Lakers probably see us as a nuisance to avoid. They know we drew their blood and they were lucky to survive that PlayOff series 2 years ago. We now have a high scoring consistent 2 guard in Martin and a much more rounded tough BullDogg in Lowry.. Scola is still here and also we got Lee / Lowry / Hayes to still give concern to Kobe with the departure of Battier.. Patterson more than makes up or Landry as he's actually a full 6'9 - 6'10 with athletism and reach to go with the fact that Hill seems to have his head on straight in recent play. Miller is 7ft and has 6 fouls he can use on Bynum / Gasol / Odom. Hayes is now somewhat of a threat off in the post offensively as he's learned and improved his game. Don't forget Budinger is ready to score as well. I think the Lakers will intentionally want to lose to Hornets and or Grizz just to make it harder for use to make the Play Offs... I think we might have more scoring capability than they do now and the defense to stop their perimeter play from going off..
That notion is insane. What's more important to a team that fully expects to make a deep run and contend for a championship? A) Possibly easier match up in the first round. B) Home court advantage in the Finals.
New Orleans is playing too good right now to fall out of the playoffs. Hell, they have Carl Landry backing them up. The reality remains that Memphis will keep its spot as will NOH, and the rockets will be left with an over .500 record but still no playoff spot.
Unless there is a 3-way tie in records among Memphis, Houston and New Orleans, in which case the "round robin" record among the 3 teams decide. In that case, it seems MEM loses out no matter what. So far, Houston is 3-1 against MEM, 1-2 gainst New Orleans. New Orleans is 2-1 agaisnt Houston, 2-0 agaisnt MEM. MEM is 0-2 against MEM and 1-3 against HOU. So, the round robing records are: HOU: 4-3 (1 game to play vs. NO) MEM: 1-5 (2 game to play vs. NO) NO: 4-1 (3 games to play, 1 vs. HOU, 2 vs. MEM) The worst that HOU can be is 4-4, the same goes for NO, MEM can be no better than 3-5. If NO loses all 3 games, though, we'll win a tie-breaker vs. them. http://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/art_garcia/04/03/tiebreakers/
Stern seems to have backed up the "Rigged" officiating for marketable teams. Will he reinstate this policy come playoffs? I think if it's a fair called game we give the Lakers hell or possibly upset them in the second round after we expose the Spurs by easily by them.
So do you still feel the Rockets aren't head and shoulders better than Grizz and NO? Sorry but I thought that was the premise of our original debate.
The biggest threats that we face with the Lakers IMO are Gasol and Odom. Both are really tough matchups because of their combination of size and finesse.
I'm more concerned about Hayes getting bludgeoned by one of Bynum's elbows... Bynum is a knucklehead and won't stand for a guy so much smaller than him "****ing him up". I think our guys need to box out with their butts... Not let any of these Lakers get position for any rebound. When they can't get their rebounds, Laker bigs have been known to not get it going offensively.
let's not forget Phoenix here, they are playing good basketball, and would be on a 4 game win streak if not for the OT lost to the Lakers... They are tied in the L column with us an hold the tie breaker... They along with the Grizz have two games left with NO, so something has got to give... If we take care of our business we will make up ground on either the Grizz or NO And while Phx knocking off NO might seem like a good thing on the surface, they are essentially tied with us... the title of this thread should be the key is New Orleans. they hold most of the cards right now, and their play for the next 11 games will dictate who makes the playoffs
no doubt.....I dont mind treating you as my inspiration from here on out...kind of like a seek and destroy mission...It's on sap!!!
I dont either.........they are a better team than the record indicates.I see over half the remaining games for them winnable.....IT IS WRITTEN.
Killjoy. It is pretty crazy though how many games are yet to be played between 4 teams (5 if you count Utah) still fighting for the last seeds. Unfortunately, we have the fewest of those. My nightmare scenario is that these games are split. If Memphis beats NO twice or NO beats Memphis twice, we're in a good spot. If they split 1-1, we're in some trouble. Same with Pho-NOH. Still my targets are set on New Orleans, because they play 5 games against teams that are highly motivated to beat them. Houston once, Memphis twice, and Phoenix twice. Plus 2 tough games against Lakers and Blazers; potentially one more tough game against Dallas (if they are still trying by then). The 3 other games aren't complete slouches either.
Here are all of the possibilities regarding the 4 teams in discussion, and the advantages that come with them. If these teams make the playoffs: 1) Hou, NO - We make the playoffs, that's it. 2) Hou, Pho - Bumps up our Phoenix pick. 3) Hou, Mem - Helps the future pick from Memphis. 4) NO, Pho - Bumps up the Phoenix pick & our 2011 pick. 5) NO, Mem - Helps the future pick from Memphis and bumps up our 2011 pick. 6) Mem, Pho - Helps the future pick from Memphis, bumps up the Phoenix pick & our 2011 pick. So if we make the playoffs, we want the other team to be either Phoenix or Memphis. If we miss the playoffs, we want the other teams to be Phoenix and Memphis. Bottom line...it's to the Rockets biggest advantage if New Orleans drops out of the playoffs, rather than Memphis. Of course, I'm not going to be greedy, I'll be happy if we just get there. Pugs
It's crazy that Morey traded rotation players to 2 of the teams we're fighting with for a playoff spot. We gave up about 45 minutes of rotation play for 10 minutes of rotation play. I guess this is why teams don't usually do this sort of thing. If Brooks and Battier end up shutting us out of the playoffs...
john hollinger thinks they are in fact better. he has memphis' chances at 80% and NOLA's chances at 77% our playoff odds jumped from 33% yesterday to 40% today.
