You guys have reason to be cautious or even pessimistic. Any pro team with that many injuries eventually will be running on fumes. It is nice that some young players are having a chance to develop, but this extra effort to win games will exact a toll on our superstar player. I haven't forgotten how drained Harden looked by the end of last season. By the time we played the Bkazers, Harden looked spent.
Jones has missed all but 4 games this season and we've done fine without him. I'm not saying the team wouldn't be much improved with him back in the lineup, but the Rockets can win in his absence. I've pretty much given up on McHale benching Garcia because of his laughable shooting percentage. I guess he values Cisco's D over Daniels' inconsistent jumper. But if/when Bev comes back, Canaan better damn well remain in the lineup. I can tolerate Cisco playing over Daniels. But Cisco and Terry keeping Canaan on the bench is inexcusable.
9-5 would be a pretty good run for that stretch. That would put our overall record at 22-9. Still a great start to the season. I'm going to hold out hope that we get healthier soon and are able to do even a little bit better than that, but I would be happy with 9-5
You kinda have to play Garcia over Daniels. With Papa playing a lot of PF it makes us super shallow at the wings. Daniels can't play the 3. Also, despite his horrid shooting, Garcia does a little more than Daniels. Daniels only skills are: Take 3, if not available dribble out of corner and pass up top. Garcia can probe the defense and handle a little bit, while also defending better than Daniels. Obviously these are marginal skills at best and I would much rather see Papanikolau in this role, but it's more than the undersized Daniels can do. And our schedule thus far has a lot to do with our current record. When the schedule get's tougher (ie, now) we're going to struggle a lot more.
The back to backs where the first game is on the road @ Minny and @ Denver and the second game are at home are annoying as hell.
suns, kings, pells, and wiz all on the second night of back to backs this month are all trap games. between dropping a couple of those trap games, and losing to the tough teams because black, dorsey, dmo, terry, johnson, and garcia are 2/3 of our rotation, i'd say we are in for a really tough month. 6-8?
I will settle for 7-7. Which would put us at 20-11 or roughly the 2 wins out of 3 that can get to 54-55 wins.
I don't see the LA teams on there, but with Memphis twice and Golden State it is certainly going to be a test.
A lot of the positive predictions can still happen, currently 8-3 in December with 3 left, great spirit clutchfans!!