this game is a virtual must win for dallas. they will play their hearts out at home. they want to avoid being swept by LA in the first round at any cost. they won't need any extra motivation than that. if i were still doing sports betting, i'd take mavs here at -3.
Yeah, that's why I'm hoping they keep pace so that season finale vs. Utah means something to the Lakers. Cleveland has a pretty easy remaining schedule other than playing Boston. Lakers really need to win out and hope the Cavs drop a game (most likely to the Celtics). But even even if Cleveland wins that one, the Lakers would still play hard vs. Utah (assuming they win the next 3) in hopes that Cleveland would drop their season finale the next day. If the Lakers drop a game, Cleveland will almost certainly finish with a better record.
Our ideal situation is us being either 2nd or 3rd. We don't want to play the Lakers in the 2nd round, avoid the inevitable for as long as possible.
I don't see it happening. Worst case for the Jazz, they go 2-3 and finish at 49-33. That means that Dallas and NO both have to finish at 50-32 or better since the Jazz hold the tiebreak. So Dallas needs to go 4-1. NO needs to go 2-3. Since we're Rockets homers, lets assume for now that the Rockets win their games against the Mavs and Hornets. That would mean Dallas would have to win every other game they have remaining, including 2 over the Hornets, to get to 50 wins. If that happens, that means NO loses 3 games (2 to Mavs, 1 to Rox) and has to win their other 2, tonight vs. Phoenix and the season finale vs. San Antonio. Or, if the Mavs and Hornets split their 2 games, the Rockets could potentially tank the last game vs. Dallas in an effort to push Utah to 8th. But if the Rockets are still battling the Spurs for the division title (tied or 1 game up or 1 game down), then I don't see them doing that. Winning the division title would ensure we wouldn't see the Lakers until the conference finals if we got that far and they're not going to give that up just to spite the Jazz. Overall, I wouldn't say the chances are good of Dallas and NO both finishing ahead of Utah. If Dallas can pull ahead, it could cause either NO to fall below Utah or the Rockets to lose the division title. If only the Mavs hadn't lost to Memphis. There would have been a better chance if they had an extra W right now.
Yes they are but being able to see some of the other matchups like hornets/suns, thunder/nuggets cavs/wizards will be great
We should all be rooting for the Hornets and Mavs - we want to keep Utah in the 7-8 range and away from 6, just so we are protected from them in case we get 3. We also should root for the blazers, because we have the tiebreaker with them, and also, we want the spurs' 3 spot!
Please, please, Basketball God, please, give the Rockets Blazers or Hornets with Rockets having 1st round. And no Chris Paul or Brandon Roy heroics, please.
I like the Blazers in this one. The Spurs started out red hot, and the Blazers ice cold. San Antonio should have put them away, because I'll put my money on the younger team if both squads are playing the second night of a back to back.
This is similar to last night, except after trailing by 19 against the Grizzlies, the Blazers only cut the lead to 12 points at halftime. This 2nd quarter closing runwas something to watch.
