First of all a loss to the thunder all but gurantees they finish ahead of us. All year long i thought they might fade but its not gonna happen. At this point the question is how good are westbrook and durant gonna be? Westbrook looks like hes in the williams and paul group now.hell i wonder if westbrook passes roy soon. dont laugh it off... westbrook is emerging big time. least we have greg. Then there's the spurs, who seem to find ways to win. Kinda the old (age) version of us. I keep hearing how HARD their schedule is YET we cant pass them. They are gonna hold on to that 7th seed. Its becoming more and more clear. I dont care about their road games... ive been hearing for over a month that spurs are gonna lose games. really? We will get the 8th seed and face the lakers. I guess all things considered, its amazing we can make the playoffs but getting bounced by the lakers in 4 game sweep will be almost like missing them.
I hate the guys in Purple & Piss as much as anybody. Maybe we could look up Tonya Harding (she did go to my high school) and Jeff Gillooli and have them bust Kobe's knee out? The 3 teams above us, who almost nobody thought would ALL play this well down the stretch, don't look like they are going to fade. If we are to move up to the 6th or 7th spot, we are going to have to take it - we won't be given the benefit of another team's meltdown. One thing we do have in our favor might be the tiebreaker. We did win the season series vs. the Spurs, so we've already clinched that tiebreaker. We still have 2 games left vs Okl City, and the series is 1-1 so far. If we split those games and the series ends 2-2, we are probably going to end up having the better record in Conference (we are 3 games ahead of them right now), so we'd win that tiebreaker as well. Wouldn't it be something if there was a 3-way tie for 6th-8th place?
Westbrook is NOT as good as Paul or Williams, and I highly doubt he ever will be. He's a good player, no doubt, but come on?
I never even thought of there being a 3 way tie....This is very possible. Would it be the first time it has happened?
We were in a 3 way tie last year. Teams seeded 2,3, and 4 all had 54 wins. And now, we already have the tiebreakers vs. SA and PHX. That's why these remaining two games vs. OKC are so crucial.
Yeah the tiebreakers could very, very well play a role in the seeding this year. I can easily see us finishing with the same record as OKC and/or the Spurs.
Our division record is horrible this year because of those 4 losses to Utah, but our conference record is third in the west after LAL and PHX. Here's some info from ESPN regarding tiebreakers and what takes precedence:
FWIW - our all time record vs the Lakers in playoff series is 2-9: 1977 Win/Conference Finals 1983 Loss/Conference Semi's 1985 Loss/Conference Semi's 1989 Loss/1st Round 1991 Loss/Conference Finals (2nd Most Painful - Magic's "Heave" as clock expires) 1992 Winn/1st Round 1997 Loss/1st Round 1998 Loss/1st Round 2000 Loss/Conference Finals (Most Painful - THE 4th quarter collapse) 2001 Loss/1st Round 2002 Loss/1st Round
Personally I think the Thunder are not going to fade. I would love if they did, but I just don't see it. BUt the Spurs are much more likely to fade. I think the 7th spot is very likely.
Very sad that now that it's a foregone conclusion that we will make the playoffs, you have to change the record to this. Although I think moving up any higher than 7 is highly unlikely. Not that it really matters, as the seeding is still very much undecided, Dallas could get to No. 2 and I would feel good about our chances (although I think we would go out in 6). About Westbrook: Looking up his and Williams's advanced stats and development curve, it's not ridiculous to expect him to reach Deron Williams's production level (a PER of 20-21). Very different game though. That said, I'm pretty sure he won't pass Roy (assuming Roy doesn't regress). And Paul is in a league of his own. Chris Paul and Deron Williams are frequently mentioned together like they're in the same class but they're not.
In the past month the Blazers are 9 and 2 but the Spurs are 11 and 4. That means in the past month the Blazers have been winning at a .818 clip and the Spurs at a .733 clip. The Blazers have been catching up. I don't see why that stops, especially considering the harder schedule for the Spurs.
I think we could beat them twice; our experience could pay off, and they might not yet know how to handle the pressure.
Gave up on the Blazers not making the playoffs thingy so now you've moved on to them not moving up in the brackets. I guess that's progress, MIXUM.
Very sad, but absolutely predictable. But then again, how could such a big Blazers fan not look around for another reason to be Negative Nellie as soon as he has to admit he's wrong about the team making the playoffs. (In case anyone missed it, this is two years in a row of, "No way the Blazers make the playoffs). Go Blazers
Fuck will you be "right" again? I am still pissed that both Memphis and Houston have knocked us out of the playoffs. The sad thing is that it looks like the Blazers are still going to charge me for my playoff tickets, WTF?