Geez, does it ever end? I hope we will intentionally lose games in order to keep away from Utah. I'd rather play LA in the 2nd round than Utah in the first. But, I do agree with someone's post earlier. I dont think LA will be playing scrubs. With Bynum back, they are going to want to practice as a playoff team. I'm sure Kobe will only see 25-30 minutes, but that should still be enough to beat Utah. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE no Utah j*zz.
Win win situation. Either he's out $100 and happy we dont have to play Utah, or hes happy he wins a bunch of money, but we play Utah. Hedging his emotions, haha.
"...the Jazz will get to romp past the Lakers' scrubs; the Mavs are likely to get no such luck in their season-ender in Houston." Good thing the Mavs-Rockets game is in Houston. Book your plane flight John.
I'd rather make the Western Conference Finals than just the Western Conference Semis. But that's just me.
The Rockets actually still have a pretty good shot at getting the second seed. Nuggets have three games left and two are away against the Lakers and Blazers. I'd say they have a 50% chance of going 1-2 the rest of the way. The only problem is the Rockets would have to go 4-0, although I'd say we are the definite favorites in every game except the Dallas game since it is away.
Honestly, at this point, I'd be happy just making it out of the first round. Hell, I'd like for us to win the whole damn thing, but if we play Utah in the first round, our chances of a first round win deminish drastically
I guess the way I look at it is you are seriously decreasing the joy in both cases. I realize the bet was just about facing the Jazz, but pessimists like me pretty much count that as us going home in the first round.
Except Jazz play their last game at Tuesday, and we play ours at Wednesday, as well as the rest: Dallas, Denver, Portland, San Antonio, New Orleans. With so much things going on, there is a very good chance that Jazz can not guess the outcome when they face Lakers.
I think a number of factors might be different that what Hollinger said. Namely: 1. The Spurs still aren't pushovers, especially at home with a rested Duncan (as opposed to the one that hardly played against Portland bc it was the second game of a back-to-back). 2. New Orleans and Utah are really scuffling right now. Dallas has a decent chance of passing both. 3. LA won't quit the end of the year. They want the #1 overall seed over Cleveland, and they don't fear playing the Jazz in the first round either since they traditionally have beat them proper. You consider those points, then adjust the ending by guessing that San Antonio beats Utah at home, Dallas takes out New Orleans in one of their two games, and then Denver either loses both its LA and Portland games or just the LA game. What you're left with one game to play (and two days left in the season) is this. Also assume that the Lakers beat both Portland and Denver: Monday's potential standings 1. LA 65-16 (vsUTAH on Tuesday) 2. Denver 54-27 (@Portland on Wednesday, 10:30ET) 3. Houston 53-28 (@Dallas on Wednesday, 8ET) 4. San Antonio 53-28 (vsNew Orleans on Wednesday, 8ET) 5. Portland 52-29 (vsDenver on Wednesday, 10:30ET) 6. Utah 49-32 (@LA on Tuesday) 7. New Orleans 49-32 (@SA on Wednesday, 8ET) 8. Dallas 49-32 (vsHouston on Wednesday, 8ET) (Houston owns the tiebreaker over Denver 3-1. Denver owns the tiebreaker over San Antonio 2-1. Houston owns the tiebreaker over Portland 2-1. Portland owns the tiebreaker over San Antonio 3-1. Don't even ask me about Houston vs. San Antonio or Denver vs. Portland; they haven't been decided yet. Utah owns the tiebreaker over NO and both NO and Utah own the tiebreaker over Dallas.) As you can already tell, Wednesday will be a hell of a day. Another reason LA will have for not giving Utah that last game is that they don't really have any control of who is the 8th seed anyways. Their last game will be a day before everyone else's so it makes no sense for them to scoreboard watch as hard as it would take to calculate the chances of them facing Utah or not in the first round. Beyond that, the rest is anyone's idea; this crap is more confusing than even last year's with the double three-way ties that are possible. After wracking my mind around the subject, I don't really see how it would make sense for the Rockets given the scenario above to tank the Dallas game. You've got one game in NO-SA running concurrently which will play a factor in who you see, and you've got a game after yours in Den-Por that will do the same.
BTW just to finish up my previous post and modify what Hollinger predicts, here's how I think it'll wind up: LA beats Utah Portland beats Denver Houston beats Dallas San Antonio beats New Orleans In that scenario, here are the final standings: 1. LA 66-16 2. Houston 54-28 3. Denver 54-28 4. San Antonio 54-28 5. Portland 53-29 6. Utah 49-33 7. New Orleans 49-33 8. Dallas 49-33 So we get New Orleans as the 2 seed. If we LOSE to Dallas that night, we become the 4 seed and face Portland, while Denver and San Antonio each move up 1. Dallas becomes the 6 seed and faces San Antonio, and Utah and New Orleans get bumped down a spot.
why do ppl automatically assume spurs suddenly become a punch bag? i understand they lost manu but it hasn't been a news. manu hasn't played alot this season and td has been bothered with his knee since day 1. however, spurs still manage to keep the 3rd seed by far. w/o manu, spurs won't be an elite team like lakers but they are still as good as other playoff teams in wc. hollinger's assumption is wrong so his expectation will be off the target.
Never underestimated heart of Champion,we can beat any team. Rule No 1,2,3..... Team Ball Go Rox!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nah the rule is friggin fine as it is. Portland knew during the 3rd game how big of a game it was...they lost. Portland won at home sure but it was a miracle win...really.
It's also unfair that the Rockets played 27 games against Western Conference Playoff teams and the Spurs only 25. Unless the NBA adds 4 games for an 86 game season, every team will have 4 conference opponents that they only play 3 times.
Yeah, the NBA schedule isn't perfectly balanced so I didn't like how he made it seem like Portland was screwed in not getting a extra home game to play against us or something. I'm sure we would have beat them 3-1 anyways
