We are three full games ahead of the Lakers.

How many times have we ever gotten to say that? Especially given the talent the Lakers have. Amazing.

 

Someone said three Blazers (Lillard, Batum, and Aldridge) would start for the Lakers. Amazingly, it's true.

 

You could even make an argument this year for Hickson starting over Howard.
player comparison for this year

 

You fascination with the Lakers is hilarious. I don't give two shits about what the Lakers are doing as long as they are out of the playoff race. Worry about the teams ahead of us, not the ones trailing us.

 

True Blazer fans LOVE to rip on the L*kers, regardless of their record at the time.

 

I guess I don't love sifting through numerous threads that are started just to point out simple facts. If that means I'm not a "true" blazer fan in someone elses eyes then so be it.

 

Well come on man. I mean think about it. Who would have thought that this point of the season; the Blazers would even be close to the Lakers in the standings. And yet, the Lakers are seriously underperforming and the Blazers are dramatically over-performing.

I don't think it's some classification of how you are as a Blazer fan, but I would think something was fishy if a Blazer fan didn't hate on the Lakers. The History between the clubs has a lot of bad blood. Some of the shit the Lakers said, did and keep doing to Portland and it's fans cuts deep. Then you top it off with Stern giving the Lakers so much love; especially during the playoffs. It's a perfect storm man

 

Wow. Just... wow. I had no idea!

 

I still think our record is a mirage, and unsustainable. We're so reliant on the three, and our D is way too porous. Maybe it will improve and we have a more balanced attack from different places on the floor, but until then, I still consider us a flash in the pan.

 

It's kind of like the first rule of 'Fight Club'. Bash the Lakers.

 

I would agree with you until I saw our clutch numbers. A fluke team isn't 9-2 on games decided by 6 or less. On 5 of those wins were on the road; something our team hasn't been good at since 2000. Keep in mind that even the Roy lead team that had great winning records never really had that type of confidence in the 4th quarter. We only had one player back then that willed us to win close games. Now we have an entire team and coaching staff with that swag.

I do understand your pessimism because our strength of schedule; but keep in mind, the wins we had are against the good teams. We've had 4 losses with teams we had no business losing too and 8-9 wins on teams we were supposedly going to lose to.

 

It's not as much pessimism as much as it is guarded optimism. I expected 25-30 wins this year, so I'm thrilled (well kinda, 'cause we're killing our chances for Shabazz). But there are still quite a few things pointing towards us not sustaining this pace.

 

I can respect that

 

I agree that we are overachieving but by how much? Im starting to get on board with this team being decent and this not just being a throw away ,development year. Ultimatly our bench will let us down but I could see us as a +.500 team in the lower seedings of the playoffs, which would be an awesome year if we could maintain that.

 

and yet you did

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thUN7BY7KHo

[video=youtube;thUN7BY7KHo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thUN7BY7KHo[/video]

 

Portland is meeting the expectations I had for them.

The Lakers, OTOH, are vastly, vastly underperforming. It's both stunning and wonderful. I don't follow the Lakers enough to understand what's going wrong, other than just Father Time. They are 1-4 in their last 5 games.

Dwight goes for 26 rebounds, Nash 13 assists, Kobe for 29 points, and they LOSE at home to the Nuggets? Un-fucking-real.

 

Just looking at those stats; it is easy to see that the issue is Defense for them.

 

Forget last year cause it was a shortened season, but in 2010-11, it took 46 wins to make the playoffs in the west. In 09-10, it took 50 wins and in 08-09 it took 48 wins.

So, lets be generous and say that here in the west it will take 46 wins to make the playoffs. That would mean that the Blazers would have to finish with a record of 28-21. That's going to be tough, but it's possible. For the Lakers to reach 46 wins, they would have to finish with a record of 31-18. That seems like a whole lot to ask for from a team that's been falling apart.

Of course, this might be a year where 42 wins gets you into the playoffs, I just don't know. But any way you look at it, I want the Lakers to miss the postseason.

 

They even lose their draft pick if they are in the lottery! That might just be the icing on the cake if they also lose Howard.