Frankly, it looks like the Rockets won't be in the playoffs. I don't look for Portland to cool off, I look for them to get better. LA is playing great. Denver will be there. Golden State will likely make it. Utah is starting to come around. Very iffy for the home team.
sucks that denver got korver, he should definitely help them out. its going to be tough, but i think we can do it.... if we can stay healthy i think we will make it. there are some teams that are usually injury prone that havent had any major injuries yet....so maybe theyre about due. hopefully the rockets with t-mac right now will be the worst for us.
Despite the recent success, what seems to be the prevailing opinion is that most everything must go right for us to make the playoffs. I agree with that. There is almost no margin for error, which makes our playoff chances very shaky.
I think anything can happen, but I have no idea why anybody would say there is no margin of error for Houston making the playoffs. So far, we played 11 and half (and counting) games without TMac, a league leading 23 games on the road as well as a league leading 10 back to back series. How do ya like that? 20 of the 37 games played after tonight come in a back to back series. We also played Utah, Boston, twice against San Antonio, twice against Detroit, twice against Phoenix, twice against the Lakers and three times against Dallas. We have by far the toughest schedule in the NBA so far. Know what that means? Our schedule is easy as hell the rest of the way. The far better question is whether Houston gets home court. I say know, though there is a chance I'd be pleasantly surprised.
I say that because none of the teams in front of us seem likely to fold up and fade, the Jazz will likely find their mojo, there is a question how our offense will operate once McGrady is fully recovered & in shape, the fact that Yao or Tracy better not miss significant time from this day forward and the obvious fact we are 9th right now tied with the Jazz. If that isn't a slim to nothing margin for error then tell me what is? The one big thing in our favor is the remaining schedule. I haven't looked at the others teams' schedules to see who has the toughest road.
You could say that about any team. You can say we played like **** early on and are just recovering our mojo right now, with the help of an easy schedule. You can also say if Carlos Boozer, Brandon Roy, Chris Paul etc miss significant time, we'd be looking at home court advantage. Injuries could happen to anybody. If we factor that in, there is no margin of error for any team. While yes I agree that we would like to be in a better spot and that even with the schedule, there is no certainty we'd make the playoffs, anybody would like our chances if you think about it. Last season we were what without TMac? This season we're 7 and 5. That's not bad at all.
We'll know more a few games from now. I'm almost ready to lock the Lakers into the "can't miss" group that includes the Spurs, Mavs and Suns. After them, we can hope one team in the Blazers, Nuggets, Hornets group stumbles. If the Blazers clean up during their East Coast trip, they are probably for real. If trends hold, it may be that 3 teams (the Rockets, Warriors and Jazz) fight for the 8th seed. But there is a long way to go and we are right on the edge. Anything can happen.
The Hornets and Sixers games are only 2 out of 82, but do you see it now? We lost to the Sixers twice. Once we were blown out; the other ended a 7 game losing streak for them. Be careful how you define "easy" with this team, especially with a coach determined to make things as hard as possible.
