Schedule towards Playoffs

[Frankie23]

A little analysis i made:

From the 17 games left, 9 are at home.
We are only playing 8 games against PO teams (so far): Pacers (@home), Celtics, Jazz x2 (1 @home), Lakers x3 (2 @home), Grizzlies (@home).

We will have five b2b and one b2b2b.

Hope we make a good run and get HCA. The main thing though is to stay healthy..

[Nolan]

We have a pretty easy schedule down the stetch which is a very good thing. We'll have time to rest our stars and get healthy but at the same time we have a shot at passing the Thunder.

[SinJackal]

Easy as in the win% of teams we're facing, right? Clearly isn't easy in terms of b2bs, 'cause it's pretty brutal for that. 5 sets of b2bs and a set of b2b2b. :\

I was hoping the Thunder would lose today, but the Lakers totally choked. We're still 3 games back. I'm starting to doubt we can catch them at this point. We were 6-4 at one point post ASB. That really killed our chances of catching them. If we played 8-2 instead we'd be just 1 game back, but 3 in 1 month on a team who's only lost 12 so far is not very likely. After this next week, the Thunder have a super Charmin soft closing schedule, with only one game each week in their last 3 weeks being against decent teams. And only 4 against +.500 teams, one of those 4 being barely over .500. :\

Whereas we play 8 +.500 teams over the same time, and have more b2bs.

If we don't get within one game in this next week when the Thunder play Chicago, Memphis, Miami, and Indiana, we won't catch them. Even if they play .500 against their good opponents and beat the scrubs, that's only 16 losses for them. So we can only lose 3. And we're prolly gonna lose at least 4-5 more.

Second seed is pretty much locked up though unless we tank all 3 April games to LA.

[Black_Jack21]

Opponents wise not a bad run home. But man 5 B2Bs out and a b2b2b that's a bit mean.

Still we are looking pretty good, maybe not going to catch OKC but we can play into form.

Got to get Diaw, jackson and mills worked into the rotation.

If we stay healthy during the run home I'll call that a win.

[co_laper]

I have us pegged with 5 more losses. Anything more than that is awful, unless we started taking games off for the last few games of the season if our playoff seed is locked up. But assuming it goes to the very end, anything less than 4 is a success.

I don't think we'll catch OKC either. But to be honest, I want another shot at Memphis in the playoffs. I don't wanna hear that crap about us being lucky not meeting Memphis if we go anywhere this year. And then I definitely want to see Dallas. I don't really care if we meet OKC in the WCF, Memphis and Dallas is the two teams I hope we get to meet. Perhaps I'd like us to get someone easier in the first round. Then meet Memphis in the 2nd round hoping they upset whoever they get in the first round. then we get Dallas in the WCF (OKC got upset), and then we go on to the Finals.

[SinJackal]

Yeah I agree, I actually want to face Memphis. It makes me both giggle and shake my head in annoyance at the same time when people say SA doesn't want to see Memphis in the playoffs. Apparently those people have no understanding of the impact of health in the playoffs. Yeah, they didn't have Gay, but all he would've done was take shots away from ZBo and Gasol which in an ironic way would've only helped us, not hurt us. I'd happily have traded a fully healthy Grizzlies team PLUS even spot them a few points to start each game in exchange for a healthy Spurs team last year.

Whoever we get in the first round it's a W. Second round is likely going to be LA which will be a tough series, but they don't seem nearly as potent anymore without Odom (who always killed us more than any other Laker in the last 3 years). WCF will probably be OKC, but I'm not worried about them either unless A: We're not anywhere near 100%, or B: refs go into Stern's Angels mode and OKC averages over 30 FTA per game in the series.

OKC is going to coast past the 1st round due to no competition (might be just the Suns. Hopefully the Rockets slip down to 8 because I think they can make them struggle), 2nd round will be either Dallas or Clippers, unless one tanks to Memphis earlier.

Really, the 1st seed has a soft road this year in both conferences unless some funky stuff happens in the standings to close the season and they draw Dallas in the first round. The 2 and 3 seeds blow in the west this year. LA and SA don't wanna play eachother 'til WCF.

Anyway, hoping for a win today and a 2-2 week next week for OKC.