6 games behind Seattle?!!

The NW division champ gets the third seed. We can't move past them.

 

we are 6.5 GB. we won't catch them. it's too many games with not enough time. also we have the second hardest schedule in the league left to play.

 

why does it matter really? we cant move past them in the standing anyways....

 

the only bebfit would be home court in the 1st round since that is determined by record (thanks Mr. Stern)


but if we finished better than the Sonics, we would probably finish in the top 4 anyway and we would play Dallas or the Kings

 

With only 22 games left in the regular season, the Rockets are 7 behind Seattle, 5 behind Dallas, 1 behind Sactown and 1 ahead of Memphis (using losses). Seattle and Dallas are definitely out of reach. The main question is the order of finish between us, Sactown and Memphis. I wouldn't be surprised if Memphis finished 5th, the Kings 7th while the Rockets end up 6th. I hope it stays like it is now because Sac vs. Dal, Hou vs. Sea and Mem vs. Phx are all great first round matchups in my book.

 

Are you sure? It is not fair to give home court to #6 because #5 will never get it. I think #3 always has home court regardless.

 

Look at the eastern conference.

 

not if #6 has a better overall record.

 

I really, really wish this were the case. However, Houston only has a four game lead on eighth place w/ 22 to go. I'd say only the top five are locks for the playoffs. Among Houston, Memphis (playing very well, even w/o gasol), Denver (winning streak just hit seven), Lakers, and Minny, two aren't going to make it. Minny looks bad, but I *can not* believe that the league's best team last year is going to miss the playoffs. Likewise, I wouldn't want to bet against Kobe.

Given that Houston has the toughest home stretch of any of them, this could be a very interesting month.

 

This is correct...home court is determined by regular season record, not seeding order. So it would be huge if we could somehow stay at #6 but have a better record than Seattle...seems pretty unlikely though.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/matchups

 

There is NO possibility for Rockets to surpass Supersonics and still end up with #6. Because there is Sactown in between. If Rockets beat supersonics in record finally, they will meet Mavericks in the first round.

Some logic is needed in this post.

 

I haven't broken down all the schedules, but Memphis' looks every bit as tough as ours IMO. Just look at their last eight games:

Miami
Charlotte
@Dallas
@Houston
@Denver
@San Antonio
San Antonio
Dallas

With the exception of Charlotte, that is one bad stretch of tough games, unless the Spurs are resting up for the playoffs at that point.

If the Rocks can survive the string of road games in March, they're set for April and the playoffs.

 

Home court advantage in all playoff series is determined by better win-loss record, not higher seeding.

This is sick. In the eastern conference, #5 and #6 will fight hard by tanking games to secure #6. Assume both teams have better record than #3. lol

 

I wouldn't say that there's NO possibility, just highly unlikely, like I said in my post. Looking at it strictly from a logical standpoint, there's a scenario that would have Seattle #3, Dallas at #4, Memphis #5, Rox at #6, and Sacramento #7. Both Seattle and Sacramento would have to lose a ton of games for this to happen, so it's a very remote possibility, but possible nonetheless.

 

Sorry, but your logic is off. There is a possibility, just very unlikely. If Seattle somehow went on a losing streak and got a record worse than Houston, Dallas and Sacramento, but still won their division, we would face them as 6th seed with home court advantage (also assuming that Dallas and Sacramento maintained a better record than Houston).

 

Last 8 games are tough but their schedule for march is marshmallow soft which should make up for that tough schedule. Only 3 games are against playoff teams for memphis. Sac, Phx, and Sea. and maybe Chi would be tough. The rest is easy for them. March should give them a cushion in case they screw up in those last 8 games.

 

If we can 10 more games, we will make the playoff. We have just about 10 winnable games. Cant let them slip.

 

Then after the first round they would re-sede.