Being that we have become the national media darlings lately and have finally moved up to eye poppin status in almost all national power rankings around the country......(3 in espn almost made me wet my pants today) I think there might actually be a shift of power comin out west.......we may actaully be a top 3 or 4 team out west guys......... we know phoenix and dallas are gonna be there for at least a few more seasons........but after that who knows i am sorry to say it but it does seem like father time may be finally catchin up to our beloved and hated spurs.........we could have easily won both games against these guys.........we let them steal one that we had in the bag........ and i just watched them lose to a bulls team that we just beat a couple days ago............now that that in itself doesn't warrant them losin there throne......but i actually just watched this game and the bulls really made the spurs look old man....serioulsy.......they won convincinly and the spurs never had a chance in the second half...........also the bulls pulled this with no ben wallace or chris duhon!!!!!! sayin all that to say is that after phoenix and dallas....it just might be a toss up.......jazz are like us in a sense.......we have to all prove we can keep this pace a full season........lakers no, minnesota no, golden state no, clippers no...........who else can we say is beyond a shadow of a doubt better than us top 5 in the west besides phoenix and dallas????????
yes, easily top 5 in the West... and, it goes without saying, therefore we're top 5 in the league. If we were in the East, we would be 1st in the conference easily, yet we are stuck in third place in our own damn division... where's the justice!
national rankings, playoff seedings... its great to be respected by the media and have an awesome regular season record but lets get out of the first round before we proclaim a power shift. there's still a lot of games to be played and the spurs are still a very good team
I'm not so convinced. At least not without Yao in our lineup. When we are "full strength" I felt like we could and did dominate our opponents nearly every night. Right now, we are able to "find a way to win." For now, it completely works for me, b/c right now...a win is a win while we have players out. You can't argue with the record we have, but I am hardly ready to say we are at the Mavs, Spurs, Suns level until we get everyone back and play like I know we can. THEN, I definitely think we are a top 3 team in the league.
we are winning without yao which to me shows character beyond belief...........because i will be honest i had no idea what was to become of our team after yao wne down....lotto again, pack it in, do we have enough to win?????? I personally think us winning without yao at this point shows how good we really are............only good teams are able to win thru adversity and injuries........which gives us more confidence for when he does get back.......its no doubt we'll be at our best when he gets back......but i am dam proud of the heart and determination our team(won 10 out of last 11 games) is showing..........gutsy wins against quality opponents.....something i haven't seen from a rockets team in years..........i feel we are still top 5 out west with yao out.... and there will be no shame in losing to a full strengh dallas and phoenix squad this week when we are not at full strengh so all the naysayers please spare us the doom and gloom threads this coming week as long as we make a strong showing and maybe split that i'm satisfied.........however a blow out would not be good
Yeah I was going to add to my post that I think we are around #5-6 in the league. That's pretty darn good.
San Antonio has an overrated bench. It is extremely thin. Finley has been way off, Robert Horry is good for at best once a month, and Brent Barry doesn't give anything if his shot is off.
I have said it before and will say it again: if I had my pick out of Dallas, SA, and Phoenix as likely first round matchups, I would pick the Spurs every single time. We need to secure the 5th or 6th seeding out West to get a matchup with either the Spurs or some other unproven playoff team that's in a similar situation as the Rockets (Nuggs, Jazz, Lakers, etc). 7th or 8th seeding would mean we play the Mavs or the Suns...I would rather play the Spurs or some other 'wildcard' team in the first round.
I agree! Yes we are winning now but we are still without Yao and remember this that our defense will get stronger than it already is with Yao in and Tmac's scoring better than he was earlier this season, once Yao comes back in we will see the real Rockets in action with both Tmac and Yao scoring therefore controling outside and inside on the offensive end and making it hard for our opponets to defend (making it hard for them to decide who to double team Tmac or Yao and don't forget our shooters are improving)
I think they made a mistake in letting go Nazr because now the only one that can play any post defense Duncan and that puts alot of pressure on him. Parker and Ginobili aren't defensive juggernauts and bowen's ability has been greatly diminished by the new rules. That being said, I wouldn't write their obituary just yet. SA is known for starting out slow and picking it up as the season progresses. They tend to peak at the end of the season.
I think Detroit is still better than us.. so my rank is 1. Mavs 2. Suns 3. Detroit 4 or 5 Rockets/Spurs (I think were neck and neck with them)
Mavs Suns Spurs all very close RIGHT NOW (with injuries) Utah LAL Rockets So sorry, #4-6. Remember that all the teams listed above all have good conference records (vs. west). Ours is 13-11 right now. There are other teams around the league playing pretty well right now. But I'm not convinced with Clev, Det, or Orlando being able to hang with the west right now. I don't know their records vs. the West though.
That's a good point, but these NBA guys rank teams by overall against the field. We are better than Detroit against the league, but we don't match up well against them for some set of reasons. Detroit has our number now, but matchup problems change over the course of a long series, so, nothing to worry about.
Noway Utah is better then us even without yao. i believe even without yao, were the 4th best team in the west. look at what MaC has done resently. utah's honeymoon run is over. the lakers are a unknown to me. they can be very good, but they can also look really bad. there to eratic.
I agree. So if Rox wanna get a big man from Detroit by trading Wells, this tough player must be Antonio McDyess!!!
Spurs are on the decline, and the Pistons aren't what they used to be without Larry Brown and Ben Wallace, imho... Therefore, Rockets are only behind Suns and Mavs in the league right now
