Blazers and the Rockets look almost identical. Rox have also had an easy schedule and lost to Clippers, Warriors and Grizz
to add; Not disagreeing with you Yoyo, i just think the Blazers are similar to the Rockets so far this year with the schedules. Those home games aside for Portland, i think it can be argued that the Rockets have gotten it easy-ish thus far too. 6-0 vs the East for Houston, Lakers twice and Philly twice, Spurs without Duncan/Manu, Thunder without Durant/Westbrook. Not saying the Rockets do not deserve those wins, THEY DO, but both Portland and Houston are beating the teams they should be beating. Portland, has a BIG home court advantage given that teams usually have to travel far to play there, especially the eastern conferenc but, that doesnt make me less impressed with them. The West playoff race is going to be epic, Portlant is good enough to finish anywhere from 3 to 6, i think. Im way more impressed with the Rockets 15-4 record though, with the injuries we have had. The Bigger issue for both Houston and Portland will be avoiding the Thunder in the playoffs....if...Durant and Westbrook stay healthy and they get into the playoffs, its going to be a matchup none of the 1-4 seeded teams want.
They play the same schedule in the conference except for two games. Only two games difference has to do with division. How does that make them #1 in the west? In a weak division only makes it easier to win the division, not the conference.
I just meant in terms of season winning percentage. And yeah, Portland's pretty much a lock to get HCA for round one.
Portland is no more lock than anyone. I think we've established in this thead that HCA is dictated by record not seeding. So Portland still has to have top 4 record to get HCA
They lost to the clippers and warriors undermanned - granted the Ws and Ls all count the same record wise but it doesnt really indicate that either of those teams are definitely better than Houston. Rockets went onto beat the Grizz later. If you plan to discredit Houston for the victories against the Spurs and Thunder - then you have to discredit every single loss Houston has had except @ Memphis since Dwight/Jones and I believe Bev did not play in any of the games except Lakers that Houston has lost. Despite playing the Lakers twice they've lost to them once (really that super late scratch from Dwight really threw off the game plan for the team IMO) Houston has strung together a 15-4 record with a tougher schedule than Portland has had with numerous injuries. Portland fortunately (and I do not wish them any injuries) has had amazing health to start the season again and really has 1 quality win against the west so far. Any other time they've faced a competitive team from the west they've lost. To me that really doesn't show that they've really improved from last year despite their great start. Schedules do matter - right now the Portland's division has 4 of the 5 teams below .500 Figure that OKC will improve as they are getting healthy right now but that still leaves 3 really poor teams in Utah, Minnesota and Denver that Portland will play 1 extra game against. Would you want to play the Spurs, Mavs, Pelicans, or Grizzlies an extra game each season or Jazz/Wolves/Nuggets? Its a no brainer. Unfortunately its not Portlands fault in that sense, but I don't get the analysts out there pretty much claiming that Portland is a contender again this year when to me they really just look like those Joe Johnson led Hawks teams -- Always will make the playoffs because they are a good team - but you know they'll never make a conference finals or beyond because they aren't THAT good despite what people think
No we didn't. First two games were on the Blazers court. They had 4 potential home games to our 3. Unless there was a weird format for this types of occurences.
if you're in the 5th seed but have a better record than a division winning 4th seed, you have home court, i misremembered 09, it was 07 (v Utah where they were 4 and we had homecourt) and it has happened elsewhere since (Boston v Atlanta 2012)
Here is the thing, the NBA is so top heavy, just about every team has had an easy schedule so far. Out of 30, only 10 or 11 teams would be considered good teams. The top 8 in the west of course, than Chi, Cle, and Tor in the east and that's being modest to the east because I don't Chi or Cle at this point match up with the top 6-8 in the west. So all teams will have likely played majority of their games against weaker opponents. I was thinking this same thing about golden state, that their 17-2 record is fools gold because they had such a damn easy schedule, their win streak has all come against non elite teams, but then, you could say that about any of the top teams right now including the Rockets except, only we stand out in my opinion because we been doing with 3 of 5 starters out. Warriors fans are bragging they are doing it without Lee...lol..
debating on whether Which teams schedule is harder and which team is better is kind of a mute point. A healthy Portland team beat a healthy Houston team that had HCA in the playoffs. If Portland isn't as good as their record then apparently neither is Houston. It's not like Portland is so supremely talented all they have to do is show up to win against these teams. I just don't see how you're defending Houston and claiming we're better and have more potential as a contender when we can't get passed Atlanta 2.0. At this point we can say that at least Portland's stars show up in the playoffs. Sure this Portland team hasn't proven much in the post season but they've proven more than this Houston team. All those 'quality' wins that Houston got in a challenging division meant nothing in that series.
I dont understand what last season's outcome has to do with this season. The two teams are completely different from last season. The Rockets have completely changed their identity and focus because of what happened last season to them in the playoffs. Given a similar scenario if the two teams do match up again and everyone is healthy for both teams (well who know if Jones will play again this season so with him being an exception) giving the way the rockets play now compared to the way they played last year I do not see how the series will result in the same out come of last year. If you do not recognize that the Rockets this year are completely different in their style of play (forget the players on the team) and how they are winning games - not sure what I can tell you. Your scenario above is assuming that the Rockets are just like how they were last year which is not true. Last year - yes they should have beaten portland given the circumstances but they did not - it was a result of poor coaching and mental preparation from the players on the team. Everyone on the team including the coaching staff has learned from that and you get what you seen now despite the injuries the team has suffered. Its definitely a sign of growth and maturity.
Portland's SoS is ranked 16th (compared to Houston's 27th) according to Basketball-Reference. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/2015.html Their adjusted ORtg is 7th and adjusted DRtg is 4th (just below the Rockets' 3rd).
