I was looking at the league standings earlier and i was thinking that if our team could land between the 3rd seed and 6th seed we would be in great shape to get past the 1st round. If we were to get the 7th or 8th seed.. then we woould have to face the playoff seasoned mavricks or kings. Not a good matchup for an inexperienced team. But say we take the 3rd seed (actually quite reasonable seeing that we're a game behind in the loss column to phoenix,portland, san antonio etc.) then we would most likely play the suns, utah,portland, posibly minnesota which i feel much better about playing. Even if we got the 6th seed if the standings hold we could play phoenix in the first round which wouldn't be that bad. I just hope we don't fall to thr 7th or 8th seed because that would definitly mean a early first round departure.
THIRD seed? The only seeds that this team will worry about are the ones that Taylor picks out of his dime bags...
I'm glad we can have this conversation without it being a complete pipe dream. My goal entering the season (if we can call it that; after all, I'm not doing any of the work myself) was that we make the playoffs. So far -- though the season is yet young -- we are on track to meet and beat that goal. While I don't think we'll end up in the top 4 seeds by year end, it looks like we stand a good chance to do better than 8th. So, I'm pretty happy with the performance so far. I think we're first round fodder this year so the seedings don't matter too much to me. So my main goal is to just finish ahead of the Lakers. 8th seed might be sufficient to achieve that.
We have a chance at number 8, but the reality is, that we will probably not make it. Too inconsistent. Barring a light bulb going off, and the team gelling and having a winning streak like Portlan, Utah, or Phoenix have had, this team will be home for the summer again. DD
Sorry Dadakota i dont agree with you at all. I think there is way too much talent on this team to finish worse the 8 other teams in the western confrence. Just M O
We're currently in 7th place and a mere 2.5 games out of third. All while playing "inconsistent" basketball. You think they're playing over their heads? You think we lost that much in the Posey-Thomas swap? I know you folks like to consider yourself 'realists', but it is just some nice wallpaper for a ridiculously jaded attitude. We're over a third of the way through the season and playing well enough to make it solidly into the playoffs. But, you're predicting, on the basis of the play you've seen that was good enough for 7th place, that they will drop below the .500 Sonics if they remain at their current level of competence. I don't see any justification for that.
It would not shock me a bit if Dakota's prediction came true. This team is oozing with talent, but the talent simply is not complementary. In addition, the Rockets are bungling the easiest stretch of their schedule. Here is something to consider regarding the amount of home/road games thus far the Rockets have vs their closest Western Conference competition. Rockets: Home - 17; Road - 14 Jazz: Home - 14; Road - 19 Timberwolves: Home - 15; Road - 17 Blazers: Home - 13; Road - 19 Sonics: Home - 13; Road - 19 Suns: Home - 18; Road - 16 Thus, the Phoenix Suns are the only team out of the Rockets closest competition that have had a similar home vs road distribution of the schedule. This basically means that the Blazers and Sonics will have 9 more home games the rest of the season than the Rockets, the Jazz will have 8 more and the T-Wolves will have 5 more. The time to make strides was during this homestand, and the Rockets failed to do that.
Lots of good points here, but I have to (sort of) agree with DaDakota. We need a winning streak greater than 3. If we don't get (at least) one of those, we might not make it in this year. This latest homestand has been quite a disappointment so far.
Guys, I want to make the playoffs, I just see us blowing all the easy games, and falling in the standings, while Utah goes to Milwakee and Minnesotta and wins... Portland goes on an East Coast trip and goes 4-1, and Phoenix has won like 10 straight at home. The Rocks are falling back in the pack....you can not lose at home to the knicks, Clipps, GS's of the world and expect a 1-2 road record to get you into the playoffs. The Rocks have shown improvement, but right now, they are not playing very well. If, and this is a big IF, they get their heads on straight and MoT gets his confidence back, and Steve and Cat start trusting their teamates in clutch situations, then the Rocks could make a run. I just don't see it......they still have a lot of growing up to do....and IMHO they should be farther along then they are right now. I think Rudy is not hard enough on guys who make major mistakes. He needs to sit them (no matter who they are) if they are not buying into his system. DaDakota
I agree with Dakota about Rudy being too easy. Don Nelson's team has the best record in the NBA and last week he publicly called out Raef Lafrenze because he didn't think he was hustling. He told him that he had better step up and do what he was brought in to do. If what he was doing was all he had then the Mavs made a big mistake bringing him aboard. If that wasn't enough, this week Dirk gets player of the week for the west and Nelson's comment was he didn't think that Dirk played that good. He said the reason all his numbers were up was because he had to play him so many minutes and that if he would play like he is capable then he might not have to play him so many minutes. He thought he could do more. Nelson is always challenging his players to make them work harder and play harder. That is why they have the best record in the NBA.
It's just as easy to point out how close we are to 9th. (I'm not disagreeing with you, but just pointing out that we're not exactly a lock right now.) The West is tight this year.
