The last two stretches of the season

Post #1 » by **Klomp** » Fri Feb 16, 2018 7:54 pm

Stretch 1: Feb. 23-Mar. 18
at Houston
Chicago (back-to-back)
at Sacramento
at Portland
at Utah (back-to-back)
Boston
Golden State
at Washington
at San Antonio
Houston (back-to-back)

Stretch 2: Mar. 20-Apr. 11
Clippers
at Knicks
at Sixers (back-to-back)
Grizzlies
Hawks
at Mavericks
Jazz
at Nuggets
at Lakers (back-to-back)
Grizzlies
Nuggets

southern wolf · Post #2 » by **southern wolf** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 11:45 pm

Kind of sucks that we've played the most games out of any team just about so far and we've still got four back to backs left.

Stretch 2 is a lot easier than stretch 1.

Post #3 » by **Mamba4Goat** » Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:24 am

I hate that the Wolves aren't in the same division as Chicago, Milwaukee, etc. The travel by itself makes things a lot harder for them. The end of stretch one is brutal.

Biff Cooper · Post #4 » by **Biff Cooper** » Mon Feb 19, 2018 4:39 pm

Stretch 1 looks brutal. We do tend to play up to the competition though, so hopefully will do all right through it. There are teams starting to stack up behind us in the standings.

minimus · Post #5 » by **minimus** » Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:29 pm

Looking forward to see every game in stretch 1. That should be a good basketball.

shrink · Post #6 » by **shrink** » Mon Feb 19, 2018 11:06 pm

We are fortunate to not have Stretch 1 second.

Those teams will be doing all they can to win every game to improve their playoff positioning. However, as it stands, the current Stretch 2 teams will be actively trying to lose their last 12 games, to improve their position under these last year of lottery rules. Good players will be benched with mysterious injuries, and they will use every opportunity to play young, inexperienced players to "judge how they look." If we stay healthy, it's quite possible we could finish the season 9-2, or even 10-1, over that last stretch.

shangrila · Post #7 » by **shangrila** » Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:03 am

shrink wrote:We are fortunate to not have Stretch 1 second.

Those teams will be doing all they can to win every game to improve their playoff positioning. However, as it stands, the current Stretch 2 teams will be actively trying to lose their last 12 games, to improve their position under these last year of lottery rules. Good players will be benched with mysterious injuries, and they will use every opportunity to play young, inexperienced players to "judge how they look." If we stay healthy, it's quite possible we could finish the season 9-2, or even 10-1, over that last stretch.

Shhh, don't jinx it.

Loyal[]Wolf · Post #8 » by **Loyal[]Wolf** » Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:54 am

So, what's everyone's predictions? 51-31? 50-32? It'd be nice to get 50 wins.

southern wolf · Post #9 » by **southern wolf** » Thu Feb 22, 2018 12:38 am

Loyal[]Wolf wrote:So, what's everyone's predictions? 51-31? 50-32? It'd be nice to get 50 wins.

I think it's going to be tough to get to 50 wins, especially with that first stretch, but you never know. We have to expect a few losses to bad teams cause we've been doing that all season.

I say around 47-48 wins.

Narf · Post #10 » by **Narf** » Thu Feb 22, 2018 1:57 am

southern wolf wrote:
Loyal[]Wolf wrote:So, what's everyone's predictions? 51-31? 50-32? It'd be nice to get 50 wins.

I think it's going to be tough to get to 50 wins, especially with that first stretch, but you never know. We have to expect a few losses to bad teams cause we've been doing that all season.

I say around 47-48 wins.

We've been beating good teams all season. By that logic we'll have a better record vs better teams.

southern wolf · Post #11 » by **southern wolf** » Thu Feb 22, 2018 5:26 am

Narf wrote:
southern wolf wrote:
Loyal[]Wolf wrote:So, what's everyone's predictions? 51-31? 50-32? It'd be nice to get 50 wins.

I think it's going to be tough to get to 50 wins, especially with that first stretch, but you never know. We have to expect a few losses to bad teams cause we've been doing that all season.

I say around 47-48 wins.

We've been beating good teams all season. By that logic we'll have a better record vs better teams.

Still don't think we'll get 50 wins, but you're right, we've beaten some pretty good teams.

DaMplsKid · Post #12 » by **DaMplsKid** » Thu Feb 22, 2018 2:49 pm

We could end the season on an 8 game winning streak. Those last8 are all very winnable games. That would be a great push for the playoffs.

