It is really hard to get a grasp on how good this team is. We are only 4-7 against teams with winning records We are 9-1 in our last 10 games but we have only played two teams with winning records during that stretch and one of them was the Spurs without Manu and Duncan but we beat both of them. The next 19 games are really going to decide if we are a playoff team or not. We play 12 teams with winning records and 3 against a Minnesota team that appears to be improving as the season progresses. If we can get 9-10 wins during that stretch we probably get in.
standing is not that big at this time. what is important is we see them jelling an improving individually.
I want to see a more consistent flow to the offense, a heirarchy developed and roles defined. Right now we have a lot of guys that can play, but some of them are redundant pieces when played together, KMart and CBud for example. DD
dont get your hopes too high guys, just like the rockets were not really as bad a 3 -7 suggested, they aren't as good as 9 wins out of their last 10. What you see coming up in February is brutal, play off teams and road games. I don't expect they finish February .500 (for the month). I predicted 12-9 at the end of January (could be right if we lose tonight but I hope i'm wrong), but the end of February we are either sitting pretty at 3 - 5 games over .500 or .500 - 2 - 3 games below. I predict a stretch in there where we lose 4 of 5 games and this board is blowing up with knee jerks saying to blow the team up and tank.
This is not knee-jerk. We are not a playoff team as currently constructed. We either have to make a major trade at the deadline, or go to the lottery, or BOTH!
Nah, we might be a 8th seed but definitely a first round exit. This team has just been playing a cupcake schedule against injured teams.
Yep... 1 game difference separating 4th and 9th best team in the West. Tracking playoff seeding now is way too early. The upcoming road trip will tell us more about where this team is. For now, it does look like there are 11 teams competing for the 8 playoff spots, though-- 9 teams at .500 or above and Minny just below it. A losing streak by one of the 11 may well eliminate it from contention. Also, the really critical games are ones between the 4th to 11th ranked teams in the West. Gotta win more of those than you lose.
I think the Rockets are really in a bad position right now, playoff-wise. There are obviously still a lot of games to go, but these 2 home games we lost recently hurt a lot.
According to John Hollinger, the 12-9 Rockets now have a 62% chance of making the playoffs: http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/playoffodds The home losses hurt, no doubt. It means they'll have to win a couple of road games against competitive teams to make up for them. It's still early enough that the bigger factor is how the team responds going forward (do they fix up their weaknesses, whether Lowry bounces back, etc.) rather than what their record is right now.
We need to be humble and this game brought us back down to earth. Supposedly we had great defense as of late beating the Wizards and Knicks and giving up 120 is what ? Poor defense is more like it. This next stretch if we are out of playoffs, we better start losing big time because this time cannot make any noise in the playoffs, we might get 1 victory but that's it. Lowry is not worth of all-star either, he has fallen out of each category he was in top 5 and Rubio has slipped in (3rd in assists and 3rd in steals). If he doesn't turn it around, which I hope he does, there's no hope for this team. We die with Lowry.
He projects New York to have the 6th worst record in the league. If that works out, and assuming they don't get a top 3 pick - sweeeeet!
