http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/news/2003/03/13/burning_questions/ SI's Marty Burns tackles three issues from around the league: 1 Who’s going to get the No. 8 spot in the West? A lot can happen over the final months of the regular season (see the Milwaukee Bucks, 2002). But right now it looks like a three-team race for the West’s final playoff spot between the Suns, Rockets and Warriors. As of Thursday, Phoenix and Houston were tied, with Golden State 2 1/2 back. In terms of schedule, none of the three contenders enjoys a clear edge. Phoenix has 10 of its remaining 19 games at home (Houston has 8 of 19; Golden State has nine of 18), but the Suns will face 11 opponents currently over .500. (Houston faces 10; Golden State 12). All three each have five sets of back-to-backs, but Houston has two of them on a five-game road trip next week. Golden State is the hottest team, having won seven of 10, including Tuesday’s home win over Phoenix. The Rockets, meanwhile, had lost 10 of 17 after Wednesday night’s win over the Clippers while the Suns had lost 9 of 13. All three teams are relatively healthy, though the Suns are still working veterans Tom Gugliotta and Penny Hardaway back into the mix. So who’s going to emerge as the winner? The Warriors are probably too young and inexperienced. The Suns seem to be slipping, especially at home. Look for the Rockets, with experienced coach Rudy Tomjanovich at the helm and an improving Yao Ming anchoring the defense, to sneak into the No. 8 spot. Unless, of course, they lose Sunday at home to the Suns. Then all bets are off. .
why is that game so important. even if we lose, we still tie the season series with the suns and maybe are one game behind them. there're still enough game left to make a run and overtake the suns.
No no. If we lose that game, assuming our hopes of being #8 is 60% now, it will drop to 20%. Why? So many reasons... 1) We don't fall back half a game, we fall back a whole game. Meaning, we'd be 1.5 games behind (PHO won today) if we lost. 2) It's losing a home game, and we don't have many of those. Losing any home games is a big blow. 3) Morale. It would absolutely destroy the team morale if we lost to Phoenix at home at such an important time. 4) Phoenix has a 3 game winning streak coming up after the Houston game. I can't remember their schedule exactly, but I know they have 3 EASY home games. Also, we are away for 5 consecutive games. 5) Penny, Googs and Tsakilidis will all be back for them and healthy (no rust) after the Houston game. That will give the Suns a boost. This game, look at it as a 1-game playoff "series". We win, we go, we lose, we don't.
And to think I had to give my tickets away as I have to go skiing with the family. Maybe I should post this in the "You know your obsessed with the Rockets if" thread.
I don't understand that. Assuming we win tonight, we'll be tied. How do we fall back 1.5 games if we lose on Sunday? Do they have the tiebreaker? The NBA is so unpredictable so I think it's silly to say that one game out of 18 left will determine the season.
Also, I think the second tiebreaker is conference record. As of right now, we're both 19-19 in the conference, so if we lose this game, it essentially means we have to make up two games, not just the one from the loss.
This one game counts essentially as three games in the race against Suns. Assume we are tied with Suns before the game, if we win, we will be up by 1 game. Otherwise we will be down by 1 game. That's the difference of two games between Suns and Rockets. Plus if we win, we own the tie-breaker. That's another game. 2 + 1 = 3! We must win!
EXACTLY on all points! Point number 4 is huge. After our game, Phonenix is at home against Toronto, Utah, Seattle and the Wiz, all games they will probably win. And then add into the fact that the Rockts will have 5 ROAD games after the Suns game and you can pretty much count on us being behind the Suns EITHER WAY (win or lose against the Suns on Sunday) because of the difference in schedules. This is why we need our home games! We have to hope that we can catch the Suns later in the season. The Suns have some tougher games in April. That is the time we have to make our move. We will be behind the Suns at that point, the real key is HOW FAR BEHIND and will we have to make up an extra game on the Suns because we lost the tie breaker on head to head because we lost the Sunday game. HUGE, HUGE, HUGE!
Game of the year for Rox. Simply, they cannot offer to lose it. When the race this tight, winning this game is a big big boost for them. If they lose, I am afraid they will have a big losing steak on the road. It will be 4-5 games differences.
The Mavs and Kings are too soft. It is SA's or LA's year! But we should give anyone we face a run for their money.
Mavs is soft. But it is the team I dont want Rox to face in the playoff. Rox got swept badly by the Mavs, the thing scared me most is they were not even close in these games. they just looked like a CBA team in front of Mavs. Imaging lose 8 straight to one team in one season!!! Hell no, hurry up Rox, you may bypass Lakers to the 7th spot. If it comes true, the playoff will be very interesting for our Rox fan.
Yay. Go Rockets!!! Along with our EXPERIENCED coach!!! We shall make it. Just win tomorrow.......Please!!!
It's a very important game tomorrow, but the thing that makes it even more important about tomorrows game, is if the Rockets win, their morale will be boosted, and hopefully they'll be able to carry on that positive momentum against the teams they face against in the 5 game road trip. If the Rockets win tomorrow, their confidence in eachother should be up, and that's always a positive ending a homestand with a win because that confidence easily carries over to the road trips.
I predict the suns and the rox knock the lakers out of the playoffs..I've got a thread on that topic too where I stated that a week ago.
