no offense, but this analysis is defintely better than the holliger shiet at espn. rockets need at least 55 wins to win the division with tiebreakers to win the division.
excellent thread, thanks for the effort. and i would give this thread 5 stars but i don't know how to. keep up the good work though.
Thanks to Clutch and Dr of Dunk for their sticky love. And thanks to everyone for all the kind words. I'm having a lot of fun with this thread, and I look forward to journaling it through the end of the regular season.
I think you gave Denver too much credit. They are having internal issues with Melo.... and they still don't focus on defense for an entire game. Great work though.
I really hope we don't end up playing Denver in the playoffs. They are going to be so dangerous in the playoffs with Chauncy. I rather us face the Jazz for every year we make the playoffs than too play the Nuggets this year.
I'll take our chances with a Nuggets matchup. They are playing totally erratically (Nuggets Gone Wild as JVG would say). I think we would light them up night after night, and they'd only take a few games when they got red-hot shooting. Billups is overrated and has been Mr. Brick Shot the past few years in the Playoffs. I don't see them winning the Northwest division. Either Portland or Utah (or both) will pass them up, and the Nuggets will fall into the bottom half of the bracket. I think they'll likely wind up 6 or 7. They are a definite possibility for a first round opponent if we take the 3 seed. I have to lay down some rules for this thread. They are the Enver Nuggets. If you really have to use the full name, they are the denver Nuggets (no caps). If you're a Capitalization Nut, please you the striked version (<STRIKE>D</STRIKE>enver Nuggets).
The Jazz need to pay. They have knocked us out of the playoffs too many times since the title days. Jazz, Mavericks and Lakers all need to pay. I cant stand San Antonio, but they have never beaten the Rox in the playoffs. We need to exact revenge on all who have tormented our playoffs lives over the past decade. I think the Rox will finish out the season strong. That ridiculous collapse in Chicago notwithstanding, were on a nice run. Chemistry is everything in this game and in my opinion our chemistry is good and getting better. Hopefully we can climb to the #3 seed, or even #2. This month will tell us a lot about our Rockets. Bleeding rocket red, as we all do, I yearn for a playoff run.
are you able to update the first post? it makes it easier instead of having to look for your post also much appreciated!
The thing that scares me about the "Enver" Nuggets, is that they have a good rotation for their frontcourt. Anderson( the guido, if you will) has been playing pretty damn good lately. And the thing with Chauncy is that he was trying to do too much for the Pistons because he was their leader. Chauncy may not be what he used to be. But playing in front of his home crowd during the playoffs is going to energize him. The Enver Nuggets might not have the better back court bench, but they have plenty to throw at Yao, Scola, and Landry. Which is the players this Rockets team thrives off of.
I'd put money on the Nuggets to win that division. After their rough stretch, they have a bunch of gimme games to finish up. They're @ Det, Por, @Utah, @Sac, and Hou. Let's say they suck it and only go 1-4 in that stretch. While that puts them in a funk, their next 5 are OKC, LAC, NJ, @Mem, WAS. They'll be overwhelming favorites in each of those games. They've been 25-4 in favored games so far, so I think 4-1 is the worst they could do in that stretch. Their final 12 are 6 favored and 6 toss ups. So according to my calculations, 11 - 11 is pretty much as sucky as they can get, barring unforeseen implosion, which gets the Nuggets to 50-32. And they're not going to lose ALL their toss up games, cuz they're 14-17 up til now. Their final record is probably going to be 54 wins. Utah has won 8 in a row, but their remaining schedule is BRUTAL. They only have 7 games remaining in which they are clear favorites and have 15 toss up games remaining (11 of them are on the road). They are finally healthy though. So I'll take the wait and see approach before I crown them division champs playoff road team. It's going to be difficult, but we'll find out a lot more over the next 2 weeks to see if Utah is playing well, or playing unbelievably well.
Point taken. Thank the basketball gods that they don't still have Camby. How about the "never" nuggets?
Scribo, would it be possible for you to change the "Games Left" column to include dates of when we play the teams? For example if we played a team today at home, then it would say 3/3H, whereas if we played a team on the road tomorrow, then it would say 3/4A. Maybe this makes it too complicated for some to read, but it would be nice to use it as a sort of meaningful games schedule.
scribo, looks like you left the kings out. not a big deal but i can tell by the quality of your thread and posts that you wouldn't want such an oversight
The Kings have been eliminated from the Playoffs so I'm no longer covering them unless they play a team still in contention. Eventually we'll get down to the top 8 or 9 as the scrub teams fall by the wayside.
Enver Nuggets! who cares... I am worried about going up against the Jazz again... they are healthy now... and have managed to stay in the race despite the injuries...
Man, they're the only team to do that. What kind of Rox fan "worries" about the j*zz? They will be a tough match up, but bring them on. Everyone has their biggest pet peeves with posts on this board. I think this is my biggest.
