Enough room has come between the 8th and 9th spot that I am no longer concerned. So now I turn my attention to the 7th or even 6th place finish. Currently Blazers are 42 and 29. With 11 games to go, our schedule is: Dallas @ New Orleans @ Oklahoma City NY Knicks @ Denver @ Sacramento @ LA Clippers Dallas @ LA Lakers Oklahoma City Golden State Currently the Spurs are in 7th with 42 and 28. With 12 games to go, their schedule is: Cleveland @ Boston @ New Jersey Houston Orlando @ LA Lakers @ Sacramento @ Phoenix Memphis @ Denver Minnesota @ Dallas Currently the Thunder are in 6th with 43 and 27. With 12 games to go, their schedule is: LA Lakers Portland @ Philadelphia @ Boston @ Dallas Minnesota @ Utah Denver Phoenix @ Golden State @ Portland Memphis So, who do you think will come out in 6th, 7th and 8th?
Interesting look. I'm thinking the Spurs have the toughest schedule and we have the easiest of the three teams.
We all have hard ending schedules. The Thunder and Blazers have 6 road games while the Spurs have 7. Blazers have 6 games against playoff teams, the Spurs have 7, and the Thunder have 8. Overall, I think the Blazers have a slightly softer schedule than the other two. But can the Blazers take advantage of the schedule considering how poorly they have played lately even when they won?
Not unless Rudy gets well soon and starts hitting from downtown, or Martell awakens from his slumber.
The way each team has been playing, I think we're more likely to catch Denver than Phoenix. However, we won't catch either.
I'm not counting our chickens before they're hatched. We have not qualified for the playoffs yet and getting there should be our sole focus. I've seen teams collapse at the end of the season too many times to know that we are not a lock. Also- don't you remember how many Blazers fans celebrated beating the Pacers for the 2000 NBA Championship when we still had a quarter of basketball to play in the WCF? That said, I do not care what seed we get. Unless we get the 4th seed, we'll be the underdog and if we're going to be the underdog, wouldn't you rather do it against the champs? That's what the playoffs are all about, right? Beating the best?
magic number is now 6, with rockets and griz both having several tough road games left (and they play each other). 4-7 for us would get it done at this point. 3-8 is pretty safe. odds are we could even go 2-9 and still make it.
With a win in Dallas, the Blazers won one of their hardest games. They are a .597 team and the Spurs are only a .600 team. The race is on. Blazers schedule @ New Orleans @ Oklahoma City NY Knicks @ Denver @ Sacramento @ LA Clippers Dallas @ LA Lakers Oklahoma City Golden State
By late tomorrow night, the standings could be: 6. OKC -- 43-28 (next game vs. POR on Sunday) 7. POR-- 43-29 (next game @ NOH on Saturday) 8. SAS-- 42-29 (next game @ BOS on Sunday) All we need is for SAS to lose to CLE, and OKC to lose to LAL, both very feasible.
We have a decent schedule and can potentially get as high as 6. Is it just me or does anyone else see that when we play the Clippers, I see Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw just ripping us a new one and hurting our chances to move up?
If they are getting career highs then that probably means we are playing 0 defense which probably means Kaman, Davis, and Gordon are torching us, which probably means we get blown out like none other.
