If we split the season series 2-2 and finish with the same record, what do they go by then to determine who gets Homecourt?
I am not sure they are good ideas. Both tmac and battier should stay at 2 and 3 and we should stick to our starting lineup.
Two-Team Tiebreaker 1. Better record in head-to-head games 2. Higher winning percentage within division (if teams are in the same division) 3. Higher winning percentage in conference games 4. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in own conference 5. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in opposite conference 6. Higher point differential between points scored and points allowed they're 25-12 and we're 21-19. we just need to take care of business and win both of the head-to-head games.
since they are in different divisions, they would use Conference standings to determine the HC... Utah would win it
So you want to put the most fragile player on our team (and the most important) against one of the most physical PF's in the league? I doubt we see any unusual defensive matchups except aginst the Mavs (because Tmac dominates Dirk). I think it will be up to Hayes, Huwan and maybe Battier to stop Boozer...we shall see.
Well, Utah has us beat in those. As long as we can beat them twice, I think we'll have a very good chance of getting home court.
though tmac can guard PFs, he guard those that are fairly perimeter oriented and doesn't back him down (dirk, bosh like 2 yrs ago, bargani). he can't guard boozer man. dude will be killed. the only PF i want mac to guard in the west is either dirk and if have to KG. both are perimeter oriented. tmac can shut down dirk though. the game b4 the ASG, dirk didn't score when tmac was on him in the 4th did he? in fact, avery went away from dirk b/c he knew dirk can't score on tmac
That could very well be true. But the irony is if the 1st-round HCA comes down to the last regular season game where we beat the Jazz in SLC, it actually disputes the notion that HCA will be an important factor for either team.
When Utah beat us, we kept trying to work Yao and Juwan on Boozer and he tore us up. I think things will be a lot different with Hayes out there. Van Gundy played Hayes for one quarter against Boozer and he was very effective. Then Van Gundy never went back to Hayes but chose to stick with Yao and Juwan on Boozer. Boozer was the biggest mismatch that game. Battier spent a lot of time defending Okur on the perimeter and pretty much took away his shot out there. Deron Williams wasn't playing at the level he is now though, which I would bet would be a big problem with them when we face them now. I wouls suspect that Williams and Boozer play the 2 man game and force the help off Okur to shut down Williams. Then Okur goes off because Williams will get him the ball.
So, you want Yao guarding AK and Chuck guarding Derek Fisher? Doesn't sound terribly effective to me. And it's debatable whether Tmac can guard Boozer anyway.
I don't think it's debatable. We would have to have Dr. Patterson at every game to soothe T-mac after multiple back spasms of trying to guard Boozer.
Matchups: Sloan and Van Gundy have pretty tight rotations during the playoffs. I think on offense, Battier will cover Okur as he did in our blowout. Hayes will have to cover Boozer with Yao/Mutombo helping on Boozer and Penetration from Deron. Rafer will have to try to slow down Deron, while T-Mac will take Fisher/Brewer. I think Van Gundy will have the Rocks prepared for the cuts and screens etc that gets Utah most of their points. We'll be prepared as thats Van Gundy's forte. I think we can slow them down or keep them on par, but they just cannot stay with us offensively. They have no one that can even slow down T-Mac or Yao. It was great watching T-Mac laugh when Fisher was on him. Sloan tried Kirilenko, Brewer, Fisher and no one could stop him. The fact also is that Utah does not have a strong interior shot-blocking precense, though they do have Kirilienko's Horry-type weakside shotblocking. The pest that i know will annoy us is Derek Fisher, he as a way of swiping the ball from Yao and hitting killer 3's. I trust Van Gundy to lead the way. Just as two years ago, as we'd been blown out by Dallas during the season, he switched up the lineups and defensive assignments to give us a 2-0 lead before Dallas even knew what happened. He prepared the team better and though they were much more talented, we took them to seven because of it. Utah is not that much more talented than us, so I believe!
For us to have a chance to pass Utah at this point, we almost have to be flawless and hope that Utah continues to stumble. We've got 2 games against them, 1 game against Detroit, and 1 game against Phoenix that are alll going to be tough. Utah has two games against us, and single games against Dallas, Phoenix, and San Antonio, which should all be major battles. If we are hot, we could potentially go 13-2 to end the season. I just can't see running the string. And we could wind up dropping 4 or 5 more games. I think that would be a bad indicator for the playoffs. We have to finish strong if we are going to make a serious playoff run.
exactly, we have to finish strong. in 04-05, we finished great and won the first 2 games of the playoffs v. the mavs. the reason we didnt finish that series was that yao wasn't a superstar yet and inconsistent. he is now. so like u said, we have to finish great. go in w/ tons of momentum and have no fear.
