If you look at their immediate schedule- they have 2 back to backs on the road- My guess is they will lose 4 in March at a minimum- In April they face 5 of 10 opponents who are either good or are trying to make it to the playoffs- there you have it 8 loses- of course some bias as a rockets fan- so either we go unbeaten for the rest of march or they lose a few more games!
I think the people in this forum all know that. What they are talking about is the home court advantage. Very likely the top 5 seeds are, in order, mavs, suns/spurs, spurs/suns, jazz and rox. Jazz is unlikely to catch up with Spurs, and we are unlikely to catch up with Jazz as well, except we beat Jazz in both games left and they have a bad losing straight. Facing Jazz is better than meeting the other three.
Does 4th vs. 5th seed really matter, at least in terms of the championship? If the Rockets lose to the Jazz, it's not like we're all going to be saying, "if only they'd had homecourt advantage in that series, they could've gone all the way to the finals".
i dont care about regular season but playoffs: 1st round: rocket beat jazz suns beat denver spurs beat lakers warriors beat mavs (again and again) 2nd round: rocket beat warriors spurs beat suns 3rd round: rocket vs spurs and it all goes from there
Well! Well! Jazz lose to Miami in a heartbreaker and now orlando on a back-to-back. They start another back to back- philly and cleveland. So atleast 1 more loss on the cards They are about 3.5 games ahead ( OK 4)- if they lose to cleveland, and we beat them twice in April- one at Home and another ( the final game) in Utah- we have a good chance at getting home court. Jazz is a different team on the road- if they lose home court advantage- Tracy's curse will be gone!
I don't think any team in west has slam dunk 4 game sweep in the first round. I would not be shock if at least two homecourt teams lost in the first round of the playoffs. The West for the last couple of years has a handful of good teams, but I don't see great dominate teams, like the Lakers with Shaq or even a powerhouse like San Antonio was few years ago. Dallas and Phoenix are both really, but seem like they are jvery beatable. Dallas will most like face the Clippers or GSW, not an easy 1st Rnd, but they should take fairly easy. Phoenix could end up with the Lakers, Clippers, or Nuggets, since Phoenix has atrocious defense and will have stop superstars like Kobe, Iverson, or Melo, it could push them to seven in the first round S.A. could end with Lakers possibly even the Rockets (not likely), if the fall down stretch. S.A. might struggle with L.A. simply because of Kobe, but I think they would win the series. Utah vs. Houston might be a push, I know people on the board are excited, since we don't have to play the big 3, but we could easily lose to a team like Utah, because they are much stronger than Houston in many areas of the game.
Not miracle. Warriors OWN Mavs. And Warriors today moved up to #8 when we beat then-#8 Clips. Go Warriors! And Spur can beat Suns.
I really really like how the playoffs are shaping up for us. My predicted first round matchups: Golden State at Dallas Lakers at Suns Denver at San Antonio Houston at Utah It is pretty unrealistic to expect any home court team to lose (besides the Jazz of course ) but at least everyone has a bad matchup. The Warriors just seem to have Dallas' number. They seem to push the tempo even more than the Suns and the Mavs have become too used to their slow tempo (which btw is even slower than ours). As seen in last year's playoffs, the Lakers matchup well with the Suns. Also, the Lakers should be getting their Odom and Walton back very soon. They might come together just in time to at least pester the Suns. I think Denver is a poorly built team, but they seem to be doing better lately. If Camby and Nene can anchor the paint, AI and Melo may prove to be more than the Spurs bargained for in a first round opponent.
man, winning it all this year will be even more difficult than in 95, when we had to go through the best 4 teams, record-wise in the NBA. If somehow we get through Dallas, then we gotta play Phoenix? jeez most difficult road ever, but we can do it cuz we got Tmac and Yao
I'd love to have home court against Utah but I don't think it's gonna make or break us. However, I'm hoping, like the rest of you, that the Jazz will continue their losing streak and we'll beat them in our next two meetings. That way we'll stay at the 5th spot but have homecourt, which would be very nice. I don't think it's out of the question at all, I think it's actually quite realistic that we narrowly get homecourt against Utah in the first round. Either way, it's pretty apparent we're gonna be the 5th seed. To me, that is a pretty ideal spot for us. We don't want to have to face Dallas, PHX, or San Antonio in the first round. I know a lot of people are saying that we shouldn't overlook Utah in round 1, and indeed we shouldn't, but I really like the way we match up with the Jazz. I think with both of our superstars healthy, plus Bonzi, that we'll handle the Jazz in 6 or 7-homecourt advantage or not. One potential 1st round upset could be found with the Lakers/Suns. If the Lakers get healthy and start to gel again by playoff time, the Lakers could give the Suns fits because of how well the Lakers match up to PHX. If the Lakers get lucky and play flawless basketball and take out the Suns that will help us greatly. I'm convinced that if we meet the Suns we're dead, and since my prediction is that we'll make it to the WCF and lose to PHX in 6... Finals here we come! I'm satisfied with how things are appearing to fall into place though, since we'll be facing the most vulnerable of the big 4 and would likely be meeting Dallas in round 2. Sure, Dallas is a hell of a team and could very well beat the crap out of us... but I think we've got a real good shot against them-especially if we are healthy and playing solid ball.
No kidding. I think Fakers may be unable to make the cut. Both Warriors and Clips may catch up Fakers in April. No more Fakers.
I see how, but I don't understand how the Lakers always play the Suns so well and always make the games competitive. They don't have as nearly as much talent as we do, but they fare well against the Suns, while they don't do as well against S.A. and Dallas.
We gain on Utah one more time- they just lost to Philly and it is back-to-back night at Cleveland for Utah- and boozer's game back there. We should move up and get the home court- if we just beat them 2 times we will be able to do that.
If it comes down to the last game at Salt Lake city, the playoff starts ealier for us. I was flipping between the Utah game and our game, the jazzhole seems to be in a slump.
great, jazz just lost to phil by 1 point. a heart broken lose for them, but a great news for us. if we can beat them twice in the two meetings, we will only be half a game behind.
I think that (assuming the Suns are our toughest matchup) we should hope for: 1. Dallas 2. San Antonio 3. Phoenix That way, we avoid Phoenix until the WC Finals. Also, with the Spurs having homecourt advantage in the 2nd round, it becomes more likely that they'll beat the Suns. As I said earlier, if the Rockets really are contenders, then it shouldn't really matter whether or not they have the homecourt advantage against Utah.
