Health has been an issue with these guys. I still think they'll be good to go once April comes around. I think where they land at the end of the year will affect how well they'll do in the playoffs though.
I do hope he continue to do so. I didn't say he's not good but only the other two HCs are better by their records and the way they have developed their teams.
Health yes, but Parker, Ginobli, and Duncan have looked on the decline. They expected a bigger improvement from Leonard, but it just never happened. Funny how some people thought Leonard was a better player than our very own Chandler Parsons. Not even close!
Hope they decline enough for us to win the division before their last game against the Mavs on 4/10. Otherwise we will have to beat them on 4/14 to secure that.
I'm hearing from a lot o SAS's fans that they are pretty down on Leonard. He was supposed to take another leap this year. He hasn't really done much and now he is hurt. Rockets need to win the division. They have a tough 5 game stretch starting on Wednesday and it would be awesome to see them go at least 4-1. I would like to see them take GSW and the Clips to the woodshed.
Keep in mind dirk is going up against tjones and dmo, both have no playoff experience. Either way, I disagree. But no point in going back and forth. If we end up facing them, we'll revisit it.
Wind is turning our way. Pop said today that Tony Parker will be out for the foreseeable future with a variety of maladies. My prediction before the All-Star break was that we might have two days fortune as the division leader if the Spurs lose to both the Clippers and Blazers but win the next five games, while we win the next two games against the Lakers and the Warriors. And we won't know until April 10 if we could hold onto the division lead until season end. Now it seems the division lead for the Rockets might come earlier and we may have a longer hold than formerly predicted. Leading the Southwest division would allow us to get to the #2 seed, but it still depends on how well the Clippers and Blazers play in their future games whether we could hold onto the #2 seed or drop to #3 before the last game of the regular season.
I wish the season ended after today. I like our seeding/match ups throughout the playoffs at the moment
There is a.good probability that the Clippers may lose their Pacific Division lead to either the Warriors or the Suns as the Clippers is so far only 5-4 in their division with GSW 8-4 and PHX 7-3. The Clips have 7 more games to play to win their division: GSW X1, PHX X3, SAC X1, LAL X2.* The Warriors have only one more game against each of LAC, PHX, SAC, LAL. They are 2-1 over LAC in the season series. Their last game at LAC will be on 3/12. If they win all the four remaining games, they will be 12-4 and win the division as LAC will be 11-5 and PHX 12-4 at best. In that case they Warriors will tie with the Suns. But if GSW has a higher overall winning percentage, they will still win the division. The Suns have 6 more games to play in their division: LAC X3, GSW X1, SAC X1, LAL X1. PHX is 1-0 vs LAC so far but have won a blowout 107-88 @LAC). If they lose only one game to LAC and win all the others, they at 12-4 will win the division as LAC will be 10-6 and GSW will be 11-5 at best. If they lose only their last game against GSW and win all the others, they at 12-4 will tie with GSW in the series as PHX are leading at 2-1 now. If PHX has a higher overall win%, they will win the division. If the Clippers lose their next game against the Warriors and two more to the Suns, they will lose their division lead and fall as far as to #6 seed. In that case the final seeding could likely be: OKC HOU (If they win the division by winning all 3 remaining games and end at 12-4, as they already have a season series lock of 3-0 over the Spurs, which even winning all other games would at best end up at 12-4. Otherwise SAS could still be #2, and HOU any where between #3 and #5.) GSW or PHX SAS POR or LAC LAC or POR PHX or GSW DAL or MEM All in all, the most important must-win games for the Rockets for the remainder of the season to get to the Western Conference Finals will be (in the following order): SAS X1 NOR X2 (To secure the division lead.) LAC X2 (For #4 seed in case LAC lose their division lead to either GSW or PHX.) All the Rockets, starting from the coaches, should do everything they can to know everything about the players, match up and strategies of the Spurs, Kings and Clippers, design plays and practice upon them before they play these teams like in the playoffs. I am strongly against any talk about tanking to get to any seeding, as you have no control of what others can and would do in the dynamics. And you may tank yourself out of the playoffs.
I'd hate to have to face the Clippers in the first round. Then again, if they wind up finishing 6th, they may not be as good as everyone thought. Ideally, I'd love to see the Rockets catch the Spurs and finish 2nd, but I looked at both teams' schedules and honestly the Rockets probably can't lose more than 5 games the rest of the way considering San Antonio keeps winning despite all their injuries.
They are still a good team. It's just how the rules of seeding work. You just need to lose a few critical games and then no matter how well you do in the others, you would still drop behind and regret forever. I wrote the above analysis just to remind our Rox team not to take any game lightly, even though we are already 2-0 over the New Orleans Pelicans. We absolutely need to win these two plus the one against the Spurs at home. I am still regretting that we haven't won the two winnable games against the Mavericks and Grizzlies. We would have bagged the Southwest division by now if we had won those two. The Clippers have only 12 players on their roster now and are trying to get another. Let's beat them while they are short-handed.
The bottom line is the Rockets record for the remainder of the season. Right now the Rockets seem to be the hottest team in the league. This view is backed up by Hollinger's rankings. If the Rockets can somehow maintain this pace (doubtful I know) in all probability they will over take the Spurs and could have a shot at OKC. One thing we can be sure of though. The Rockets will be a handful in any playoff series for any other team in the NBA.
