We're as good as any team in the West besides OKC and the Clippers. A lot of that is due to injuries on other teams, but it's true. We're also two deep at every position except center, so our players should wear down a lot less than other teams for the rest of the compressed schedule. Teams like Boston and Orlando are already breaking down.
Just killin' time until March 15th. After that? Just killin' time until draft day. After that? Just killin' time until 2013 trade deadline. After that...
21-12 for the remaining 33 games if we win against teams with worse records than us currently, and lose to teams with better records than us currently. Using the current standings for our first 33 games, we should have been 22-11 by the same metric (won 86.3% of the games we "should have" won given the current standings). Likely, we will not go 21-12. I could see 18-15, though (again, about the same percentage of games we "should have" won). 40-26 will easily make the playoffs, and likely be a good seed. 37-29? Yeah, I think that'll make it, too, probably a bottom 3 seed.
We could win if we had Hayes...Chuck would make Griffin cry. Too early to tell but I think playing flop city gives us a good chance of winning, comparing to the Thunders or Mavs.
That's funny. I actually think we'd have a better chance against Dallas than anybody else and I think Dallas is a low playoff seed at best and could miss the playoffs themselves.
just make playoffs please... i'm sick of wearing my rockets t-shirt and reading "2009 playoffs" on it.
As of today, only 3 games seperate the 6th from the 10th. Only 2 games seperate the 6th from the 3rd. Point being ...we have about as good of a chance to finish 6th or higher, as we do finishing in the lottery. It is a complete crap-shoot. I think we have been overachieving all year, and i think it will eventually even out. So i see us as an 8th seed or late lotto (pretty much what the consensus was going into the season). I'm just not excited about this team. While i give McHale credit for doing a great job in a shortend season, our personel is just not there, and given the continued trend towards being slightly above average, i don't see how we are any closer to being in a position to radically change the fortunes of this team going forward.
I thought I'd just stick this in here. Hollinger has an "All Jeremy Lin Team" (breakout players we would be talking about if not for Jeremy Lin right now) article on ESPN Insider, and Lowry made it: http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/PERDiem-120221/nba-all-jeremy-lin-team [rquoter] Kyle Lowry, Houston: I feel obligated to make note of Lowry's existence, given that (a) he would have made the All-Star team in the East, (b) he's the best player on a surprisingly good Houston team and (c) said team is 17-8 in its past 25 games and may very well pass the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday for fifth place in the West. Not so shabby for a guy who didn't start until his fifth NBA season after being the odd man out in a point guard battle with Mike Conley with the Memphis Grizzlies. His development as a 3-point shooter has been particularly surprising, making 37.6 percent a year ago and 38.3 percent this season after flinging up bricks his first four seasons. [/rquoter]
I'd gladly take the playoffs over *just missing* it and settling for the almighty lotter pick number 14.
We need to keep winning right now by all means and continue to build a cushion because the race is going to come right down to the end and it's going to be a tight one with other teams stars/players returning from injury/China (Z-bo, W.Chandler) and teams actually playing up to their capacity (Portland).
I don't think Portland is the 7-2 team they started the season as, and they're probably a bit better than the 11-14 team they've been since, but I don't fear the Blazers moving past us in the standings. They have some youth and athleticism, but Aldrich is just not dominant enough to be the only effective option on that team. Crawford and Batum at the #2 and 3 scoring positions, respectively, are 8+ points behind him, and I just don't see the Blazers having the consistency a team needs in a season like this. Wilson Chandler is a pretty solid player, but he probably impacts a team much like our Chandler, albeit in different ways. I don't put him on par with the Grizz getting back Z-Bo (which is huge), but he had MCL surgery, it may take him more than a month (scheduled back in March) to get in to his previous season form. They may pass us up, but we have to see what they get from Z-Bo. I wonder if the next few weeks will bring any clarity to the playoff picture, or will it still be muddled as plus-or-minus 3 games =#3 seed vs. 14th pick.
I think we need some trades to be contenders. If we could get Pau it would be good for us. We have a great bench we just need another center piece!
We need an edge to beat out Portland, Utah, Minny. If we acquire a legit starting SF and a solid back-up C we can go past 1st round.
