LMAO! Houston has a 10 point lead

[magnifier661]

Against Utah in Utah. Hmmmm.... Maybe they ain't so bad after all? Makes that "ugly win" and crazy loss a little better pill to swallow.

 

[barfo]

Or maybe Utah sucks.

barfo

 

[MIXUM]

its shocking that the lineup of scola, brooks, ariza, hayes, and battier could beat the jazz (so far at home) and blazers

 

[MIXUM]

only reason we beat houston was cause they shot piss poor for 3 qtrs. they cut our 19 point lead to 6 in portland with 5 minutes left.

 

[Darkwebs]

Adelman is a great coach.

 

[MIXUM]

i still think though... the rockets come back to earth and struggle. thats not a playoff lineup. right now they might be feeling "them against the world" but they arent this good

 

[magnifier661]

Or maybe Utah sucks.

barfo

I seriously doubt that. Remember Houston didn't beat just us.

 

[magnifier661]

Adelman is a great coach.

Gotta say it's hard to argue with that. The dude has been a proven winner. 4 teams and 3 of them went past the second round of the playoffs. 2 of them went to the WCF and should have won against the Lakers and 1 made it to the finals twice. I would say that's a great track record.

 

[BenDavis503]

Houston is not a terrible team. People are sleeping on Hayes. That guy has game.

 

[B-Roy]

Hey, them Rockets aint' dat bad eh?

 

[MIXUM]

like i said... shocking they are 3-1 beating utah (in utah) portland, and GS (in GS)

 

[Minstrel]

Houston is a team with no star power but a number of average to above average players. They're definitely not a bad team and could, with some luck, challenge Phoenix for that eighth seed. Most likely, though, they'll be a late-lottery team with somewhere close to 40 wins, IMO.

 

[Kaydow]

Out of the 10 teams that played tonight the best team was . . . The Rockets. At least so far this season. Granted, this must have been poop night in the NBA - coming into the night 8 of the 10 teams scheduled had sub .500 records. None the less, the Rockets aren't as bad as I thought. Playoff team? Who knows - too early to tell. But I wouldn't be all that surprised. Especially if they get anything out of T-Mac when he comes back. They get more of their talent than maybe any team in the league, and they play team ball.

 

[magnifier661]

Out of the 10 teams that played tonight the best team was . . . The Rockets. At least so far this season. Granted, this must have been poop night in the NBA - coming into the night 8 of the 10 teams scheduled had sub .500 records. None the less, the Rockets aren't as bad as I thought. Playoff team? Who knows - too early to tell. But I wouldn't be all that surprised. Especially if they get anything out of T-Mac when he comes back. They get more of their talent than maybe any team in the league, and they play team ball.

And didn't they have a great end of the season, when Yao went down? I seem to remember they were one of the hottest teams in the NBA 2 years ago. Maybe it's just the homer in me wanting Houston to look better than they actually are. I did say before the season started that Houston was going to give us problems. They have quick hands and play in your face defense for 48 minutes. It just tells you the importance of defense.

 

[MARIS61]

Gotta say it's hard to argue with that. The dude has been a proven winner. 4 teams and 3 of them went past the second round of the playoffs. 2 of them went to the WCF and should have won against the Lakers and 1 made it to the finals twice. I would say that's a great track record.

He's certainly better than any coach we've had since.

 

[KingSpeed]

Houston will make the playoffs. Those scrubs (in the good sense of the word) were the only guys who could take the Lakers to 7 games last season.

As for Utah? They barely made the playoffs last season. I see them in the lotto this time around.

 

[KingSpeed]

Houston is a team with no star power but a number of average to above average players. They're definitely not a bad team and could, with some luck, challenge Phoenix for that eighth seed.

Why do you assume that Phoenix (3-0) will only challenge for the 8th seed this season? Shaq is gone. Amare is back. Grant Hill is playing some of the best basketball of his career. And Frye's fitting in nicely. They look a lot like the team that was holding the West's top seed before Shaq joined two seasons ago.

 

[MIXUM]

locks for playoffs...

lakers
spurs
nuggets

likely for playoffs...

mavs
blazers... im being nice.. through 4 games... ???


questionable for playoffs

jazz
suns
hornets (dont be shocked if they are left out)
rockets

dark horses...

thunder
grizz
clippers

 

[Minstrel]

Why do you assume that Phoenix (3-0) will only challenge for the 8th seed this season? Shaq is gone. Amare is back. Grant Hill is playing some of the best basketball of his career. And Frye's fitting in nicely. They look a lot like the team that was holding the West's top seed before Shaq joined two seasons ago.

