No not worry about it until we have at least 5 more games done. The lost column in the West is now too tight to tell the match-ups with 10 games to go.
NOoo to Jazz. Anyone but Lakers and Jazz. I'd rather be a fourth seed and not play the Jazz then a 2nd and play them.
<B> Games H2H Div Con Overall Magic </B> <B> Team W/L L10 H2H Left TB Div TB Conf TB TieBreak Number Diff</B> 1 Lakers 55-14 7-3 0-3 1A L 37-7 L No*<B> 22</B> (-1) 2 Rockets 47-25 8-2 8-6 30-13 3 Spurs 45-24 5-5 2-2 None T 9-5 L 29-13 W No<B> 12</B> (-2) 4 Nuggets 45-25 6-4 3-1 None W 27-14 W Yes*<B> 10</B> (-1) 5 Hornets 44-25 7-3 2-1 1H W 7-4 L 26-15 W Yes<B> 11</B> (-1) 6 Blazers 44-26 6-4 1-1 1H T 22-19 W Yes<B> 10</B> (-1) 7 Jazz 43-26 7-3 2-1 1A W 29-11 L Yes<B> 10</B> (-1) 8 Mavericks 42-28 6-4 2-1 1A W 5-7 W 22-20 W Yes<B> 8</B> (-1) 9 Suns 38-31 4-6 2-0 1A W 22-17 W Yes*<B> 4</B> (-1) * Indicates the Tie Break is final For more information on the Magic Number Chart or about seeding or tie break rules, read the FAQ <B>Clinched the #9 seed</B> Here is the latest batch of Magic Numbers after all games were played on <B>March 22</B>. What an awesome day for the Rockets! They’ve had the #3 seed for a couple of weeks but decided to try the #2 seed. So far the view looks pretty good up here. Hopefully we’ll put down some roots and stick around for a while. The Rockets got an absolutely clutch win over the Spurs today. Yao was off his game and finished with only 13 points and 2 assists, but those 2 assists were crucial plays in the last minute to help seal the win. Scola was huge with 19 points and 17 rebounds, and Ron Artest chipped in with 24 points. Kyle Lowry and the offensive juggernaut known as Chuck Hayes were incredible off the bench. All Magic Numbers drop 1, and the Spurs lose an additional point for the loss. I talked about all the tie break scenarios in an earlier post. I was hoping for a Warriors upset to put the icing on the cake, but GolXen State let me down as they left their offense at home with their dust-collecting defense in a loss to the Hornets. New Orleans had been playing kind of shaky against losing teams, but they were never really threatened in this one. Chris Paul threw down 27 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists, and David West had 23 points, 6 assists, and 4 boards for the Hornets. Captain Jack had 22 points and 10 rebounds for GolXen State. On tap for Monday: Nuggets at Suns, 76ers at Blazers
An interesting bit of information to go along with the standings: the Rockets currently have the highest margin of victory per game in the league outside of the big 4(LA, Cleveland, Boston, Orlando). It is pretty amazing considering the struggles and inconsistency the team went through for the first 52 games of the season. The team is growing each game, today showing an ability to execute down the stretch it hasn't shown before. All we, as Rockets fans, can hope for is continued health and growth of the team. The one thing that needs to pick back up, which has taken a sharp decline in recents games, is the defensive rebounding. Outside of the rebounding the rest of the team's game is coming together really well. The offensive and defensive efficiencies have certainly picked up lately. The last 10 games of the season and playoffs are going to be a hell of a ride!
Great win , especially on the road. Using the Rudy T method of ranking (road wins minus home losses): Hou 10 SAS 10 Den 10 Port 10 Dall 9 NO 8 UT 8 Using the above, you only improve by winning road games and fall back if you lose home games. Just like last year, the 3 through 8 seeds will probably not be known until the last day of the season. SAS has a pretty easy remaining schedule: their only tough road games are @ Atl, @ NOH, @ Cle. Their only tough home games are Port, Utah and NOH. They should still be favored for the 2 seed, but they did just lose to the Thieves, so who knows Houston's home games are LAC, Port, Orl, NOH. If they limit home losses to 1 or less, they will be in good shape. Their remaining road games: @ UT, @ Phx, @ LAL, @ Sac, @ GSW, @ Dall is harder, but if they also limit their road losses to 2 or less then they would finish with no less than 54 wins and almost guaranty the 2 or 3 seed. Denver's remaining road games include @ Phx, @ NOH, @ Dall, @ LAL and @ Port. The only tough home game they have left is Utah. I guess they finish in the top 4. Portland plays Phx, Utah, LAL and Den at home. Their road games include @ Hou, @ SAS. They will fight for the 4 or 5 seed. Dallas plays Den, Mia, Phx, Utah, NOH and Hou at home so they could lose some home games but their only tough road games are @ Cle and @ NOH. They may climb up to the 6 seed. NOH has a relatively easy road schedule: @ NYK, @ Sac, @ LAC, @ GS, @ Mia, @ Dall, @ Hou. Their home schedule includes Den, SAS (twice), Utah, Phx and Dall so they may lose some home games. Utah has a tough remaining road schedule: @ Phx, @ Port, @ Den, @ NOH, @ Dal, @ SAS, @ LAL. Utah playts so poorly ont he road that they could lose every one of those games and wind up being the 8 seed.
