It's hard to see any of the following seven Western Conference teams not making the playoffs: Spurs Mavericks Suns Jazz Nuggets Hornets Lakers That leaves one spot for the following teams: Warriors Kings Rockets Trailblazers Assuming the Warriors key players stay relatively healthy, I don't see any chance of the Rockets finishing ahead of them. The Kings are getting healthy again with Bibby, Martin and Artest back and are still in the picture. I wouldn't overlook the Kings. I think the Trailblazers will come down to earth and miss the playoffs but you can't rule them out yet because of their recent play. Given this outlook, do any of you still believe the Rockets can make the playoffs? I'll go on the record and say we have no chance.
even though this thread is meaningless... I have to agree with you, making playoff is ACTUALLY a very URGENT issue right now....and if we continue to play in an underachieving way (like we played all season), we will DEFINITELY miss playoff, period.
What makes an opinion thread in a fan blogsite meaningful vs meaningless? Opinions are opinions. Whether they are meaningful or meaningless is a subjective matter.
My point is that even if the Rockets overachieve going forward, or simply play to their potential, I still don't think they can crack the top 8.
Those 2 losses against the Hornets and 76er's are going to haunt us. We will finish like a 1 or 2 games from the 8th spot. Gosh I hope I'm wrong.
The Lakers are going to run into some problems without Bynum. Their next three games are against Denver, SA, and Dallas. Even when Bynum does come back, there is no way he is going to reach the level of play he was at before the injury.
This isn't a new concept, looking over the western conference, but I tend to agree. The blazers may not even crash that much. Coach Nate is the real deal. Our only chance includes: * Lakers crash w'out Bynum * Jazz implode (they don't have a much better record than us at this point), & either * Warriors get an injury to one of their top people (Davis, Jackson, Harrington, Biedrins -- yes that guy). OR * Nuggest implode due to injury or personality. Losing Camby would make them mediocre. So I think you need three of those bullet points to come true, plus the Rockets really turn it around. And I'm not sitting around cheering for injuries. We need to just gel and play good ball and get better for next year. I'm kind of serious.
That is a good point. Losing Bynum hurts the Lakers big time and he will unlikely get back in time to return to form. However, the Lakers have built such a good record during the 1st half of the season that I don't think the Rockets will catch them. If Bynum went down a month ago, I may have felt differently.
Utah doesn't deserve to be on that list. GS, Hornets, Lakers, Blazers are questionable. I hope players on these teams get hurt, like Bynum did, cause if that doesn't happen, the Rockets are probably going stay on the outside looking in.
i hate to say it but i think it's time to tank the season and get a good draft pick....I don't see us beating portland or golden state for the final playoff spot...there's not way those 2 team going to lose more than 5 games in a row, and us winning 5 in a row at the same time...that is the only way we can catch up with them, we win 5 they lose 5..but never gonna happen
What is questionable about the Hornets at this point? Answer: Nothing. The Lakers have the 3rd best record in the conference halfway through the season and are one game away from the top spot. Losing Bynum hurts, but it won't keep them out of the playoffs. I would not bet against this Warriors team making the playoffs. Let's see how you feel about Utah in a few weeks.
What happened to having faith? It's guarenteed that those teams play great throughout the rest of the season. One of those teams could hit a long losing streak and if we can keep winning games, we'll be right there. It's only January and we are only 3 games back from 8th spot. It's not that far of a stretch. Just believe in our team and good things will happen.
Of course, we are still in the playoff hunt mathetmatically. I am just predicting that the Rockets are not good enough to surpass any of the top 7 teams in the original post and all 3 of the other teams fighting for that last playoff spot.
Do you know how sports works? If a team is down 10 points they dont have to score the next 11 points to win the game. They can outscore a team over the remainder of the game and still win. Sames goes with the games behind deficit. Lets say a team loses 10 out of 15 and the Rox win 10 out of 15. That also makes up a five game deficit. It has nothing to do with winning or losing 5 in a row at the same time.
"Whats that? ack! Playoffs?! Don't talk about playoffs! Are you kidding me? Playoffs?! I'm just hoping we can win a game."
