yuh. in the west you start playing good teams from round 1 no matter where you're seeded. PHX,GSW,DAL,MEM are all big time first round teams.
It seems like the Rockets have a tough schedule remaining. http://www.nba.com/rockets/schedule 29 Games Left 15 Games left against playoff teams 8 against West playoff teams 3 against opponents in our division 2 left against the Clippers 1 left against the Spurs 2 left against OKC 1 left against Portland
Easy games: LAL SAC DET ORL CHI UTA MIN CLE CHA PHI BRK TOR DEN LAL DEN MIN NOP NOP Swing Games: SAS GSW PHE Competitive Games: LAC MIA IND POR OKC MIA LAC OKC 18 easy games - hopefully 14-4. 3 swing games 2-1? 8 Competitive games. 4-4? 20-9? Finishing at 56-26? Reasonable?
We've seen this team lose to lesser teams. The games still have to be played. I still think 56 wins could win the Southwest division.
True, but 20-9 is just about their winning percentage so far this season. More of the same seemed like the most reasonable forecast. And I did include 4 losses against teams that they really should beat.
If we keep the current pace at .679 we will be 56-26. Even if we drop off to .500 for the remaining games we will still be 51-31. Pretty sure we will be ranked anywhere between 5th and 2nd.
I would love to see them win the division this year. That game against the Spurs will be very important.
Should have a section for games we should win but could have one of those nights and lose. Kings, Toronto, Utah, NO, NO.
Is this really unusual? There are 29 other teams in the NBA, 15 of them are playoff teams, 7 of them are West playoff teams. Seems this distribution is about average. The Rockets do have a lot more road games left but this also isn't that strange since it is just about to go on a 5 game road trip.
The Rockets have a clear advantage at three positions versus Toronto. Maybe four. Toronto may be in the thick of the playoff race in the EC, but in the West they would just be road kill. Houston should win. Maybe not easily. But they should win. Utah is at a disadvantage at four of five positions. It should not be a difficult game. But perhaps you are right and it will be. Both of the Pelicans games are at the end of the season. I do not see them making the playoffs so maybe they will be disheartened and just roll over and die. We can hope.
The Spurs 29 Games left, 15 games against playoff teams, 11 games against playoff teams in the West (Memphis included), 4 left in the division, and 6 back to back. The Trailblazers 29 games left, 17 games left against playoff teams (including Memphis even though they're 9th), 10 games against playoff teams in the West, no remaining games against OKC, and 4 back to back. The Clippers 27 games left, 14 games left against playoff teams (including Memphis), 13 games against the west playoff teams, 6 games left within their division, and 4 back to backs left. This will be a fun rest of the season to go.
They were not easy 2 months ago. But would they be easy now? Or more importantly in a few weeks? Do they really have an advantage at any position? Maybe Cousins neutralizes Howard. Maybe Gay goes off. But even if that happens should they really win?
That's how I felt when that trade was made. Jrue is out for the season as well? NO could still make an impact with trading either Gordon or Evans. I think Gordon could probably land them an impact player for them though. Maybe try and trade him in this year's upcoming draft.
