Wouldn't be surprised. Although this team is starting to show some 4th quarter clutch ness! Not a chance they win tonight being a 4th in 5.
With the Rockets it is difficult to predict. Howard overall has been dominating. Lin and Harden are showing up as cold blooded assassins in the forth quarter. Worst? 7-3. Best? 9-1.
If we can get our hot starts going again, we can win all of these games. Unfortunately, this team is just too unpredictable and I'm guessing we win 6 or 7 of them.
I totally agree, the bench players are the key to the team's success. If Harden or DH are not playing up to par on a given night, the bench performance will have to make up for it.
We'll beat OKC. And then we'll have a huge let down against a lesser team. It happens every year: The Philadelphia game, The epic "Toronto Game," The New Orleans Game. This year, the horrible loss, to me, was against Utah. That was a wakeup call. It seems like we need another one though so our guys don't play down to the competition. On any given night, even the worst, talentless teams can kick your A. If we want to be on the Spurs' level, we've gotta stop this inconsistent pattern.
Assuming no further injuries, I think 7 is the best we can expect. They'll likely lose tonight in OKC and may lose to them again in Houston. I also expect them to lose at least one of those road games, probably at the Pelicans. Now if they're at all serious about securing one of the top 3 seeds in the West, they'll have to do no worse than 8-2 because they're already trailing OKC, Portland, and San Antonio and there's not much margin for error thanks to those early season giveaways to crappy teams. BTW, the Rockets have a great shot at gaining a lot of ground on the Blazers in the next few weeks. In their next 12 games, Portland has to play at New Orleans, OKC(twice), San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston.
The Thunder are the only good team on that list and they're without Westbrook for those games. The Pelicans are the only other respectable team. All of those games are games we should win, but I don't yet have confidence in the Rockets to win the freebies. They have a tendency to get up for the big games and play down to their competition against the dregs of the league. So I'm actually more nervous about this stretch than I would be of a stretch full of legit playoff teams.
0-10 Howard breaks an ankle, Lin snaps his neck, Harden plays the knock-out game with McHale. Morey and Royce White go on a soul searching bus ride with peyote through South America. Everybody comes back on the final game of the season, then a 17 game winning streak for the Chip. It becomes a best selling novel by JK Rowling and adapted to the big screen by Peter Jackson. But tragedy strikes on the way to the red carpet premier. The plane crashes in the snow covered mountains and the passengers are forced to fend for themselves until help arrives. THey are forced to eat each other one by one. Only DMo survives.
7-3 losses to Thunder, Wizards and Celtics (or any other 500 team, I have a feeling one of those east teams will be a trap game).
