worst six in the West out of 29 remaining Western games, including four against both Oklahoma City and Memphis. If by ridiculous chance that Portland won every single one of those games, and lost every single game against a winning Western team, that would still put Portland at 48 wins on the season if they went (8-2) against the East for the rest of the year. As it stands, Portland has 8 home games out of a remaining 15 games against the Western Elite. Assuming Portland loses two or three games to the lower echelon, if Portland came out even (5-10) against the upper echelon (which is their current record against them), Portland could be right at 50 wins without any surprise victories, but giving them a few surprise losses.
New York up by 1 against the Rockets with 2:00 minutes left in the 4th. New Orleans up by 6 against the 76ers at the end of the 3rd.
Portland wins, Phoenix wins, New Orleans wins, Houston loses: 1. LA Lakers | 35-8 (.814) | GB -- 0 2. San Antonio | 29-14 (.674) | GB -- 6 3. Denver | 29-15 (.659) | GB -- 6½ 4. New Orleans | 27-14 (.659) | GB -- 7 5. Portland | 27-17 (.614) | GB -- 8½ 6. Houston | 28-18 (.609) | GB -- 8½ 7. Phoenix | 25-18 (.581) | GB -- 10 8. Dallas | 25-19 (.568) | GB -- 10½ 9. Utah | 25-20 (.556) | GB -- 11 -- Western Conference Standings on Tuesday Morning (1/27/09) --
Big games tonight: Denver @ Memphis - If Memphis ever wants to make itself useful in the league, they'll try to win. More likely they'll get No. 10 in a row San Antonio @ Utah - Four loss difference between us and Utah would be beautiful. Charlotte @ LA Lakers - The good thing is the Bobcats will be on the end of a back to back tomorrow against us.
San Antonio's 106-100 win over Salt Lake City is certainly good for Portland. I think we're going to see a two-way battle for the NW Division, between the Blazers and Nuggets... unless Utah can get healthy over the All-Star break and get going again. And at this point, the Bobcats are going into OT against the Lakers - which is good news for the Blazers' game against Charlotte tomorrow, right?
Denver wins, Spurs beat Jazz, Lakers lose: 1. LA Lakers | 35-9 (.795) | GB -- 0 2. San Antonio | 30-14 (.682) | GB -- 5 3. Denver | 30-15 (.667) | GB -- 5½ 4. New Orleans | 27-14 (.659) | GB -- 6½ 5. Portland | 27-17 (.614) | GB -- 8 6. Houston | 28-18 (.609) | GB -- 8 7. Phoenix | 25-18 (.581) | GB -- 9½ 8. Dallas | 25-19 (.568) | GB -- 10 9. Utah | 25-21 (.543) | GB -- 11 -- Western Conference Standings on Tuesday Morning (1/27/09) -- Relevant games tonight: DEN @ NOH, PHI @ HOU, GSW @ DAL, CHA @ POR
Incidentally, the Lakers open a six-game road trip Friday night at Minnesota; they'll play 8 games in 13 days (7 on the road, 3 B2Bs) before the all-star break. Similarly, the Spurs and Nuggets each kick off 3-week road trips next week. By contrast, the Rockets' schedule suddenly turns charmin-soft, with 10 of their next 12 games at home, including 6 straight against sub-.500 teams. A few big games coming up in the next week, most involving the Hornets: DEN@NOH tonight, NOH@SAS 1/31, POR@NOH 2/2, SAS@DEN 2/3 Things could get very interesting over the next few weeks...
Having a two-game lead over eighth and a chance to widen the gap over the next few weeks and month, while other teams seemingly have tougher schedules is great.
Dear Philly and Golden State, If you each pull out an upset against the Rockets and the Mavericks I promise I'll watch one of your games against a team other than the Trail Blazers and root for you. Love, Entity
Denver loses! Houston loses! Yippy! With a win tonight, we move 1.5 games behind Denver and just one loss behind them!
Utah and Denver's win was expected. NO, however, is starting to falter. HOME COURT ADVANTAGE is what lies ahead for the Blazers if they can overtake the Hornets.
1. LA Lakers | 36-9 (.800) | GB -- 0 2. San Antonio | 31-14 (.689) | GB -- 5 3. Denver | 31-16 (.660) | GB -- 6 4. New Orleans | 28-15 (.651) | GB -- 7 5. Portland | 28-17 (.622) | GB -- 8 6. Houston | 28-19 (.596) | GB -- 9 7. Dallas | 26-19 (.578) | GB -- 10 8. Phoenix | 25-19 (.568) | GB -- 10½ 9. Utah | 26-21 (.553) | GB -- 11 -- Western Conference Standings on Friday night (1/30/09) -- Just one game behind New Orleans for fourth!
New Orleans plays us Monday and San Antonio today. If we win both games and New Orleans loses both (which is a good possibility) we could be up there before you know it.
1. LA Lakers | 37-9 (.804) | GB -- 0 2. San Antonio | 32-14 (.696) | GB -- 5 3. Denver | 31-16 (.660) | GB -- 6.5 4. New Orleans | 28-16 (.636) | GB -- 8 5. Portland | 29-17 (.630) | GB -- 8 6. Houston | 29-19 (.604) | GB -- 9 7. Dallas | 27-19 (.587) | GB -- 10 8. Phoenix | 25-20 (.556) | GB -- 11.5 9. Utah | 26-22 (.542) | GB -- 12 -- Western Conference Standings on Superbowl Sunday (2/01/09) --
