Standings Watch: Race To The Playoffs

Championship is looking more and more likely.

 

One of the rare recent nights last night where our opposition didn't support the cause. Only the Grizz/Mavs played along and then OKC/NO because that was a win-win result for us.


Today's watch list:

We face the Knicks: I had this one as a scheduled loss for us. We'll see if Brunson plays. They did just lose to the Clipps and spent the weekend in LA, hopefully they enjoyed themselves a little too much.

Blazers vs. Pelicans: fine with either winning. I'd prefer the Pelicans lose because they're only one game back from us.

Thunder vs. SA: don't expect SA doing us any favors, SGA is going to destroy them.

 

randle had a terrible game against the clips and likes to try to stick it to us. i had this one as a loss, too, but if brunson's not available, we have a decent chance, imo.

how are teams letting okc get away with playing jaylin and jalen at the pf and c spots? you've got to punish their lack of interior size mercilessly, and yet...

por/NO is a tough one for me. my mantra has been "let's have NO lose all their games plz". and logic still says this is the way. but it's a virtual certainty that if we end up in the 9/10 with portland, lillard will knock us out with a 60-point performance including shots taken prior to reaching midcourt (and then go 4-22 in a loss for the 8 spot, of course). so i may have to break tradition just this once.

 

Yeah I have the Pels winning too. They're less of a threat with Zion out and I think we are very well positioned to keep our pick so it doesn't matter where Pels end up. They will also be a better matchup in the play-in if it comes to that

 

yeah. that was the title team, though.

also, it wasn't a one-game, winner-take-all deal. we'd beat portland 4 out of 6 games, for sure. it's just that you don't know when lillard's unconscious game is going to come.

 

Not only beat Portland, waxed them and Lillard didn’t finish the series healthy.

Playoffs are a different level. Lakers have build a legacy in the playoffs only one other team in NBA history has matched. And Portland or Lillard ain’t the one.

 

That’s not the point. The point is in a single knockout game, Lillard can go supernova and knock you out single handily.

 

This team has significantly improved, but I don’t completely trust them in a knockout game.

 

in that i don't trust any team anywhere in a single-elimination context. it's why i think the ncaa tournament is dumb. fun as a fan, but just terrible if the goal is to find out who the best team is.

 

Yep! Furthermore, the play-in thing is just more money-grabbing. It waters down what was already watered-down. I remember the NHL getting to the point where only a few teams didn't make the playoffs. So what's the regular season for? Load Mgmt? That seems where we're headed with this "play-in" BS.

And yea, I realize more cities/fans get to get excited about the possibilities, and ironically, I'm making these charges just as we're still battling for the play-in and consider all the "Lakers are really aiming for #6 spot" as hyperbole. We started 2-10 this year. We started with Brick weighing us down. We got jobbed by the refs in, arguably, 4 games. AD missed clutch FTs at end of games to cost us another 2. As I write this, we're still a game under .500, so in my personal standard, this team shouldn't even be in talks about any damned playoffs.

But then, starting with the acquisition of Rui, then Pelinka's magic act at the All Star Break: this team is genuinely scary. Virtually overnight. Rarely has anyone of us - even the old-timers like myself - seen a team improve so dramatically late in the season through personnel moves. It's kinda crazy, and if the Lakers somehow lose the play-in game it will be a point of discussion for a long time: did - arguably - the best team in the West actually get eliminated in the play-in game that year? How did that all go down?

 

lillard had to not play against the pels...oh well...

 

Tonight's matchups:

Hawks vs Wolves: underway. Gobert non existent so far. Go Hawks!

Jazz vs. Heat: Heat up 7 early in 2nd Q, they should be to the task unless THT has another career game.

Grizz vs. Mavs: Mavs still without Kyrie and Luka. Grizz currently up 4 at end of 1st Q. Should win this thing.

Suns vs. Warriors: the nightcap. Can't cheer for the Suns to win, but I can cheer for GS to drop this one.

 

Jazz, mavs, dubs and pups will win tonight

 

As I write Jazz down 4 with 6 secs left, so MIA did their job of helping us.
MEM killed DAL, so that's good.
MIN beat the crap out of ATL, so oh, well.
I hate to root for PHO, but let's see. GSW are nutz: they look like the defending champs when they're home; they look like non-defending chumps when on the road. They are at home vs. PHO, nationally televised game, so if you live in the Bay Area you don't have to listen to the all-time worst whiney homer j****** Bob Fitzgerald call the game.