It is absolutely imperative that the Rockets draw Minnesota in the first round for obvious reasons discussed in other threads. I thought a thread should be started tracking the race for the 2nd seed with the Rockets pretty much entrenched at 7th. After the San Antonio and Minnesota wins tonite, the Spurs remain 1.5 games behind Minnesota. The Wolves have 6 games remaining: Washington, Memphis, @Sacramento, @GoldenState, Utah, @Memphis The Spurs have 7 games remaining: @Utah, @Lakers, Seattle, Portland, @Clippers, @Portland, Denver If someone could input this into a table including the possible scenarios for Sacramento/Lakers to finish 2nd, it'd be greatly appreciated. The Spurs look like they have the easier schedule, but best of luck to the Wolves.
Wolves probably goes 4-2 by losing to Sacramento and 1 of the Memphis game, their final record will be 56-26. Spurs could easily goes 6-1 or even 7-0 if they can beat Lakers, their final record will be 56-26 or 57-25. Their head-to-head record is 2-2. Since Spurs has a better Division Record, they will win the tie-breaker. I hope my prediction goes wrong, the last team I would like to face is Spurs.
man, that doesnt look good at all. Spurs have a spongecake soft schedule....they could easily go 7-0 if Timmyboy steps up and PArker and Gino play their butts off.. I'll defeinitely be cheering on them Wolves... Go Wolves!!
Their schedule isn't that easy. Road games against teams fighting for playoff spots aren't gimmes. And playing in LA, they should be underdogs. I predict 5-2 at best. Hopefully Minnesota will pull it out.
I know we have a slightly better chance against the T-wolves, but I actually would not mind facing the Spurs. For once, I lke the Wolves a lot. I like KG, I love Sam, I like Spree. I also like Flip Sanders a lot. The Spurs I hate. Timmy is a class act, but they are a boring team, and I am tired of them winning and beating us. Plus, knocking out the world champs would be double sweet. I know it's a long shot, but it's a long shot with Minny as well. Most likely we take Minny to 6 games and are competetive with them, but still lose. With Spurs it could go an easy 1-2-3-4-out, but I doubt it. I think we will be more competetive than the reg. season, and in the unlikely event we catch on fire and beat them, that would be extra sweet. It's all psychology based. Going against Minny we will think we have a chance and tighten up, when in fact that chance is very slim. Against Spurs the team may decide to just go out swinging and become loose and desperate and pull out the upset.
I agree with you Kayman. The advantage of playing the Spurs is that they do not score alot either, thus making it more likely for close games down the stretch. In Houston, the Rockets will always play the Spurs close, the big problem with the Rockets in San Antonio is that they lose their composure in the 2nd half when the Spurs really tighten things up. If history means anything, the Rockets are 3-0 in the playoffs against the Spurs, 80, 81 and 95
Awww man, based on what mirror_image said, I'm worried. There's no way the Spurs will beat the Lakers though. I'm pretty sure the Fakeshow beat them badly and pretty easily this year. Plus the Fakers have been playing real well lately. That's about the only good thing because the rest of their schedule looks pretty easy. GO WOLVES, for your last 6 regular season games ONLY! Rockets are gonna beat the Wolves in the playoffs this year if we face them and it will be CLUTCH CITY all over again. HOW SWEET IT IS!
Of course we are UNDERDOG whether the 1st round opponent is Wolves or Spurs. But don't forget that Wolves never get out of the 1st round, while Spurs is a freaking defending champion, do you think they will allow anybody to kick them out in the 1st round? Spurs is basically a matured and better version of Rockets. They go 7-1 against us in past 2 seasons and have tons of playoff experience. If Rockets really has to face Spurs, I will be completely satifised if we can steal 2 games from them.
What if the Spurs just want to remain their current 4th position? Is there a possibility that the spurs prefer to play the Grizzlies instead of the Rox so they deliberatedly lose the final games?
here's another observation... combine the Wolves win and the King's loss... they are only a game apart. Lakers might be on a roll, but their upcoming schedule, from what I remember, is not that easy. Minny could end up as a #1 if they win out
right now here's the records of the 4 team Twolves - 52-24 Spurs - 50-25 Kings - 52-22 Lakers - 51-23 it is going to really tight for the win for both divisions and then working out who will end up 1,2,3,4 spots the remaining games are The Wolves have 6 games remaining: Washington, Memphis, @Sacramento, @GoldenState, Utah, @Memphis The Spurs have 7 games remaining: @Utah, @Lakers, Seattle, Portland, @Clippers, @Portland, Denver Kings have 8 games remaining: @Dallas, @Houston, Hornets, Twolves, @Suns, Lakers, @Denver, @Golden State Lakers have games remaining: Houston, @Seattle, Spurs, Portland, Memphis, @Kings, Golden State, @Portland my gut says the Lakers will catch the Kings, even though their remaining schedule is very tough, if the schedule wasn't so bad they would probably get best record in the conference, the Kings might even end up 4th (damn the way they are playing Memphis might even catch them) not sure about the Midwest, the Twolves schedule is tougher but they should at least win 4 games, if they can win 5 then they will win the Midwest.. it should be very interesting and tight and could go a number of different ways
No way can Minny win out, they're playing so inconsistent right now, I can't see them winning the #1 seed. It also doesn't help that the Spurs look to be in a little of a groove. True, the Lakers' schedule looks rough but most of them are at Staples, where they are almost unbeatable (plus they're on a huge roll right now). They're probably gonna be the #1 or #3 seed barring from any sort of collapse. We just gotta hope that Minny can hang on.
I think the Lakers or Spurs are going to end up #1 and #2. We looked locked in at #7, so we'd face one of them in either case. Both series would be intense, more so than playing the Kings or T-Wolves who seem to be sliding a bit.
Lakers will top Sacramento probably. The Lakers may lose one game the rest of the way, but it's doubtful. The Kings, on the other hand, are struggling and must complete their texas road trip, and their schedule remains difficult after that. San Antonio and Minnesota is a tough call. They're both turning it up, but Minny is 2 games up and I don't know if the Spurs can make that up considering their schedule is slightly tougher. Basically, it's looking like we may draw ANY of the 4 since their records are so close, but I'd want this order: Minny San Antonio Sacramento LA
the last team i want to play is san antonio. there is no advantage to them being a low-scoring team when they absolutely shut our offense down. i wouldn't even consider us an underdog against minnesota.
The team I really, really like to see is the Queens. Hopefully they will hold off the Lakers and finish second to Minnesotta. A lot will depend on the Sac-LAL game, the winner has a great chance of winning the Pacific... Man, a SACTO series will be sweet. I am just salivating at the fantasy of what this series may look like. A blowout in game 1, then Queens become ultra cocky and we steal game two. Next we have two games in Houston, where we pull a typical JVG playoff basketball with Cato and Oakley throwing Queens in the stands, which leads to the biggest whine-a-ton on national TV ever. I see my wife catching a glimpse of Vlade and C-Webb and telling me "I didn't know you were watching Oprah". Then they get all cocked up and win game five, only to come back to the Toyota center and go out 4-2.
