Anything can happen between now and mid- April. Warriors are only 1 game behind Portland for that #5 spot. I wouldn't want to grind out a 7 game series against that Dubs team, they are too deep with O'neal, Steve Blake, and Crawford off the bench. Portland is only as deep as their starters. Their bench is like a bad D-league team.
If the Spurs get the 1st seed then I want us to stay at 4. I wouldn't tank the last few games to get the 4th as opposed to 3rd but the 4th seed is very ideal. OKC and the Clippers are the teams we need to avoid. And a good way to avoid at least one of those teams is letting them have the 2nd or 3rd seed. If the playoffs started today, the Clippers would play the Warriors and OKC would play the Grizzles. Out of the lower 4 seeds, if anyone is as balanced as the Clippers and can keep up with their scoring, its the Warriors. That should be an amazing series as you have match up heaven with Curry vs Paul, Lee vs Griffin, Bogut vs Jordan, even Crawford vs Iggy. Plus, these two teams hate each other and Bogut and Green love taking cheap shots on Griffin. And if there is a team that can give any of the top 4 seeds trouble, especially the Thunder, its the Grizzlies and their style of play. Gasol and Z-Bo made Ibaka and Perkins look super ineffective last year. Even though OKC was without Westbrook, the Grizzlies have the right pieces to make Durant and Westbrook work for every shot. If the Grizzles can shoot above average from 3, while working the ball to Z-Bo and Gasol, that's a dangerous team. And even if the Clippers and OKC pass the Warriors and Grizzles, they would have to face each other in the second round, so one of them is going to be out if they Rockets make it to the WCF. You want the teams you don't want to face play hard competition and/or knock each other out. The same could be said for the Spurs because if they get the 1st seed and play Dallas, Dallas can surprise them as well. This seems to be a year where being the 2 or 3 seed is going to be a lot harder to advance than being a 4 seed, because right now, Portland seems to be the best team to face in the first round if you want to advance fairly easily.
Memphis and Golden state are going to finish 5th and 6th, Portland will be either OKC or San Antonio's easy first round opponent.
Too much of a crap shoot to say for sure who lands where. The West is WAY too tight. That said, as long as Spurs are #1 and the Rockets are #4, I can live with the other match ups. Memphis isn't ideal, but I'll take Memphis all day long vs the Clippers or OKC. At least against Memphis we can outrun them and try to impose our pace. Still, as I said before my ideal is Spurs at #1, us at #4 and Portland in #5. The team likely gets through more easily, takes less of a beating, and ends up with what I believe is a more favorable match up.
Honestly, I could care less about any of the teams 5-8. With homecourt I'm confident against any of them. Without home court, I'd have reservations though.
Too early to tell, but current seeding would be ideal. I'd rather go up against the likes of Lillard/Matthews/Batum instead of the Curry/Thompson combo. Plus I believe the Warriors would beat the Clippers in a 7 game series.
I worry that, if Portland and GSW separate themselves as the likely 5 and 6, respectively, that the Clippers will tank the end of the year to try to draw Portland instead. I think everyone would preferably avoid GSW if they could, just because the variance with a guy like Steph Curry is so high that anything could happen. It's a risky proposition trying to beat GSW in the playoffs. Good thing we would have home court. Then, for second round implications, I also think the Clippers would try to tank out of 3 to avoid OKC in the 2nd round, preferring SAS on account of the fact that everyone knows the Spurs cannot win in an even year. It's just a fact. So we can say that we would love for seedings to stay as they are, but who can tell what will happen at the end. Guys like Chris Paul and Doc Rivers are just crafty and immoral enough to go full tank-mode if it helps their chances longterm.
I think i'd rather the Warriors then the Blazers, but dear god just keep us away from the clippers and thunder.
The only team I could see the Clippers conceivably trying to avoid is the Spurs. There is no way they would try to avoid any first round team by moving their Spurs clash a round earlier.
Now seems 3rd seed is the best. Thunders may be without a 100% healthy RW, let them face Memphis and get eliminated early. Rockets will probably win 4-2 against Memphis. Lets Spurs eliminate Clippers and face us in the WCF. Just to remain all of you here, Spurs will be different at the playoff with a healthy Gino, so don't take the regular season's results too serious. We have 40% chance to win at most.
Houston 4, Portland 5 & GS 6 is my preference. Portland's bench & defense are their downfall. Also GS has played the Thunder & Clips to a standstill. However that being said, the Spurs aren't the team we beat 3 times earlier in the season.
Do not underestimate the Blazers. Yes we can beat them but they can put up a lot of points. We also can beat the Warriors gents. Their defense is not all that good, we have put up great numbers against them.
Say what? GSW has one of the best defenses in the NBA this season.... #3 Defensive efficiency - http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/defensive-efficiency #4 Opponent shooting % - http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/team-stat/shooting-defense-category #5 Opponent 3pt% - http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-three-point-pct #3 Opponent eFG% - http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-effective-field-goal-pct #4 Opponent TS% - http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-true-shooting-percentage GSW has a legitimate top 10 defense, and it would be top 5 except for their very mediocre transition defense. #13 Opponent Fastbreak Efficiency - http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-fastbreak-efficiency The main reason why GSW is an underdog to the Rockets is we match up better against them than they do against us. A team without strong transition defense is going to get mauled by the Rockets. However, on the floor Iguodala vs Harden, Bogut vs Dwight and Parsons vs David Lee isn't going to be some sort of cakewalk. Despite our record against GSW, GSW is NOT going to roll over and get slaughtered. They'll put up a fight, even if I think that they'll probably lose. However, it's REALLY far from a slam dunk.
Go look at their numbers against playoffs type teams Sir. Another thing we are averaging 106 a game against them. Only the 3rd game we had problems scoring against them. Other than that 114 and 105. Stats don't always tell the truth either pimp.