It will be interesting to see how this team is after the break. Last year the turned it up hope we see even more this year.

shrink · Post #13 » by **shrink** » Thu Feb 22, 2018 5:51 pm

Now: 36-25
Stretch 1: 6-4
Stretch 2: 8-3
--------------------
Prediction: 50-32

I'm trying to be realistic about both stretches. We weren't playing well or closing out games as we went into the All Star Break, but we're still a dangerous team, that seems to play better and more motivated against the better teams in the Western Conference. I think 6-4 is reasonable. For the second half, I think with many opponents tanking, we'd be likely to win 80% of those games. However, I tossed in one extra loss because we've shown we can lose to teams when we don't get excited to play against lesser talent.

Post #14 » by **Calinks** » Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:01 pm

Not a lot of time to get our act together for the playoffs. I just hope to see the defense get stabilized so we can at least put up a showing in the first round. Right now with our defense I think we will get handily dealt with by OKC or Portland if they are playing well.

TaylorTag · Post #15 » by **TaylorTag** » Thu Feb 22, 2018 8:59 pm

Calinks wrote:Not a lot of time to get our act together for the playoffs. I just hope to see the defense get stabilized so we can at least put up a showing in the first round. Right now with our defense I think we will get handily dealt with by OKC or Portland if they are playing well.

If the Thunder and Trailblazers are playing well, I don't think we'll see them in the 1st round... Maybe I am being optimistic, but I think the Wolves have a better shot of making the 3 seed as they do the 4, in which case I think we'll play a team like Denver or maybe even the Clippers

Vindicater · Post #16 » by **Vindicater** » Tue Feb 27, 2018 8:38 pm

Will end up wit the 4th seed and shake the playoff tree.

KGdaBom · Post #17 » by **KGdaBom** » Tue Feb 27, 2018 9:08 pm

Since the Butler injury we have played two bad teams and took care of business against both. If we can continue to beat the bad teams and win a few against the good teams we can hold on to the 4th seed. If this time without Butler get's Wiggins to step up it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise and long as Butler comes back strong.

shrink · Post #18 » by **shrink** » Tue Feb 27, 2018 10:23 pm

shrink wrote:Now: 36-25
Stretch 1: 6-4
Stretch 2: 8-3
--------------------
Prediction: 50-32

I'm trying to be realistic about both stretches. We weren't playing well or closing out games as we went into the All Star Break, but we're still a dangerous team, that seems to play better and more motivated against the better teams in the Western Conference. I think 6-4 is reasonable. For the second half, I think with many opponents tanking, we'd be likely to win 80% of those games. However, I tossed in one extra loss because we've shown we can lose to teams when we don't get excited to play against lesser talent.

Now that Jimmy's down, i think I will reassess.

For Stretch 1, we've already gone 3-1. With Jimmy, I think 3-3 was conservative (we've won most of our games against Western Confernce contenders, but let's assume we go 1-5. Stretch 2 shouldn't change (8-3), and the lottery teams will be trying even harder to lose. I think we have a really rough next two weeks, but we end the season 48-34, solidly in the playoffs.

Keep in mind that the games that matter when we look at Western Confernence opponents are when a contender plays a contender. Last night, Hanneman seemed sad that all the contenders won (HOU beat UTA though), but this wasn't a surprise when they play teams trying to improve their lottery position. Maybe when we get closer, I'll break down the western confernece schedules, and put it in the playoff thread.

Post #19 » by **Klomp** » Wed Mar 21, 2018 3:42 am

Klomp wrote:Stretch 1: Feb. 23-Mar. 18
at Houston
Chicago (back-to-back)
at Sacramento
at Portland
at Utah (back-to-back)
Boston
Golden State
at Washington
at San Antonio
Houston (back-to-back)

Stretch 2: Mar. 20-Apr. 11
Clippers
at Knicks
at Sixers (back-to-back)
Grizzlies
Hawks
at Mavericks
Jazz
at Nuggets
at Lakers (back-to-back)
Grizzlies
Nuggets

Without Butler, we went 4-6 in that first stretch, starting Stretch 2 off with a win tonight. Butler could possibly return in time for the last 5 games.

D1SGRUNTL3D · Post #20 » by **D1SGRUNTL3D** » Wed Mar 21, 2018 3:52 am

4-6 without Jimmy is about as good as you can ask for with those road games. The GS game was the swing game, winning at washington made up for the Boston & SA debacles.

Should beat the Knicks, @ philly will be tough.

Then favorable games the rest of the way while everybody else beats up on each other.