For a team that began the season 6-11, it's remarkable to be 17-8 since then. At the begining of Jan., lots of us felt that we would be lucky to get even with a 8-8 record for Jan. I was thinking of either 7-9 or 8-8 at that time. Now that we are 8-4 with 4 games to go (don't want to jinx us) and playing like the team that most Rocs fans expected us to be (before the season), I think that it's safe to say that we have turned around the corner. Jan. 2 Utah 99-80 win Jan. 5 Phoenix 98-108 loss Jan. 7 LAL 104-111 loss Jan. 9 Denver 116-98 win Jan. 12 Dallas 124-114 win Jan. 13 NJ 94-85 win Jan. 15 Spurs 73-67 win Jan. 17 Grizzles 80-99 loss Jan. 18 Pacers 74-87 loss Jan 20 Magic 108-99 win Jan. 21 Knicks 92-21 win Jan. 24 Magic 89-78 win Jan. 26 at Hornets Jan. 28 Kings Jan. 30 at Heat Jan. 31 at Celtics With TMac, we can win at least 2 of the rest 4 games (at Hornets, at Celtics). There is also a good chance we beat the Kings at home. That will give us a Jan. record of 10-6 or 11-5, very on pace to push our standings toward 6 in the West. If we can make steady progess for the rest of the season, it's not totally out of question that we catch the Mavericks who is only 5 games ahead of us. Sure if we can beat the Heat on the road...... It will be a great game anyway: Shaq against Yao one on one, TMac vs. Wade. I predict that the star duos cancelled each other out with the games decided by role players, or maybe JVG vs. SVG whoever came out with the upper hand.
An A- is a little generous IMO. Still don't think its acceptable that we lost to the Lakers (again), got blown out by the Grizz or played so poorly against the under-strength Pacers at home. That said, i'm still happy with the month and am enjoying being over .500, lets keep improving!
November - D (no words needed) December - C (we won, but had a creampuff schedule and still got swept by the Bobcats) January so far - B+ (big wins against Dallas, Orl and SA, but still got stomped on by the Suns, Griz, and Pacers) Evan
not to get you all excited, since I want to take it one win at a time but... if they continue on the 17-8 pace (since the 6-11 start) ... they should hit 50 wins (50-32 to be exact) 23-19 - with 40 games left 27-13 (.68 winning %) _______ 50-32 - final record
I think Yao will outplay Shaq on the upcoming weekend game against the heat. Shaq finally going to feel the effect of his age, especially against a young gun like Yao. Hopefully TMac will be playing (family emergency gets resolve and he's back). I think we can take care of Wade by playing good team D. The only concern against Heat though, is their bench is better and could cancel out the good thing we do containing Wade and Shaq.
The thing about Wade is that he is so good at dribble penetration that it takes a super quick and great defender like AI to stop him. Sura will get eaten alive for sure, and Wesley will not fare much better either.
BTW the Heat has a solid, young and upcoming PF in Haslem who is very good at offensive board and putback. Howard needs to suck it up and play aggressive D inlcuding boxing out on him, along with helping D on Shaq. If our 4 comes out playing like a sissy, we are done.
And Haslem played in Europe before making it to the League. Just shows that you can pick up good players from overseas who can come in and contribute rather than relying on aging ex-knicks. Makes you question the Rockets overseas scouting a little bit that quality, cheap players with overseas experience keep slipping under their radar. Haslem would be a good fit on the Rox IMO.
I am already excited for Shaq-Yao match up again. ABC/ESPN has been advertising this game for a while now. It will be good to see Yao match up against a traditional center like Shaq, who don't defend Yao by fronting and double-teaming. Yao is going to tear one up on Shaq. I can almost feel it.
Unlike Badiane, Haslem actually managed to crack the starting lineup in the French leagues. Oh, and he played pretty well, too. http://www.tsn.ca/nba/teams/player_bio.asp?player_id=685&hubname=MIA
10-6(2 out of the next 4) makes us 25-21 11-5(3 out of the next 4) makes us 26-20 we will surpass 45 games this year, i see them going 47-35+...
Sadly, if the Lakers and Memphis stay hot and keep playing well, this might be barely enough to get us in/not good enough to make the playoffs. We have to pray for the Lakers/Memphis OR even T-Puppies (The way they are playing lately, not completely out of the question) to unexpectedly drop off and start losing like the Nuggets have.
I said 9-7 would be good and 8-8 wouldn't be surprising. If they end up 10-6, especially considering the schedule, this was a hell of a month.
That's why I am willing to give the team A- grade for the whole month. They are playing up to expectation.
