Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 If we just take care of business, we should win the division. Memphis OKC LAC & Millwaukee should be road wins and win our home games..we will be sitting pretty. So don't freak out if we lose to SA HOU or CLE on the road, win the ones we're supposed to!
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 I'm thinking that's going to be hard for some posters... specifically one. sorry its the truth.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 Up next @ Cleveland L @ Milwaukee L Philly L Phoenix L Memphis W Utah W @ OKC L @ Houston L @ Memphis W @ San Antonio L Lakers L @ Clippers W OKC W Denver W Make the Philly game a tossup and it goes 49 or 50 ... it might be more, but I think my estimate isn't completely crazy. Bottom line is that there are ton of tough rough road games left, and some of the other teams we don't match up with particularly well. (Philly, Phoenix, OKC, etc.)
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 Losing to Milwaukee and OKC, even on the road, I think is way too pessimistic. And Portland should be favoured over Phoenix and Philadelphia at home. And if you're going to ding Portland for "bad matchups," why do you also fail to give them the benefit of the doubt on a supposedly "good matchup," like the Lakers at home? To me, your predictions read as "Which games can be reasonably justified as losses?" Which makes sense for a "low estimate" rather than a median estimate.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 A four game losing streak coming off two convincing road win (3rd game in 4 nights, at that) as this team slowly starts to get healthy (assuming Aldridge will be fine)? Hollinger has us at 52 as of tonight. 54 is probably just as unlikely as 49.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 I don't see us losing 3 more home games the rest of the way considering we have only lost 6 the entire year
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 11 The other issue is that there may be cities (New Orleans?) who are concerned about the impact the match-ups could have on attendance. I really don't think that will be an issue in Portland. Regardless of the match-up, I am sure the RG will be sold out.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 I think 51 at least. I've predicted 52 originally and still think that's the most likely, but we might even beat it by a game or two. If we win one of the next two and then have 7 at home and 5 on the road I think we go at least with 7 wins giving us 51 wins. Not that I think we'll win every home game, but I doubt we'll lose every road game either. But if we finish this road trip 3-2 I think we'll most likely finish at 52 or more and no less than 51
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 Here is my calculation for expected wins the rest of the way... @ Cleveland 0.2 @ Milwaukee 0.4 Philly 0.6 Phoenix 0.4 Memphis 0.8 Utah 0.4 @ OKC 0.6 @ Houston 0.2 @ Memphis 0.8 @ San Antonio 0.2 Lakers 0.4 @ Clippers 0.8 OKC 0.8 Denver 0.4 That gives us... 7.0 wins. I predict seven wins. Ed O.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 I believe we'll have to forfeit all our wins, and we will end up 0-82. Anything better than that and I will be happy. barfo
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 Finishing with 49 wins would probably land us the 8th seed, but I wonder if we'd break a record for 8th seed team with most wins. I say 54 if we're on top of our game every night, 52 is most likely. If we split the next two games, getting 52 wins would mean going 2-5 on the road, and 6-1 at home.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 52 has been my guess from the start, and I still don't see a reason to drop it.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 I think I predicted 55 but never put it into the thread. The pace we are on now is great considering we never really got to see Greg hit his stride. I cannot believe how tight the race is from 2-8. If any one of the teams puts on a huge run to end the season they could have the #2.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 Magic number is 8 now. With us playing Philly and Phoenix playing Denver Monday we might be able to get it to 6.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 Ya, we know the Suns are not going to catch, but it would be nice to catch the Nuggets. I agree!
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 9 Yeah I might be aiming a little low, but I'm certainly not staking anything on being right. As long as the team gets into the playoffs (which is looking pretty damn likely at this point) that's all I care about, and even 49 or 50 wins will do the trick IMO.
Re: Portland's Magic Number: 8 Phoenix could catch us. I don't think so though. I just want us to clinch a playoff birth first.
