Schedule: Fri 8 Detroit Mon 11 Cleveland Wed 13 @ Detroit Fri 15 @ Chicago Sat 16 @ Milwaukee Mon 18 Indiana Wed 20 Miami Tough final games. At least we have no long road trip (only eastern teams). Playoff Picture: We stand at 35-40 .467. New Jersy at 36-39 .480 and Phili at 37-37 .500. The playoffs look unlikely, both mathmatically and practically. Firstly, the maths, our best record possible we get is 42-40 (Thats 7 wins). New Jeresys is 43-39 (7 wins aswell) and Philis is 45-37 (8 wins). However NJN and 76ers face off against each other, which although sounds like a good situation, should NJN win, its actually bad, since it will push NJN potentially further ahead of us, or Phili out of the picture. Mathmatically it is possible. Should both teams loose the majority of their games and we win them all. Realistically looking we wont win all our games (6 vs winning records). Our best chance of getting the W's are vs Chicago, Mil, Indiana and Pistons at home. Miami, detroit away are gonna be very difficult. NJN have a slighly easier, but still tough schedule (5 vs winning records), with face offs vs alot of the other east playoff teams, such as cavs, celts, wizards and pacers. Their best games are prob vs the likes of raptors. I dont think that the Nets will finish above us, as I can only see them getting 1 or 2 wins. However I dont think it will matter. Phili have the easiest of the 3 runs (5 vs winning recods, but 3 vs losing), with games vs MIL and Hawks. However, wizards, miami boston and indiana might cause them to trip up. Orlando's best chance of making the playoff's lies in making the .500 line. Which means 6 of 7 wins. This relies on phili losing 5 of their next 8 and the nets losing 3 of their next 7. Orlando will fight for a winning record over the next 7 games (that is 4-3, not 42-40). Hitting that .500 mark would be fantastic, but unlikely, I cant see us winning both vs Detriot twice and Miami. NJN I think wont reach .500, I think for them their games are consistently tougher, with only real "easy" game vs the raptors. Phili have some tough games aswell, but just have those 3 games vs below .500 teams, whereas we do not.
Great post. It's going to be very tough to do this. Also Philly basically has another game on us since they have the tiebreaker. We have the tiebreaker on NJ. THe team that is looking the most likely to fall out of the playoff picture is Cleveland, they haven't just lost recent games, they haven't even been close. So basically we have to do 1 game better than NJ in this stretch and hope that Cleveland continues their downfall or Philly goes on one. It's going to be tough and it sounds like we might not have Grant Hill, but it is possible. Everyone is going to need to step up big time. Especially the rookies and Francis.
