14 (17) Rockets 25-31 One more problem for Houston to contend with: No team returned to work last Tuesday with a tougher remaining schedule, based on .539 opponent winning PCT. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking?season=2006&week=17 19. Houston Rockets (25-31, Last ranking: 21) – The Rockets finally won a game without Tracy McGrady. They're now 1-13 with T-Mac out of the lineup. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...YF?slug=sk-rankings022706&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
thats fine with me as well, we wont be playing a sub .539 team in the playoffs so what better way to prepare?
This is a big problem. Those games we pissed away during the injuries were against teams we needed to beat, to store up nuts for the winter. Now it's winter (tough part of the schedule), and we've got no nuts. It's mathematically possible. But we'll need a lot of nuts this spring to make up for our lack of nuts in winter.
Right, there were too many games where we were close against teams that we should have beat, but we faltered and were unable to get those nuts to store for winter. Those games were so close, the nuts were on our chin, but we couldn't pull it out to collect those nuts that we desperately need now.
I looked at the remaining schedule - it doesn't look all THAT tough to me, based on how we've been playing (most games) recently. One against Phoenix, two against Dallas, two against SA - the rest, we should win.
The ROckets have been playing better laterly, but the teams they beat are mostly sub 500 teams. I am still pessmistic about our playoff chances. Until they start to beat legit teams like Phoenix, I think that they should be preparing for next year.
Yeah, the timing of our injuries was very devastating. First of all, Yao and Tmac's missing games were pretty much staggered. If they had both been out at the same time over that span, we would have been better off in the long run, since we lost most of the games anyway. What was worse is the fact that both Yao and Tmac were out during the weakest portion of the schedule. It was pretty hard to watch them getting overwhelmed by the NBA caliber players on the Hawks and Bobcats. Not to mention Tmac leaving games that we should have won against the Jazz and Nuggets. I don't think our luck could have been any worse.
Well, lately it seems like Yao Ming's found some nuts, so maybe he'll share this secret spot with the rest of the team, and we'll have plenty of nuts for the Spring!
Don't forget Indiana, New Jersey, and OKC. Indiana beat NJ last night without Tinsley or O'Neal. They'll be a tough team and NJ is plenty talented. As for OKC, well, we always seem to have a tough time with them. PJ Brown always lights us up. I'd put those games as 50/50 shots. It's gonna take an inspired effort to get there, I hope that the Warriors game was the turning point we need.
Well, we'll just have to nut up like we've been doing and relying on this big sack of balls we already had.
