I think this is so close. I think we miss the playoffs but I believe we are either in or out by a tiebreaker or 1 game. Personally I won't be upset if we miss it this year. I also will be thrilled if we make it though.
I think we go 14-14 and finish at .500 for the season (41-41). It will come down the the last few games of the season. We finish with 3 games at home and 2 of them are against Minnesota and Denver, which should be wins. Dallas has a tough finish, so I think they will be the team outside of the playoffs. Yes, I will be disappointed if we don't make the playoffs. I want more Blazer basketball!
I voted No but I won't be disappointed if we don't make the playoffs. Even if we only win a couple of more games this year I'm really happy with how this season went.
Schedule and my expected results; GSW (L), UTA (W), BRK (W), HOU (W), @CHI (L), @IND (L), @NYK (W), @BOS (L), @TOR (L), @DET (W), WAS (W), @GSW (L), ORL (W), @OKC (L), @SAS (L), @NOP (L), @DAL (L), DAL (W), @LAC (L), PHI (W), SAC (W), BOS (W), MIA (W), @GSW (L), @SAC (W), OKC (L), MIN (W), DEN (W) I'm going with 15-13 in the final 28, final record of 42-40, and 7 seed. If we finish worse than that, I imagine it will be because we had a few unexpected losses in that 2/26-3/24 stretch, and I would completely understand that.
Following this up. We have 14 home games left. Just looking at the schedule it seems we "should" go 12-2 with losses to Golden State tonight and OKC towards the end of the season. With that said, we will probably lose some we should win, so let's say 10-4. That means we only have to win 4 road games, which of course won't be easy...
Dallas is the one I wonder about as well. They have a 6 game home stand coming up. If they some how split those games, I think they are out. Houston has a bunch of road games coming up. It will be interesting to see what happens if they continue to play poorly coming out of the break. Will they implode? Utah I think makes it in. As for the Blazers.....I think it will be close. Our schedule is tough, but I think we are the deepest of the teams we are battling. So I think we have as good of a chance as Utah, Houston, or Dallas.
I just looked at the schedules for the other teams fighting for the playoffs in the West. I think tie breakers are going to be very important. A very high chance the 8 and 9 seed finish with the same record. Dallas and Utah are in the driver seat against us, but we can clinch the season series against Houston next week.
I said yes more so because of the teams ahead of us that are doing poorly/have suffered a key injury rather than us playing "over our heads". Our schedule is tough as hell, too... so it balances out if we make it.
I know we will at least make it to the 42 wins I predicted at the beginning of the season, but I think we can do even better than that
I said no, but this team has been surprising me all year. I'm certainly hoping they make the playoffs, but I'm guessing the Blazers will see a few injuries creep in and take away a win or two. It will probably come down to 1 or 2 games separating 8 the and 9th.
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-nba-picks/ fivethirtyeight.com has us with a 76% chance of making the playoffs as a 7th seed with a 41-41 record; Utah and Houston battle for the 8th seed. I agree with this prediction.
