I feel if we pass up the Spurs, that would be ideal for us. I feel like Mavs are the bottom feeders of the Western Conference playoff contenders. We can exact revenge over those sons of guns for 2005. NO almost beat SA last year and this year they have Posey to slow down Manu. Paul is one of the few pgs that can overmatch Parker. West makes Duncan work. Dallas is weak against Yao and Kidd can not abuse Brooks as much as Brooks can abuse Kidd. They are essentially a worse version of their 05 selves. 05 v 09 Dampier > Dampier- he wasn't that great then, in his 30's he has clearly lost a step Dirk > Dirk- he is still pretty effective but choker status means this is a less confident Dirk. Is ability to close is particularly alarming, in a bad way. Howard > Howard- Howard is having an off year with injuries hampering him and off season issues seemed to really affect chemistry. Terry = Terry- Put Lowry on Terry and we'll manage Harris = Kidd- A young inexperienced pg is about as effective as this "rejuvenated" Kidd. Kidd is too slow and too bad of a shooter to really make an impact. Stackhouse < Bass- I think Bass is their Landry Yao < Yao- Yao may not be his 07 self but he is a much improved Yao over his 05 self. Bowen << Scola- No question Wesley < Battier- Better size and defense. Tmac > Artest- That Tmac was sucked the gravity out of the building good. Artest will be good enough. Brooks/Lowry = Sura/James Landry > Weatherspoon We play the winner of a brutal SA v. NO- and play them with homecourt advantage. I like that.
If you adjust for games played, we are 3 GB. There is no way we can catch up against a #2 team and a rough schedule as ours. We need to concentrate on holding #3 more than anything.
For us to pass the Spurs, we really, really need to beat them this Saturday. Also, we have to hope that Poppovich continues to rest his players for the playoffs and not bring them back too fast from injury. I wouldn't be upset if we held onto the third seed, but I really think if we secured homecourt advantage in the second round of the playoffs we'd have a fighting chance to make it into the conference finals. Cross your fingers guys. It's going to be exciting to watch the final part of the season. Also, I hope Phoenix comes back and knocks Dallas out of the playoffs. Who wouldn't want to see Shaq vs. Kobe in the first round with the potential of 140 point games?
By the looks of the 22 game winning streak it looked like the rockets would actually make it far. Nothing is a given. There are still lots of games 2 be played
Rockets got to be kicking themselves with the T-Mac and Ron Ron in and out fiasco during the earlier part of the season when they pissed away tons of games they should have won against the bottom feeders of the league.
I don't like these prediction threads...it seems every time we have one. the team goes on to loose a couple of bad games...maybe I'm just superstitious... Chilcutt
easy...you gotta pay a lot to get a 20-million, and you gotta pay quite some to get rid of him. the team pay and learn.
We have a chance, but I don't think it's going to happen. Rockets due tend to get hot as they go to the post-season. However, this year has been different. I think it might be because Tracy McGrady is just more of a 2nd half player than everybody on this team. Not to mention, he's probably the best road warrior in the NBA. Hopefully Yao is just saving his 100% A Game for the playoffs and not for the regular season. He would do me and Big Diesel proud.
Some of you pansies want to avoid the Jazz? How can you say that out loud? I hope we flatten the Jazz on our way to bigger things. "Bring 'em on!" - George W. Bush, our former Great Leader
Or they can be patting themselves on the back for finally getting their **** together and pulling out some tough victories and somehow manage to be 19 games over .500 and 3rd in the west despite all the earlier fiasco.
Whatever the Rockets do, does anyone else get the feeling Utah is losing on purpose to position themselves exactly opposite us in the standings? It would be just like Sloan too...
Probably should've bolded the Houston game for SA as well Plus, Spurs still have to play Thunder twice. They may be Durant'd again.
it would have helped our chances if we beat SA last time around but never say never. Until they officially lock it up, you can never say never
Here are my thoughts; SPURS vs Bos [L] vs Hou [L] vs GS [W] at Atl [L] vs LAC [W] at NO [W] vs OKC [W] at Ind [L] at Cle [L] at OKC [W] vs Por [W] vs Uta [W] at Sac [W] at GS [W] vs NO [L] 9-6 final result --- ROCKETS vs Det [W] vs Min [W] at SA [W] at Uta [L] vs LAC [W] at Pho [W] at LAL [L] vs Por [W] vs Orl [L] at Sac [W] at GS [W] vs NO [W] at Dal [L] 9-4 --- Spurs will still hold 2nd place. We're down by 3, and perhaps need to win the tie breaker to get 2nd.