Because I base my evaluations on more than three games, which is often where you and I diverge.

Grant Hill's sudden rise in performance is extremely unlikely to be sustained. Players don't suddenly return to near-prime form at age 37. Frye is simply not going to continue playing like a borderline superstar.

Amare Stoudemire, a declining Nash and a couple of decent role-players (Hill and Richardson) aren't going to achieve much more than an eighth seed in a good conference like the current Western conference. If they were in the 1999-2002 Eastern conference, sure, they might contend for a higher seed.

 

[Minstrel]

blazers... im being nice.. through 4 games... ???

That's not "nice," that's silly optimistic. A 2-2 record isn't going to make the playoffs.

If the Blazers don't even play the remaining 78 games, they won't make the playoffs. I guarantee it. They're not good enough to make the playoffs through only 4 games.

 

[MIXUM]

give me your 8 playoff teams minstrel and speed

the locks... the likelys... the lucky to get in

 

[B-Roy]

locks for playoffs...

lakers
spurs
nuggets

likely for playoffs...

mavs
blazers... im being nice.. through 4 games... ???


questionable for playoffs

jazz
suns
hornets (dont be shocked if they are left out)
rockets

dark horses...

thunder
grizz
clippers

You know there's 8 spots right? How do you have so many questionables and dark horses?

 

[SheedSoNasty]

This reminds me of that Utah Jazz team a few years ago that didn't have any of their star players and were projected to win like 17 games but ended up kicking ass. It's funny how sometimes you don't need star players to be decent if you have the right group of guys. However, that doesn't ring true for championships.

 

[MIXUM]

i think all those teams have legit shots

 

[Minstrel]

give me your 8 playoff teams minstrel and speed

the locks... the likelys... the lucky to get in

Assuming no injuries (because with the right injuries, no team is a lock).

Locks: Lakers, Spurs, Blazers, Nuggets, Mavericks
Extremely Likely: Hornets, Jazz
Significant Chance: Suns, Rockets, Warriors (all these teams won't make it, but each has a non-trivial chance of sneaking in)
Lucky To Make It: Everyone else
Definitely Not Going To Make It Even If Every Other Team In The Conference Lost Their Two Best Players To Injuries: Sacramento

 

[MIXUM]

i agree with the locks (barring injuries)

i think the jazz, hornets, rockets and suns are very close. in all honesty... i think the blazers belong in this group too.

 

[rocketeer]

Out of the 10 teams that played tonight the best team was . . . The Rockets. At least so far this season. Granted, this must have been poop night in the NBA - coming into the night 8 of the 10 teams scheduled had sub .500 records. None the less, the Rockets aren't as bad as I thought. Playoff team? Who knows - too early to tell. But I wouldn't be all that surprised. Especially if they get anything out of T-Mac when he comes back. They get more of their talent than maybe any team in the league, and they play team ball.

i don't see tmac doing much positive for the rockets when he comes back. he'll be less than a year off microfracture surgery and won't really fit in with what the rockets are doing. right now everyone on the team plays hard on defense(though there still is no inside defensive presence which definitely hurts the overall defense) and is unselfish offensively. they play good defense and push the tempo. that's never been tmac's game.

starting 3-1 is good for the rockets, but their great shooting isn't going to be there every night. they are likely to win most of the games when they shoot 45+% from three, but i don't see how that could be expected to continue at the rate it has.

i can't wait to see how good this team can be with yao in the middle at 100%, unfortunately that's at least a year away at this point.

 

[RudyFor3]

Aaron Brooks continues to get better and is still young. Trevor Ariza is another greta up and coming player who plays both defense and offense.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Aaron Brooks continues to get better and is still young. Trevor Ariza is another greta up and coming player who plays both defense and offense.

Brooks embarrassed Deron Williams on his home court. Williams could not stay with him (Sound familiar?) and he never tried to post him up to utilize the size difference.

 

[BengalDuck]

i don't see tmac doing much positive for the rockets when he comes back. he'll be less than a year off microfracture surgery and won't really fit in with what the rockets are doing. right now everyone on the team plays hard on defense(though there still is no inside defensive presence which definitely hurts the overall defense) and is unselfish offensively. they play good defense and push the tempo. that's never been tmac's game.

starting 3-1 is good for the rockets, but their great shooting isn't going to be there every night. they are likely to win most of the games when they shoot 45+% from three, but i don't see how that could be expected to continue at the rate it has.

i can't wait to see how good this team can be with yao in the middle at 100%, unfortunately that's at least a year away at this point.

Maybe but there's no shot blocker in there, but PER differential wise, are there more than a handful of bangers that are better than Hayes down there?