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Good Lord. Here are our next six games:

LA Lakers
at Boston
at Cleveland
Boston
at Toronto
at Detroit

Being the eternal optimist that I am, I am going to predict that the Pacers exceed expectations...and somehow manage to win ONE of those games.

That would put the season record at 7-15 by the time we see our next cupcake.

The good news is, if we play all these elite teams now, it means we won't see them too often later in the season.

Hang in there, Pacers fans!!! We will ride this out.

Really want to win the Toronto game.

Yeah, it'll be very hard...

But I think we can beat the Pistons (they aren't playing well lately), Raptors and Cavs (we almost beaten then in Cavs home)...

We are not favorite in any of these game but I really think we can get 2 or 3 wins.

It seems like we've already had a tough schedule so far anyway. NJ, CHA, and OKC are the only cupcakes. NJ actually is 9-7, but I would have guessed cupcake early on. CHI, MIA, and DAL are all teams that are around where I expect us to end up and we lost to each of them on the road. I think that as our schedule eases up and this group gets more accustomed to playing together and closing out games that we'll go on a decent run and look better than we are at the time just like we look worse now.

at DET (10-6) L
BOS (16-2) W
PHO (11-7) L
at CLE (14-3) L
NJ (9-7) W
OKC (2-16) W
at NJ (9-7) W
PHI (7-10) L
at CHI (8-9) L
ATL (10-6) W
ORL (13-4) L
at MIA (8-9) L
at DAL (8-8) L
at HOU (11-7) W
CHA (5-11) L
at ORL (13-4) L

combined record of opponents: 154-116 (.570)

We'll be alright, nothing to lose in the next 6. We have proven to atleast be competitive down the stretch in most games this season, and as we all know, are more than capable of providing upsets.
What we need is to control the rock more, and be more effective with our open shots, and bench production.

granger05 wrote:at DET (10-6) L
BOS (16-2) W
PHO (11-7) L
at CLE (14-3) L
NJ (9-7) W
OKC (2-16) W
at NJ (9-7) W
PHI (7-10) L
at CHI (8-9) L
ATL (10-6) W
ORL (13-4) L
at MIA (8-9) L
at DAL (8-8) L
at HOU (11-7) W
CHA (5-11) L
at ORL (13-4) L

combined record of opponents: 154-116 (.570)

You double counted NJ & Orlando...combined record is actually 132-105 (.557). Still a tough schedule.

You double counted NJ & Orlando...combined record is actually 132-105 (.557). Still a tough schedule.

Well, yeah, but that's because we played them twice. If we played Boston (16-2) three times and OKC (2-16) once, I wouldn't say that we had played a .500 schedule. We'd played a really hard schedule. This is symantics I guess, and now I'm curious how this is recorded by real schedule officionados.

The whole first half of our season is the hard part. I think we're going to be like the Heat of '04: make a huge push after the all-star break and make it over .500 and a higher seed in the playoffs. Hahaha.

We'll also go 6 in a row starting tonight. Kool-aid tastes so good sometimes.

Well the combined record is exactly as I calculated it.

However, the "Opponent's Winning Percentage", which is sometimes used, would be calculated as you have except that you'd exclude any games against the Pacers. In that case, it would be 144-110 or (.566).

It's all counting nosehairs, and they all pretty much tell you that the Pacers have played a tough schedule.

Miller4ever wrote:We'll also go 6 in a row starting tonight. Kool-aid tastes so good sometimes.

Tasting even better now.

Danny Granger has really turned into a star. What a performance.

It's also something else watching Daniels right now.

LA, BOS,CLE,BOS...pshh, is the the worst you can do Stern!

1-0 Baby!

If we can get a split against Boston who we have already beaten once I think we can handle Toronto as they are banged up and struggling right now, that would put us at 3-3 which would be a big confidence booster.

If we can hang in there until Dec 13th we can make a big run as our schedule gets alot easier.

I was just looking at Hollinger's power rankingsLINK. He's been higher on the Pacers than most and has us slated at #11. But, the real reason I post this is because he has the Pacers Strength of Schedule (SOS in the little stat bar there) as .587. In my previous calculations I had the opponents' records at 154-116 = .570, but stick the now 14-2 Lakers on there and that makes 168-118 = .587. So at least one dork calculates things the way I do.

You can sort by SOS and the only team that's faced a harder schedule by this metric is the Bulls.