First round Utah vs LAL would indeed be the ideal case for us. LAL, Utah and SAS we would hope to avoid until WCF I'm pretty confident against every other playoff teams especially if we have HCA.
However, I truly believe the Jazz won't stay in 7th, they will probably climb to 5th or around there, so lets stay tight in 2nd place!
The tiebreaker with the Mavericks is all but certain. The only way the Mavs win the tiebreaker over Houston is if they go 4-0 in their last four Division games while the Rockets go 0-2. The Mavs have a home and home with New Orleans left too.
I have this recurring nightmare that the Rockets will have the home court advantage over the Jazz in the 4-5 matchup.
Here is a link to an Excel spreadsheet I created to determine the final seeding when the playoffs begin. It's very easy to use, just enter the number of wins and losses for each week. Season Predictions.xls
man this race is even better than last years race to first where it was only 3-4 teams. the first seed is settled but 2-8 is all a jumble. go suns and 76ers tonight! thanks Scribo for putting this together no surprise that you're the first poster I've seen with two green bars next to his name well deserved
I went through and judged each game with as much neutrality as possible ... and came up with this: 2. Spurs 55-27 3. Blazers 54-28 4. Rockets 53-29 5. Hornets 52-30 (tiebreaker over Nuggets as I gave the Hornets a win in New Orleans on Wednesday, their 3rd in 4 games over the Nuggets) 6. Nuggets 52-30 7. Mavericks 50-32 8. Jazz 49-33
1individual...10 out of 25 losses do come from losing teams (record of 0.500 or less). Does that mean that the Rockets would be 57-15 right now if T-Mac wasn't playing? Not very likely. Here is a list of Western conference playoffs contenders and their respective losses to teams with 0.500 record or less. Code: [B][U]Lakers[/U] (4) [U]Rockets[/U] (10) [U]Spurs[/U] (6) [U]Nuggets[/U](8)[/B] Detroit Indiana @Milwaukee @Golden State @Indiana @Memphis Detroit Detroit @Sacramento @LA Clippers Milwaukee @New Jersey Charlotte Washington @Toronto @Chicago @Toronto @New York @Milwaukee @Indiana @Oklahoma City @Indiana @New York @Detroit @Memphis @Sacramento @Milwaukee @Chicago [B][U]New Orleans[/U] (8) [U]Portland[/U] (5) [U]Utah[/U] (9) [U]Dallas[/U] (8)[/B] @Charlotte @Golden State @New York @LA Clippers Sacramento LA Clippers @Washington @Chicago New York @Charlotte @Charlotte @New Jersey @Minnesota @Oklahoma City Chicago @Memphis Golden State @Golden State New Jersey @Sacramento Chicago @Chicago @Milwaukee @Memphis @Milwaukee @Oklahoma City @Chicago @Oklahoma City @Golden State @Golden State (SIDE NOTE: I was at the Milwaukee game and that was a painful loss. Interestingly, Milwaukee beat Houston, Spurs x2, Nuggets, Utah, and Dallas.) Anyhow, the average losses to wimpy teams by these Western Conference teams is approximately equal to seven (7). Take out the LA Lakers who are in a league of their own and that number increases to eight (8). The standard deviation was two (2) with or without the LA Lakers. The Rockets lost a total of 10 games to wimpy teams. With that said, the Rockets could have probably won four more games without T-Mac. However, it would be flawed to only look into losses and not include games where T-Mac helped the Rockets win as agentkirb87 stated. So the point of the story is that sure we lost to crappy teams but other contenders in the Western conference race have lost to crappy teams too. Hey at least we didn't lose to Suckramento (cough cough... Lakers, Denver, New Orleans, Dallas)!
The Blazers have the easiest schedule from here on out. Of the final 12, I see them losing at most 3. @Houston, @San Antonio, and vs. the Lakers in a meaningless game for the Lakers.
Here is how I think the season standings will end. #2 seed Spurs 55 27 #3 seed Rockets 54 28 #4 seed Nuggets 53 29 #5 seed Hornets 54 28 #6 seed Trail Blazers 53 29 #7 seed Mavericks 52 30 #8 seed Jazz 49 33
That Lakers game is with a week left in the season. It might ultimately be meaningless for the Lakers, but they're not going to rest their starters until the final game or two. They also play Phoenix, Utah (albeit not in SLC), and Denver. But yeah, relatively easy. 2 games each against Memphis and OKC plus Philly and the Clippers.
After using this spreadsheet I came up with these results: Season Predictions.xls ------------------ Wins -- Losses 2. Spurs ---------- 54 ------ 28 3. Rockets -------- 53 ------ 29 4. Nuggets ------- 52 ------ 30 5. Hornets ------- 51 ------ 31 6. Trail Blazers --- 51 ------ 31 7. Jazz------------ 51 ------ 31 8. Mavricks ------ 48 ------ 34 Since 5 through 7 are tied I'm not sure exactly how the order would go. One thing is for sure and that this is an extremely tight season.
