PLAYOFFS WATCH (All in for 7th seed!!!)

[Jajwanda]

I expect Houston to gain ground against L.A. L.A. will slowly but surely overcome Utah to get that 8th seed.

[JohnVancouver]

So we win and Houston loses - we back 2 games now?

[minifang]

2.5 back but 2 back in the loss column.

[Lost Angel]

the Denver game is massive for us. we can beat this team.

we need to win this because we still have a game against OKC left in March. really can't take too many losses at this point.

[Jajwanda]

If L.A. can get that 8 seed, they've got a shot.

I'm excited to see if L.A. will get to try out the Clark-Gasol-Howard FC before the playoffs begin. I feel like that group would be incredibly hard to stop on the boards, on the defensive end (if the matches are done correctly), and if L.A. plays half-court ball.

Against OKC and SA that kind of size along with improved athleticism from last year might be tough for OKC to stop.

[BlackBerry]

LA has beaten OKC this season in the regular season so I know LA can beat them. However I would rather see LA go against the spurs, since the atheticism of LA is slightly better than Spurs. I hope LA makes it into the play offs.

[Jajwanda]

I expect them to face both which is fine.

[AdonisDeMarion]

I'm so annoyed the Denver game is a back to back. It's an extremely difficult game for us to win in the first place but on a back to back and in Denver it's nearly impossible. Ty Lawson will just run us out of the damn gym.


The reason I'm less than optimistic about our chances to make the playoffs is our team has two huge problems:

1) Front court depth is very thin. Dwight's shoulder could give out at any time and if that happens it's over.

2) An even bigger problem is our inability to defend speedy young point guards. We just get killed by guys like CP3, Lawson, Parker (not so young I know), Westbrook, Lin, Lillard etc. That's just not the type of hole a team can have if they want to compete for a championship.

Yes we can still make the playoffs but unless we find a way to defend opposing PG's better we're not going to make much noise once we get there.

This is why I wanted West to play for us, he's cheap and crazy so its all good because you have to be a lil crazry to play in LA

Ya as crazy as it sounds DeLonte probably could help us defensively. He's bigger and more athletic than Nash and as big as Blake and definitely a better defender. Blake can't guard his own shadow.

Lol I love Blake, but his defense won't help us at all. I like West because of the way he plays and we all know what he can do when given minutes. West could do wonders for once we face Parker, Westbrook, Paul, Conley Jr or Lawson.

[AdonisDeMarion]

If L.A. can get that 8 seed, they've got a shot.

I'm excited to see if L.A. will get to try out the Clark-Gasol-Howard FC before the playoffs begin. I feel like that group would be incredibly hard to stop on the boards, on the defensive end (if the matches are done correctly), and if L.A. plays half-court ball.

Against OKC and SA that kind of size along with improved athletic from last year might be tough for OKC to stop.

That would work well on OKC.
Howard vs Ibaka
Gasol vs Perkins
Clark vs Durant
Bryant vs Westbrook
Nash vs Martin

[Vlade12]

Golden State 33-23
Utah 31-26
Houston 31-27

we are going have to go on a 10 game winning streak and Utah and Rockets are going have to stumble which they have refused to do this season. They have stayed above .500 all season

[Vlade12]

one last losing streak and we are done

[hermes]

not worried, we'll be fine

[jman2585]

If the Lakers go 20-4 for the rest of the season, they will finish with 48 wins. There have been years where 48 wins wasn't enough to make the Western playoffs. This year I'd say the minimum number of wins the Lakers need is 45, maybe more. Looking at the schedule, the following would look to be very tough wins for the Lakers:
- 1 game v.s Thunder
- 1 game v.s Spurs
- 1 game v.s Clippers
- 1 game v.s Memphis
The Pacers are on a hot streak right now too, and match up quite well with the Lakers, so that's 5 games I'm not at all confident the Lakers can win.

There are other tough games, back to backs, etc, on the schedule too, so even if the Lakers beat all the teams they're "supposed to", it probably isn't enough.

[TheHartBreakKid]

17-7 gives us 45 wins. That's very doable...Utah's schedule gets very tough soon. Our schedule isn't too bad....we just need to stay injury free and no more inner drama, and keep doing what we were doing. This loss isn't a big deal. When I analyzed our schedule I expected us to drop this one, the game against the Clippers and the next game in OKC. If we win the next two at home, and beat NO on the road, we are right on track with winning 7 of our last 10.


It's not going to be easy though, I'll admit that. As the dude above me mentioned, we have 5 very tough matchups, and bunch of games that while I expect us to win, I could see us dropping, like 2 games against the Warriors, 2 games against Atlanta, a game at Portland, etc..

[jman2585]

Yeh, Atlanta is playing well right now, and you match up terribly with them. Horford can take Dwight outside with his mid-range game, Teague will go wild, Smith stretches out the floor a little while being able to physically keep up with Metta. They've got a tonne of outside shootin too, and bodies to throw at Dwight.

Remember, to get to 45 wins the Rockets only need to go 14-10 in their last 24 games, while the Jazz only need to go 14-11. That seems unrealistic given how those teams have been playing lately.

[DEEP3CL]

Yeh, Atlanta is playing well right now, and you match up terribly with them. Horford can take Dwight outside with his mid-range game, Teague will go wild, Smith stretches out the floor a little while being able to physically keep up with Metta. They've got a tonne of outside shootin too, and bodies to throw at Dwight.

Remember, to get to 45 wins the Rockets only need to go 14-10 in their last 24 games, while the Jazz only need to go 14-11. That seems unrealistic given how those teams have been playing lately.

Kobe owns the Hawks, and you mentioning Smith as " stretching the floor"........I say go ahead, if he wants to shoot jumper let'em. The Hawks don't match up with the Lakers, they have NO ONE.....NO ONE to check Kobe.

The Lakers will smash the Hawks both times next month. As far as I'm concerned the Lakers only have 2 tough games the rest of the way, the one with OKC next Tuesday and the one with the Clippers in April. The Spurs we have at home, we choked off the game the first time with the Pacers.

People are over analyzing our schedule, we got 24 games left. If we win between 18-20 games we should get in.

[Beethoven]

Freakin Houston believes they are guaranteed a playoff spot or higher than eighth saying lakers shouldn't be using them as the carrot dangling in front of us, pompously saying that the battle is between us utah Portland and Dallas and they are above that group.
Will please me to no end to see Houston falter and choke and jettisoned out of the playoffs picture at season end.

[AcecardZ]

Freakin Houston believes they are guaranteed a playoff spot or higher than eighth saying lakers shouldn't be using them as the carrot dangling in front of us, pompously saying that the battle is between us utah Portland and Dallas and they are above that group.
Will please me to no end to see Houston falter and choke and jettisoned out of the playoffs picture at season end.

Two of three years of playing on a middling team in Houston, and believe me that's exactly what they're going to be, and harden is going to wish he never left OKC even if it meant taking slightly less money.

[XtotheDeezy]

I would rather Utah get bumped and Houston have to endure humiliation at the hands of the Clippers or Thunder. I know the Rockets beat the Thunder recently, but over 7 games the Thunder would spank them silly.

[garcia3]

I would rather Utah get bumped and Houston have to endure humiliation at the hands of the Clippers or Thunder. I know the Rockets beat the Thunder recently, but over 7 games the Thunder would spank them silly.

WTH