Before we go too crazy over this, let's use the George Karl formula for the "true" standings: The differential of road wins minus home losses.... By this criterion, we're not in that great of shape..... The differentials are as follows..... OKC +15, SA +10, POR +11, LAC +10, ROX +5, GS +6, PHX +5, DAL +4, MEM -1, DEN -1, MIN +1..... This reason we're "close" to the Clippers is we've played a lot more home games than they did..... So unless one of the top four teams falters on their home court or the Rox tear it up on the road, we are most likely destined to be a lower seed come playoff time.
have you seen how great the clippers have been playing without the best pg in the nba? homecourt or not, we will have a very tough time beating the clippers in a 7 game series. nightmare matchup. DeAndre Jordan has the length and strength to bother dwight. Blake Griffin will bully tJones. Harden will have to chase JJ Reddick around everywhere...and they have the best player on the court -- chris paul.
This must have been explained like 100 times already. I will make it 101! The Clippers is #4 for leading their division. The Rockets being #5 with a better winning record (33/50 Vs 34/52) gets HCA.
Yes that's why we are all hoping the Spurs, Blazers and Clippers all drop off a little and we overtake at least one of them. Just hope the Clippers don't drop off so much so that GSW overtakes them! lolz!
So it'd be much better to play them at home than away. However, Portland is the team we are chasing. I don't mind if the Clips come 3rd, we're 4th, and Portland or Golden State is 5th. That'd be awesome. Or if the Clippers are 3rd, we're 5th (and repeat the above).
This thread reminds me of how important those losses to Philly , Sacramento (2) , LA Lakers , Atlanta & Utah are ....
i never pay attention to standings untill a week or two after the all-star game and subsequent trade deadline. too many moving parts and different possible scenarios. that being said i always thought portlands rise was too good to be true. they are good but not #1 seed material. IMO i think they slip to 5th seed, thought this all along. i think we will catch portland and overcome them for home court advantage. i dont think we take SAS for the division but we will likely make it interesting. Clippers have a lock on their division IMO. And OKC and specifically durant is BALLING so they got their division. That leaves OKC-1, SAS-2. LAC is guarenteed home court but it will be a toss up between US for the 3/4 seed. That leaves us to play either portland or GSW with home-court. The media would likely prefer GSW, but if they get hot they're dangerous. For this i would prefer playing Portland.
The Spurs winning their last 2 games was the death knell in our hopes for winning the division. Somehow they managed to pull them both out when they looked dead and gone. We're just too far back.
Garcia perhaps, but I think AB would take a deal that would get him more minutes and a chance at a nicer contract next season. He's played well this season but is stuck in our PG glut.
i see the clips ending with 3rd seed and we get the 4th seed while porty drops to 5th and possibly lower even.
yea. They are honestly just coasting. They are consistently coasting. They arent playing all out night in and night out. They beat all the crappy teams, like their supposed to. But when they play contending teams, they arent winning, likely because of preserving minutes and coasting. whereas we are still too inconsistent. we beat the good teams and than drop games to the tankers. If we were to be more consistent we would take the division, but im fine with homecourt even if its not the division. IMO this is finally the last year of SAS owning the division. Im not saying they aren't still good or not make playoffs or even secure homecourt. Im just saying we are on the rise and they are on the decline. It will be our division next year, when i think we become actual bonafide contenders. AB could have took a bigger contract this off-season. He signed for the vet to play WITH houston and be part of a contender instead of the bigger offers offered to him. I doubt he wants out, he is comfortable. He is in the part of his career where he is chasing a ring more so than another big check
He only had minimum offers last offseason and chose us. He has never had what most players would call a "big contract" so I'm sure he would still like to land one more that is more than a one year minimum deal.
Nets get back Joe Johnson, Blatche and Kirilenko while Spurs will be without Duncan and Parker (+ the usual suspects). Lets's go, Iso Joe!
