Gained some ground on the Pelicans. They still have to play the Suns, Kings and Warriors so at least someone has to lose those games. We gotta keep taking care of business.
Yeah Pels , Kings and Suns will all play each other one time , Pels will play the Warriors too . We'll play the Warriors and Pels once . We just have 5 games left by the way , others have 7 or 6 .. Just lose one to Cavs or Sota at worst and we'll be good Edit : Zion with a middle finger injury on his shooting hand .
Noticed a couple of things: - After this 5-1 road-trip, we're still 4 games under .500 (17-21) on the road for the season and 27-12 on the road. Didn't realize we were that bad on the road. - We're 44-33. 8 of those 33 losses came against Sacramento and Denver. If we scape out even 1 victory ***apiece*** in each of those matchups, that likely gets us out of the 9th seed, possibly.
No doubt, but if you would have told me, we would have ended up with 47-48 wins at the beginning of the season, I would have thought we finished in the top 7 at the very least. What's crazy is this is going to be like this for the foreseeable future, IMO. Next year, you'll have Memphis with a healthy Ja and a lotto pick this summer & Houston will likely be improved. And then there's Wemby. This will not get better, lol.
Warriors in 2008 , Suns in 2014 missed the playoffs with 48 wins Suns in 2009 and Nuggets in 2018 missed the playoffs with 46 wins Wild wild West
yeah, i was thinking about the fact that next year, only portland and utah in the west will likely be tanking/bad. memphis will have everyone back (except they dumped adams), houston will be looking to build on the finish to the year, and i'm guessing SA won't tank again with how good wemby looked (how many years of his do you want to waste?). this also has big implications for the trade market, as basically everyone in the west is a buyer. if you had a time machine and told me we basically returned the same roster and finished top 4 next year, i'd believe you. but if you told me that we returned the same roster and finished 13th, i'd also believe that.
LAC might be worse if George leaves , Warriors too with the questions mark around Dray and Klay but yeah the West likely will be stronger next season
i think the owners of those teams spend so much that they won't be bad unless they are doing so very intentionally, and neither team will do that next year.
Kings @ Knicks today. Need a Knicks W Warriors @ Rockets. Need a Rockets win to give us some more breathing room from 10th seed
Correct-o. But since we all started watching and commenting on the standings, not much has changed despite us going 7 for the last 8. This standings watching has become a colossal drag for me. I'm currently resigned to us finishing in 9th. NINTH! Anything that happens to go our way is just gravy at this point for me. In a sane world Ham gets canned (perfect headline for the LA Times: Canned Ham) with the stated reason that his lineup choices "probably" costed us too many games earlier in the season. But if Ham gets canned they'll probably use instead corporate language like he wasn't going in the "direction" the organization wanted and thought "new ideas" were needed, etc. I would be very surprised if "dissension" in the locker room showed up in official statements. Maybe Lebron and Ham shared disagreements but they both respect each other and are on good terms, etc, etc, etc. In the worst case scenario there is no canned Ham and we are all forced to look at our plates next year and see a mound of pork, still there, still uneaten.
All we have to do is win our games. The teams ahead us, are going to play multiple remaining games against each other. Somebody has to lose. We are going to move up regardless, all we have to do is win the games we have left. At the end of the day, it's more about how WE are playing, to close out the season. It was our turn to get a schedule break, we took advantage of it. The teams a couple of wins ahead us, already had theirs earlier in the season. Now they have the tougher schedules, than we do to finish. If we manage to go 5-0..Bring on anybody, we are playing our best ball, at exactly the right time IMO.
Of course all we need to do is take care of our games. You're right, Slick. I see us losing one of the two upcoming games, either CLE or MIN, probably MIN? 'Cuz it's a BTB, but maybe MIN will be in mental "rest" mode for the playoffs. Who knows. Coming home and losing both of those would be a huge disappointment. Then: GSW next Tuesday. Should be a barn-burner. I already feel a twinge of anxiety about that one. Then we go out to MEM and end season in Nawlins. Somehow I see us going 3-2 over the Final Five. Some scenario in which we win in NO in the last game and it puts us 8th would be pretty cool. HOU losing two after winning 11 straight has GSW breathing easier. My guesses for the end of this season: CLE @ Lakers: Lakers MIN @ Lakers: MIN GSW @ Lakers: Lakers Lakers @ MEM: Lakers Lakers @ Pels: Pels (I desperately want to be wrong here) Of course I hope we go 5-0 instead... Sacramento Kings: SAC@ Knicks: SAC SAC@Bags: Bags SAC@Nets: SAC SAC@OKC: OKC, I hope! Pels@ SAC: SAC? PHO@SAC: PHO? (SAC on a BTB) POR@SAC: SAC SAC 4-2 over their last 6? New Orleans Pelicans: Q: how bad is Zion's finger? Spurs@Pels: Spurs in an upset? Pels @ PHO: Pels? Pels @ POR: Pels Pels @ SAC: SAC? Pels@GSW: Pels Lakers@ Pels: Pels (gawd I hope I'm wrong) NO 4-2 over their last 6? PHO Suns: MIN@PHO: MIN Pels@PHO: Pels? Clips@PHO: PHO PHO@Clips: Clips (BTB, against each other: home team wins each) PHO @ SAC: PHO PHo@ MIN: MIN PHO goes 2-4 over their last 6? (Don't rule out bias on my part here; I dislike PHO intensely and would delight in anything that leads to their ruin.) Golden State: GSW@HOU: GSW GSW@DAL: DAL Jazz@ GSW: GSW GSW@ Lakers: Lakers GSW@POR: GSW (but I'd love to see them lose either this one or the Jazz game) Pels@GSW: Pels (just a feeling) Jazz@GSW: GSW GSW goes 4-3 over their last 7? (Ideally they collapse and HOU overtakes them in spot #10 but I no longer see that happening. It would make my heart sing to see GSW miss everything I'm personally so sick of them.) I want GSW, PHO, NO, and SAC to lose all the rest of their games, but that's mathematically impossible. Those who think I'm all wet here: rejoice. 'Cuz I tend to be really bad at this stuff.
f***ing love the Knicks man. They were down this entire game and somehow f***ed around and won this game by double digits! Now just hope that the C Bags don't sit all their guys tomorrow now that they have #1 seed locked up...
