We gotta go 9-2 minimum to move up. @MIL = L @MEM = W @IND = W @BKN = W @TOR = W @WAS = W CLE = W MIN = L GS = W @MEM = W @NO = W We have shown zero ability to win on the road though.
I updated these with the actual vs projected to show which teams are ahead or behind right now. From this list - the Clippers, Lakers and Warriors have underperformed my projections thus far while the Suns, Mavs, Kings and Pelicans have outperformed my projections. Truthfully the Lakers are actually only 1 game off from my projection as of today's date, and they can get back on track by beating the Bucks tomorrow as I had that as a scheduled loss.
Beal suffered a sprained right ring finger in the fourth quarter of the defeat, per coach Frank Vogel, and his status for Wednesday's game against Denver is undetermined Beal was invisible down the stretch Monday, going scoreless for the final 20 minutes of the game while attempting only one shot in the fourth quarter. Beal addressed postgame that he was still in pain and speculates his finger got caught in an opponent's jersey.
HOU won and are now only .5 back of #10 GSW, who play in MIA tomorrow. I'm still pissed we lost that last one to GSW when AD caught an elbow in the eye in the 1st Q. Damn I wanted to beat them. Now I want HOU to overtake them and GSW misses the playoffs, play-ins, and that they, mine enemies, be crushed and driven before me, and I hear the lamentations of their women. (I live most of the time in NoCA and frankly I'm sick of their fans. Can ya tell?)
in that houston game, this was portland's lineup: the only reason i can identify half of them is that they were drafted in the past two years. some dude named dalano banton was their leading scorer (28) and also managed to be the biggest negative of the night (-25). the tank is strong up north. the warriors, kings, and rockets get to play them one more time each. we, sadly, do not.
LeBron sitting out tonight's game in Milwaukee is really pissing me off. Why the hell is he sitting out critical games like this? If anything, sit out tomorrow against Memphis, we don't need him against that team. in Fact, sit him for 4 out of the 6 games of this road trip...all of those games should be wins without him. The Bucks and Pacers games though? He needs to play those games. Horrible load management and of course nobody is gonna say anything about it.
i actually prefer he sit this one and indy for the opposite reasons: we MUST win the games we're supposed to. if he plays at milwaukee and we lose, and it takes a toll on the ankle which either costs him more games or limits him for the most winnable games, i'd be mad. i can see your point, though.
Probably conceding the Bucks game and trying to make sure we don't get caught slipping against the Grizz. Ensure at least 1-1 instead of risking going 0-2. I don't like it, but I understand it. Maybe we get lucky and Dlo goes off again.
Yeah, the Bucks are 29-7 at home and we are brutal on the road. They are gonna want their lick back against us. This one is penciled in as a loss. I would probably save AD as well but he'll get all kinds of flack for ducking Giannis so he probably wants to play. I'd still sit him though, cause we need him 100% for all of our winnable games.
yeah, this bothers me. other teams sit stars in situations like this, and we should sit AD, but we can't because even our own fans like to perpetuate myths about him being "soft", and it has filtered up to our lineup decisions.
Who ever loses, it'd be best if the lose both games. One of them going 0-2 is better than both ending up 1-1.
So Basketball Reference thinks we have a 1.8% chance of getting to 6th, 5.9% chance of finishing 7th, 23.2% chance of finishing 8th, 39.7% chance of finishing 9th and 22.5% chance of finishing 10th. Looks like this weighs net rating and SOS very heavily, hence why the Thunder and Wolves have a much better chance to win the conference than the Nuggets (which is insane).
Buha rattled off a stat yesterday that made me go look at the standings to confirm. Of the 20 playoff + play-in teams, we have the worst road record. That's f***ing awful considering we're embarking on a 6 game roadie and 4 of those games are part of a back to back.
This was a massive win tonight on what was a for sure loss without Lebron on the road vs. the Bucks. Hopefully we can rally enough energy to beat Memphis tomorrow.
Unbelievable win...and we needed it esp with the Warriors winning tonight to keep the pressure on. The Mavs beating the Kings isn't good for us though - and ideally we wanted the Kings to win both of these games but now there's likely going to be a split and the Kings have alos lost the season series to the Mavs which means in a tiebreaker situation the Kings will finish below mavs. It's not good cuz the Kings (along with the Nuggets) are the ONE team that has our number and I don't like our chances against them in a play-in game especially if we're on the road against them. Then again - even with the 3 terrible losses to the kings 2x and waarriors...because we beat the bucks twice and minny at home, we're actually back on track with my projections! I really would like for us to go 6-0 or 5-1 on this road trip, anything is possible at that point. With the Clippers slipping, and Pels having a tough schedule to end the season, and Suns/Kings also having kinda tough schedules, I mean we have an opportunity to jump OUT of the play-in if we continue winning. If there was EVER a time for us to rattle off 7-9 straight wins, now would be a good time because it seems like we just have not been able to win that many games in a row in what feels like 4 years and counting now.
