On the cover page here http://espn.go.com/nba/ talking about how David West's injury affects the postseason chances of the Griz, Hornets, and Rockets! Please someone that has ESPN Insider, post this!
Thanks MourningWood. I definitely agree that the Hornets will be the team out. They have probably one of the more tougher schedules left in the league, and even before the David West injury I believed between Memphis and New Orleans, we had a better chance of replacing New Orleans. Hopefully everything works in our favor now..
From the article: In either case, the reason the Hornets' Playoff Odds remain so strong is that they'll likely win tiebreakers against both the Rockets and Grizzlies. While each can even the season series in these final games, New Orleans has clinched a better division record than Houston and will have the same advantage on Memphis once it pounds the Stevenson-Cardinal-Mahinmi Mavs on the last day of the season. Since that's the next tiebreaker with divisional foes, it leaves the No. 9 Rockets effectively needing to make up four games on New Orleans. If the Hornets just win four times, Houston has to go 8-2 in its last 10 to slip in. So the Rockets have to win twice as many games as the Hornets at this point. Not saying they can't do it, but them's not good odds. Also, I could see Landry having a breakout stretch of games with West out.
I hope NO starts losing some games but more than not this the kind of thing that brings a team closer together and they start playing well. Oh well will will soon find out in the next 3 games for the Hornets: Suns, Lakers, Grizzlies.
Isn't this the same thing that was written about the Grizzlies when Rudy Gay went down?? Well, clearly that's been working out in our favor so.... Seriously though, I'm sick of all this speculation. Things are going to get much clearer after this weekend with the Rockets playing in Miami, and the Grizzlies playing the Bulls and Spurs. Ultimately, every single game the Rockets play has to be approached like an elimination game. We can't afford to have slip-ups anymore. That's the fate that we've written for ourselves by losing games against the likes of Minnesota, LAC, and GSW.
Yeah, if NO beats Memphis twice, and Memphis loses/wins the remainder of the games they should (based ONLY on current win %), then 7-3 would get it done for us. See below. Right now Memphis has a .556 win percentage, so assuming they beat everyone below, and lose to everyone above, that would make them 5-5. @Chi 0.729 SA 0.803 GS 0.417 1 @NO 0.569 Min 0.236 1 LAC 0.389 1 Sac 0.257 1 No 0.569 @Por 0.577 LAC 0.389 1 Right now we have a .528 win percentage, so assuming the same, we'd go 5-5 as well. @Mia 0.690 @NJ 0.329 1 @Phi 0.521 1 SA 0.803 Atl 0.556 Sac 0.257 1 @NO 0.569 LAC 0.389 1 Dal 0.704 @Min 0.236 1 We just need to find a way to win AT LEAST 7 more games, the rest will (hopefully) take care of itself. Pugs
I find it ironic that so many former rockets from last year's season are pretty much fighting for the last two playoff spots. AB with the suns, Battier with the grizz, Landry/Ariza/Andersen with the hornets.
So this may come down to the Hornets needing to win in Dallas against their scrubs. It's like the 2009 Texans playoff run all over again.
We more than anybody should know what Carl Mandry is capable of given the minutes. I wouldn't count them out just yet, but we face them next month and West has been known to have career nights against us. So that's a plus, I guess.
I say we take Atl and NO for 6 and 7. I also have a feeling we destroy SA and Dal at home playing a lot of back ups.
The Phoenix Suns are not out of the Western Conference playoff race by any means. Why the author of this article focused on only on the three teams he did, leaving Phoenix out of the mix, is beyond me. The Suns are tied with the Rockets in the loss column and are quite capable of winning games going down the stretch now that Steve Nash and Channing Frye have returned to the active roster. The Suns schedule is not overly difficult and it appears that they have at least as strong a chance to make it into the playoffs as the Rockets do, especially since the Suns own the tiebreaker advantage over the Rockets. I don't pretend to know how the final standings will play out in the West, but with Memphis losing Gay and NOLA losing West, it should not come as a surprise to anyone if these two teams fall off over the course of the final 10-12 games. Even though the Rockets and the Suns are a couple of games behind, they could well be the two teams that end up in the playoffs, with both the Hornets and the Grizzlies looking in from the outside. Whatever happens, it looks like it is going to be fun to watch.
They still play the Mavericks (2), Thunder, Spurs (2), and Bulls. They aren't winning more than two of those games.
