God bless the Cavs... they are up 29 early in the fourth against Milwaukee. That will put us "up" 2 in the crucial win column for the 5th spot (look out for the Knicks though). They have just 4 games left.... all likely to be tough for them. @ Charlotte @ Atlanta Indiana @ Toronto
I am kinda hoping raptors loose to Pacers tonight. With the tie breaker they are something like 2.5-3 games ahead for the 8th seed. The 8th - 6th seeds are so close that the Raptors could end up in either of those places.
I think the key at this point is getting the pick. If it turns out to be the 17th pick or whatever I don't think too many of us are going to shed any tears.
With 5 games left, Toronto's magic number over Indiana is 3. They are losing in the kind of good. They were tied coming in with Milwaukee, and the Bucks keep losing. Toronto should make the playoffs with a magic number of only 3. The Atlanta and Cleveland games are at homes, and are virtually gimmes. They'd only need to win vs. New Jersey or @Milwaukee, or have the Pacers lose 1 game: vs. Milwaukee, @Washington, @Cleveland, or Philadelphia (Iverson says he'll be back). A key game will be Milwaukee vs. Indiana. A Milwaukee win would be very nice.
Let's kidnap the rest of Denver's opponents and get some of us clutchcity dudes to play in their place. "Starting at PG for the (insert nba team-Portland) Damon Stoudamire. " Under his breath the announcer says "I didn't know Stoudamire was only 5'7" and Chinese.
Also...Toronto's next game is at home vs Atl (who actually has been playing fairly well lately) but I think its a game that they can win. Indiana's next game is against Milw so one of them will lose a full game to Toronto as long as the Raps beat the Hawks!!!
Clutch ...I agree ...all tough games...HOWEVER, if there is one team (or player) that the Knicks will do everything they can to play spoiler against and keep out of the playoffs, it will be Indiana and Spike's buddy, Reggie!!!
If we lose tonight (& that's a distinct possibility), we'll be up on Cleveland & NY by 2 games in the standings, with 4 games left to play. Cleveland has beat us both times this year & we've split with NY. That means we're actually 3 games up (or down, depending on your perspective) on Cleveland. Our remaining schedule appears to be tougher than NY's. So, unless we go on a winning streak, we should hang on to the 5th pick. We can still catch Denver, but it would take a miracle to do it. Houston 11 Thu @ Dallas 12 Fri Portland 14 Sun Memphis 16 Tue @ Denver 17 Wed @ Portland New York 11 Thu Chicago 12 Fri @ Boston 14 Sun @ Miami 16 Tue @ Washington 17 Wed New Jersey
