With TMac's status a little questionable and some quality opponents on the road, I'm going to be happy with 7-5.
I remember last year when we went on that 5-1 road trip that looked like it was going to be the turning point to our disasterous start... We are CAPABLE of being an excellent road team (in fact in past years, we were almost better on the road). Problem is that so far this year, we have been noticably worse on the road (although to be fair, we did play a lot of great teams on the road: Pistons, Jazz, Hornets, Suns). So I'm going to try to keep my expectations to a minimum...
I don't think road games are a big concern. It's very often that, especially last season, they even played better on road. But, d**n, EIGHT "back to back"s! I will not be disappointed to see a 6-6 record. It's a long season anyway.
Wed 6 at Minnesota - W Fri 8 at Charlotte - W Sat 9 at Washington - L (back-to-back) Tue 12 Home LA Lakers - W Thu 14 at Golden State - W Fri 15 at LA Lakers - L (back-to-back) Sun 17 at LA Clippers - L Wed 20 at Portland - W Fri 22 at San Antonio - L Sat 23 Home LA Clippers -W Tue 26 at Indiana - W Wed 27 at New Jersey - L (back-to-back) That's 7-5, but I wouldn't be surprised to see 8-4 or even 9-3.
try .667 - we ain't no devil worshipers here. personally - one game means nothing. always remember that. some guy gets hot and goes off for 45 and boom, you lose. what can you do - in basketball, any team can beat any other team pretty much - which is what makes the NCAA's so exciting.
Wed 6 at Minnesota* L Fri 8 at Charlotte W Sat 9 at Washington*+ W Tue 12 Home LA Lakers W Thu 14 at Golden State W Fri 15 at LA Lakers*^ L Sun 17 at LA Clippers L Wed 20 at Portland L Fri 22 at San Antonio# W Sat 23 Home LA Clippers* W Tue 26 at Indiana W Wed 27 at New Jersey* W 8-4 *back to back ^ 3rd game in 4 nights + 4th game in 5 nights # accompanied by the Rowdys Call me a pessimist. We've been winning but not dominating, we're 4-4 on the road versus 6-1 at home, and the individual play has been somewhat up and down aside from Yao. Call me crazy, but I smell a big Randolph game against our 4s and a Portland upset. Splits with the Lakers and Clippers. Feast on the Eastern Conference cream puffs, but the West guys are tough especially with such a draining schedule. We won't let them lose in San Antonio, though. I think the biggest X factor is McGrady. With such a brutal schedule, we need the 20-7-7 version of T-Mac and can't afford the injured 13-5-5 version.
6 or 7. 3 back to back games and most of the games on the road. The Rockets have a winning record on the road but just barely. Frankly coming out with a winning record on the road is fantastic so I would be pretty happy coming out of this stretch with a .500 record or better.
Hahaha I knew someone would say something about that. Right, not every game in the NBA is "you should win so you will" there are a lot of factors which is why it's really hard to pick which games the team will win/lose when there is still a lot of ground to be covered. One game at a time.
I was thinking 7-5, splitting the road games 5-5 and winning both homes games. After Tracy's short stint against the Cavs and his Warriors performance, I'll go 8-4. Sitting at 20-9 would be very sweet. It sure is nice to have a strong start going into a long road stretch.
