Suns Home: Denver, Minnesota, Dallas, Golden St., San Antonio Suns Away: Memphis, Detroit, Indiana, Lakers, Denver, Port, Seat Rockets Home: Lakers, Denver, Orlando, Port, Seattle, Memphis Rockets Away: San Antonio, NJ, Milwaukee, Philly, Utah, Denver Extremely tough schedules for both teams. However, I think we have a significant edge on our remaining home schedule, plus we have one more home game than Phoenix. We will win 4 of those 6 at home minimum. They will win 3 home games max. As for away games.....we are going to have to win that Denver game, and, unfortunately, at best, i can only see us winning at best one other road game. The Suns will probably take denver and possibly memphis on the road, but I don't think there is a chance af them winning any of their other 5 games. not that my analysis means a whole lot, by i predict phoenix going 5-7 over the last 12, and us 6-6. good enough, and that gives leeway for 2 games (they can finish 7-5, which won't happen, and we'll still beat them out). as for golden st.....we have the tie-breaker over them, so, if we can finish the season .500, they would have to go 10-2. that ain't happening, so don't worry about them. as for seattle catching us, 3.5 games should be enough to hold them off too, even if they beat us at home and take the tie-breaker. they would still have to finish up the season 10-3, and i'll give you 4 losses that they'll receive - lakers, and at sac, san antone, and dallas. so, folks, let's shoot for .500 in our last 12, or possibly even 5-7.
I'm really not sure about the Suns prediction.....somehow i simply can't underestimate Phoenix despite their recent struggles. they seem to be able to beat anybody, anywhere, anytime but not consistently. I would agree about them going 5-7, but the Suns have the ability to win all their home games or go 4-1. and they've got 3 or 4 winnable road games (Mem, Den, Seat). About the Rockets Schedule, their home schedule seems very good, you take out the Lakers game and the Rocket got themselves a fairly "easy" schedule compared to the Suns. The road games are what worry me, other than the Denver game, we've got playoff teams to play on the road (SA, NJ, Mil, Phil, Utah) if the rockets take care of business at home (say 5-1, 4-2 atleast) and some how steal a couple of those 6 games (3-3 or 2-4 atleast) that gives us a record of anywhere from 46-44 wins. that being said, if the suns go 7-5, hell even 8-4 (putting them at 45-37), we still can escape with the no. 8 seed. am watching the Rockets' next game on ESPN, n' dont get to watch alotta games over here but the Rockets are 5-1 this year when i get to watch em so hopefully i'll get to hear the chants of...... BEAT LA!!!! BEAT LA!!!!
How about shooting for winning them all? I wish I knew more about how the Suns played...I'd feel much more comfortable with my predictions. I think the picture will be much more lucid after the next 3 games for each team. Phoenix will be making a mid-America road trip to Memphis, Detroit, and Indiana. The new look Grizzlies are a legitamite home team who can drop 120 on any given night. The grizz haven't been able to stop Marion and Amare in the inside, but with Swift playing great as of late coupled with Marion and Amare's inability to hit a J, I can see JDubb orchestrating running game that can destroy the Suns. I'd like to see this game, especially Marbury and JDubb going at each other. Detroit can drop 60 on you any given night. From what I've read about the Suns, they like low scoring defensive affairs, but that's the way Detroit plays too. Amare's agressiveness vs Big Ben. Can Billups and Hamilton match Marbury's scoring output? And then there's Indiana: talented and underachieving. The basis of the Suns success or failure over next three games (which imo, will either keep them in the race, or totally destroy their chances) will be two fold: 1) Shawn Marion 2) Team ability to control the tempo. Marion must defend and score well against Gasol/Battier/Swift, Rip Hamilton, and then Ron Artest (who should be back from supension and is the Pacers key to victory after the consistency of J'Oneal). And breaking it down to an even more specific point..if Marion's ugly ass jumper is falling, the Suns will win and the race will be tight with the Rocks all the till the end. If Marion's ugly form jumper isn't falling, the race will be over next week (not mathematically), but I really believe this because if the Suns don't have a cushion lead on the Rockets by the last 3 games, then it's over, and that cushion depends on these next 3 games by both teams. Of course, this is all my opinion, and I admittedly do not know enough about the Suns to be sure of what I wrote above, but I really think that's how it's going to be.
Let's no forget that Suns' last 3 games are SA, at Portland, at Seattle. If the playoffs seedings for SA and Portland are set and Seattle are in tank mode at that time, it might not be so difficult games for the Suns.
