The Elite Portland------- 17 4 .810 San Antonio--- 15 4 .789 Oklahoma City 15 4 .789 The Contenders Houston----- 15 7 .682 LA Clippers- 13 8 .619 Dallas------- 13 8 .619 Denver------ 12 8 .600 Outside Looking In Golden State 12 9 .571 Phoenix------ 11 9 .550 These are the teams above .500 in the Western Conference. Discussion points to consider: 1) Who do you see breaking out (up or down) of their present position? 2) Fools Gold? 3) Sub .500 teams making a splash?
The Elite San Antonio Oklahoma City Below Portland(Sorry Portland) LA Clippers Houston Dallas Golden State Fighting Chance Denver Phoenix LA Lakers New Orleans Memphis Minnesota Lost Cause Sacramento Utah
This implies that 'better' is relative, correct? So based on that statement, you will need to compare West against East. If you look at how awful the Eastern conference team records at the moment, that statement is accurate. In addition, outside of Sac and Utah, the bottom feeders are a game or 2 on being .500 ball club.
I don't think portland is elite either. I think that Houston is better than advertised mainly because Terrence Williams and Chandler Parsons are both studs. I still think that Houston needs a better bench to compete for a championship realistically, and they obviously need to play better defense, but I really do think that they(yall) have a pretty solid core.
Those losses to Utah, Phoenix, and Philly are coming home to roost. If we could have gotten those, we'd be sitting pretty at 18-4. Oh well... We need more consistent guard play. Our tiny backcourt has been getting obliterated lately. Lin coming back should help, but all those minutes with PBev and ABrooks playing together took its toll.
So looking at the clubs and where they stand now (my opening post), the consensus is that Portland is not as good as they look and Phoenix will fall off the map?
That's actually pretty interesting. They have the record and great points differential but you are right.. they have yet to have a convincing win over a team playing well at the time. Mostly their schedule has been really soft.
This is the same sentiments year after year for SA. They are too old, soft schedule, etc but time and time again, they get to the finals. As long as that core 4 of Pop, Tim, Tony and Manu is wearing a SA jersey, they should always be in the conversation for top teams.
Regular season record may indicate post season performance when it comes to unproven and up-and-coming teams, however the Spurs are too well-coached and constructed to be insulted like this (again). Firstly, there is no drop-off in what their big three brings to the table. TP is able to shift into superstar mode and control the flow of the game, Timmy continues to be a consistent contributor and (surprisingly) Manu is still able to provide valuable minutes off the bench. Even though it's the spurs, I wasn't convinced that Bellineli could provide anything; of course I was wrong. The rest of the bench plays extremely well together and has been able to maintain leads. Most importantly, there doesn't seem to be any residual psychological damage from last year's finals. Take a closer look at their performance thus far and you'll see that they have been devastating in victory and competitive in defeat*. Contrast this with Miami who have mailed-in a number of games this year. Say whatever you want but, barring serious injury, the West goes through San Antonio once again. *Remember, this is despite Splitter and other key players dealing with injuries.
Time and time again. Hadnt been to the Finals in 6 yrs before last yr. Had a lot go right for them to even get there
Rockets aren't cohesive yet. Lin is chafing against having to come off the bench, Harden is still trying to prove he cant put in the effort on the defensive end, Bev trying to learn how to facilitate, Asik is disgruntled with his limited role. With the Blazers, they know who they are and what is expected from them.
