Thanks! I think it was just a one day thing, they both seem to be feeling better today. You did in fact get it. The Wolves and Grizzlies are still on the list because they could technically make the Playoffs (if they won out and the Mavs lost the rest of their games, and the Suns lost a ton of games). They cannot, however, catch the Rockets. As soon as they're officially eliminated from the Playoffs, I'll take them off the board (like I did with the Kings, Clippers, Thieves, and Grizzlies). We should be down to 9 teams by the end of the week. I'm feeling good about this game tonight. You never know what you'll get with Enver, but I think we'll win and knock their Magic Number down 3.
ScriboErgoSum, Great job. Our the tough schedule just makes me uneasy. Just hope we can get the seed 4. Do you know who has the toughest on in the West? I hope that it is not ours.
GREAT thread..thanks for all your hard work! i was thinking about the scenario when teams in the playoff hunt plays another...for instance if the lakers played the spurs..we know in this case, the rockets' magic number would drop for one of these teams is there a way to capture this effect? i think it would show a hidden potential of lowering the magic numbers... just a thought...keep up the good work
I know I'm echoing everyone else in this thread, but this is fantastic work. So thanks again for doing this for us; this is a great read every morning. One thing though, why the Thieves? Is there some joke I'm missing?
This came up last year when we were trying to clinch over Denver and Golden State. The two teams met up late in the season, so we knew the Magic Number would drop on one of them. It'll probably come up closer to the end of this season. There are a ton of head-to-head matchups in the last week. Hopefully things will be a bit clearer at that point, and we'll know who we're stalking for seeding position. There are just too many different scenarios to track right now. I try to talk about some of this in my Friday State of Race posts. The one constant is that the Rockets need to win as many games as possible, particularly over other Contenders, and good things will happen. Some of this is covered in last Friday's State of the Race. We have a tough closing schedule, but I'd say the Jazz have the toughest. Most of the other teams 3-7 have a few less games against Contenders down the stretch. I live in Seattle and am not happy with David Stern, Clay Bennett, and Howard Schultz for stealing the team away from Seattle.
Good catch. That was a bug for the L10 on division opponents (It's wrong for the Hornets and Mavs too). It's fixed for tonight's version. I went ahead and edited last night's numbers.
Sigh..... I'm feeling down today about the western conference. I think the Spurs and Jazz will have the 2nd and 3rd seed respectively. I don't think the Rockets will be able to get anything higher than 5th. I hope my mood changes after tonight's game.
I'm just looking forward to clinching that 8th spot. After that I'll obviously be rooting for us to climb, but it won't be imperative. Getting out of the first round is not enough for me. The only thing that matters is a championship. The other 29 teams are all losers. Thus, in the end, we're going to have to play all the tough teams anyway if we win it all. The thing I am concerned about is the Jazz. I don't like them as a matchup because they cause us problems. I would ideally like to avoid them in the first round and hope they get eliminated by another team. Other than that though, bring on whoever, because if want to win it all we'll have to see them sooner or later.
I dunno why, but clinching a playoff spot, to me, is something to celebrate in itself...I find myself not making a sound if I was told "hey man, your team clinched a 4th seed"...Don't really know why that is, but when we clinch the playoffs, as a fan, I'll be 20x more vocal than clinching a top 4 seed.
Come on.. you know the chances of us winning a championship this year.. They're slimmer than slim.. We are really looking for a first round win and that's about it. We'd have to hope San Antonio or LA doesn't face us in the 2nd round and/or the Western Conf. Finals. And then, there's a chance that Boston may get back in the finals, that would be bad for us also.
climbing is the MOST imperative. home court is everything for the rockets. they're great at home this year, and they need that in the playoffs. i'm looking at clinching tie breakers and moving / keeping ahead of as many teams as possible. i dont care when we clinch the playoffs, eventually it's going to happen anyway.
I don't know. I think we have a decent shot against all those teams you mentioned. I think we fare better against teams with traditional centers for Yao to matchup with. The Jazz for example have a non-traditional shooting big coupled with Williams that KILLS Yao on the high pick and roll. Then on defense they double Yao and because he is so much bigger than they are and they flop, he gets called for a lot of offensive fouls. The Lakers also scare me because I feel like all the calls will go their way (ala the last game we played). But if you look at the last game, we really were in it and if not for a few calls, could have won it. I think the Rockets have a slim chance to win it all THIS YEAR. As a fan I have to believe that, otherwise why watch? The only good thing about being a 1 and done team is we can stick it to Tracy. But for me, that's not enough.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. There is not the drama of last year's playoff race, where until the very end we weren't sure if we'd be the #1 seed or miss the playoffs altogether. This year the Playoffs are a near certainty. Obviously without McGrady, our chance of a title are miniscule, but I still like our chances to make it out of the first round and get that huge monkey off our backs. We have the best chance to advance with home court and a favorable matchup, which is why we have to knock as many of these teams as possible and go for the #3 or #4 seed.
Now let me ask you this, because it's rarely brought up, I'm sure...but.. Do you think we have a shot vs a favorable matchup without home court. For Example: If we drew a Portland, but they get the first two at home...? I know people believe (with great reason) that we struggle on the road, but still feel like our D can still BRING IT on the road, no matter the opponent. PS....excuse the horribly bad judgement call on my part in this thread SES...report it, tell the management, all that...i used bad judgement...
exactly. we need #3 IMO. the best teams left then (after, lakers, spurs, and us) would be the jazz and the hornets. hopefully they end up with the 4/5 matchup. that would be an awesome PG series, but it would also insure a more favorable match up against the nuggets, blazers, or mavs.
After all these years with the rockets all I care about is a Championship. Anyway, good post. By the way, why can't the members change their own threads?
great night. -2 for the hornets -3 for the nuggets the only thing i dont like is portland beating the lakers right now. by a lot. hopefully the lakers make a great comeback. i'd hate to face the lakers after they got their butt kicked.
We have to somehow keep the 3rd seed. I think that is going to be hard. Utah has easier schedule and we have one of the toughest schedule. In any case, I do not want us to drop any lower than #5, because in that scenario we would most likely be either be playing with SA or Utah (I don't see us dropping to #8 and play LA)
this is a long shot but - assuming we beat the lakers & the spurs lose to the lakers & we beat the spurs on Sat - We might have a chance to steal 2nd place.
