These final three games of the regular season may very well determine how far we go in the playoffs. We have struggled with these three western conference opponents for the last two seasons now, and it's time that we prove that we can beat them with a healthy squad. Beating these pesky opponents would be exactly what it takes for us to go in to the post season with our confidence soaring. It is possible that we will win all three, and very possible we will lose all three. With Tmac playing the way he is now(playing like a top 5 player overall), we are tough to beat, especially at home. However, New Orleans and Phoenix have the strategy and the players it takes to shut us down. Utah is struggling right now, but they are a very good home team, and Okur gives us matchup problems. Bottom line is these last three games are enormous. If we take care of business, we go in to the playoffs with the home court in round one and with a six game winning streak. If we continue to struggle against these teams like we have in the past, we will probably be opening up in Utah with that same old "we're not talented enough" mentality. Hopfully the Toyota Center is electric Saturday night. I predict that we go 3-0 in these games and create a little buzz before round one.
I'm not sure if the opponent will play their starters, so if we play our starters, it will be ok(hopefully!). But who knows, anything can happen in this world, but i'm with the Rox all the way! I don't mind seeing how Rox silence the Jazz fans in Utah every night during playoffs either even if they don't get HCA. GO ROX!
Tell me if I'm wrong, if the Rockets beat the Hornets and Utah loses to the Mavs doesnt that put us 2.5 ahead of them with only 2 games remaining, thus making it mathmatically impossible for them to pass us up regardless of the last two games? or does Utah have more games left? I dont feel like looking.
Actually no. At that point, we could still lose the last two games, Utah could win their last 3 games and they would be tied with us with the tiebreaker.
I don't know what New Orlean's "strategy" is. I understand all too well what Phoenix has on me, but I can not for the life of me figure out what New Orleans has. They play a style of basketball that should fit RIGHT into our hands, and they're not all that talented on paper. Their defense should not be THIS affective on us, and their shooters aren't good/consistent enough to be owning us from outside the way they keep doing... I've watched every one of these games, and I am absolutely baffled. It's almost like they've gotten in our heads now.
We have to be 2 games up going into the final game for it not to matter. If we lose that game and are only up by 1 game, we'd be tied and Utah would hold the tiebreaker by virtue of winning the season series with us. If we went 1-1 vs NOK and Pho, we'd need Utah to go 1-2. If we went 0-2, they'd need to go 0-3 If we went 2-0 (unlikely but we're all hopeful), Utah could go 2-1. If Utah sweeps (unlikely), we would HAVE to win in SLC to get HCA, and would have to win against NOK and Pho. We can't let up at all. We get nailed by quick teams. Phoenix, NOK, Toronto give us fits. If a team has quick guards AND quick bigs that can get around us, we rely on a collapsing defense that makes the paint thorny. Unfortunately, that system leaves us vulnerable to outside shooting. Suns always have that going on. When the Raptors came here, they murdered us from outside. Nov 5, the Hornets shot 9-16 from 3s against us and won Feb 3, they tagged us 10-20 from 3 Mar 25, 6-13 When you can average better than 50% 3-pt shooting on someone, you're going to give them a rough night. Hopefully Paul being hobbled will help us by relieving pressure from help defense. Evan
I think we'll win the next 2 and Utah will drop 1 before they play us. The last game won't matter, I'm positive.
hopefully dallas will play dirk this game since he got rest last game already, and this is "could" be their 2nd round opponent so maybe Avery will try to send a message? I doubt it, but it's okay if we keep winning, while the jazz keep slipping
Guard penetration (Paul) and quick/long bigs who can knock down open outside jumpers(West).....If they had a healthy Stojakovic they would be even tougher for us to beat. We just dont have enough depth and scoring to adjust when teams beat our original style of play. It's concerning, but we still have Yao and Tmac
I just hope neither Yao nor t-Mac will get hurt in the last three games, especially against Hornets and Jazz. The last minutes in last game was scaring.
Btw, Suns are still playing standard minutes for thier starters, so looks like they're not giving Utah or us any favors. Unfourtunatly, Utah is 3-0 against the Suns while we're 0-3.
I think we have a good chance versus the hornets this time around. For one, it won't be in OKC so the refs won't be so blatantly one-sided. I know that the reaction of Oklahoma City fans watching live NBA ball is analogous to when Great Great Grandpa Cletus first saw the miracle of electricity at the 1899 World's fair but damn, were the refs ever favoring the home team. I knew we were gonna get destroyed that game as soon as 5000 overweight white women with mulletts started ringing their cowbells and doing the Macarena. I knew that we were doubly screwed when their barefoot kids sporting rat-tail haircuts and wearing tapered neon orange camouflage pants started 'raising the roof' to early 90's techno. The NBA's had to expand its markets you know. What better way than to 'let' the Hornets bring down the great TMac and Yao. The game was fixed from the start. This time, the Hornets won't have it so easy.
Suns still have a small risk of losing the #2 to San Antonio, so they have to. I am going to be so mad if Dallas lets Utah win. If Dallas beats Utah, we will secure homecourt on Saturday. Sweet vengeance to eliminate NOK from playoffs.
If Dallas really aim for the championship this year, no way they will tank the game. It's more important for them to have a win streak to go into the playoffs than avoiding facing Rockets the 2nd round.
