The Playoff Hunt

[BigSlam]

Here is what is left for the season:

Feb 11 vs Washington
Feb 17 at Orlando
Feb 18 vs Indiana
Feb 20 vs Orlando
Feb 22 at Houston
Feb 24 at Phoenix
Feb 25 at Sacramento
Feb 27 at Golden State
Feb 28 at LA Clippers

Mar 3 vs Chicago
Mar 6 vs Atlanta
Mar 7 at New York
Mar 10 at San Antonio
Mar 13 vs Houston
Mar 14 at Minnesota
Mar 16 vs Toronto
Mar 18 vs Sacramento
Mar 20 at Toronto
Mar 21 vs Indiana
Mar 25 at Washington
Mar 27 at Philadelphia
Mar 28 vs New York
Mar 31 vs LA Lakers

Apr 1 at Boston
Apr 3 vs Miami
Apr 5 at Detroit
Apr 7 vs Philadelphia
Apr 10 at Oklahoma City
Apr 11 at Chicago
Apr 13 at New Jersey
Apr 15 at Orlando

So looking at that, how many wins do you think we'll have left in us and will it be enough to make the playoffs?

The Feb 22-28 road trip will be SUPER important.

[W_HAMILTON]

I don't know, but I don't see why some people are already counting us out of the playoffs. We're still only about 2-3 games back in the loss column. None of those teams we have a chance of catching have really blasted off, either.

We may have a tough schedule, but if we're healthy, I like our chances, especially after some of the moves we have made lately.

Looking at the schedule, it looks like we need to try and get some wins right after the All-Star break, since we play some tough teams.

Actually looking at it now, it doesn't seem that tough of a schedule. March actually looks pretty easy. I guess it's supposed to be "tough" based on the amount of road games we have, but I think once they get healthy and get their act together, we can beat a lot of those teams on the road.

[HuggyBear1688]

I see 16 potential victories and I feel that may not be enough by maybe 3-4 games, but its hard to tell how these guys are going to play especially fully healthy if that ever happens we could be a deadily team, I just drool over thinking about this lineup

PG- Felton, Augustin
SG- Bell, Felton
SF- Wallace, Radmonavic, Martin
PF- Boris, J Howard
C- Okafor, Diop

[fatlever]

if we can just get everyone healthy for a long period i really think this team is good enough to have a stretch of games where we win 8 out of 10 or 12 out of 16 or something like that... which of course would put us right in the middle of the playoff hunt.

[WaydownSouth]

Looking at the schedule I like our chances to make the playoffs, but only if we can get rid of this injury bug.. I can see around 15 wins in that lot. They are bound to jag a win here and there against the odds, but also they are bound to lose 1 or 2 that should be in the bag.

[fatlever]

we should be able to put together a nice record in march.

[Rich4114]

I just hope we don't miss it by a game or two. I want to see them get in, but they've got to play smart basketball over the next 3 months. March will be our month to seize the opportunity.

[August Us Seazr]

Slam, its interesting you brought this up. Steve Martin brought up the next seven games at least twice on the FSCarolinas broadcast last night. His main point was the head to head games with the teams left that stand between us at 13th and say the 8th seed. That makes these games CRITICAL:

Feb 18- Pacers in Charlotte Winner- Charlotte- 103-94
Mar 3- Bulls in Charlotte Winner- ?????????????
Mar 7- Knicks in New York
Mar 16- Raptors in Charlotte
Mar 20- Raptors in Toronto
Mar 21- Pacers in Charlotte
Mar 27- 76ers in Philadelphia
Mar 28- Knicks in Charlotte
Apr 3- Heat in Charlotte
Apr 7- 76ers in Charlotte
Apr 11- Bulls in Chicago
Apr 13- Nets in New Jersey

Twelve crucial games. If I had looked at this batch of games in November with the group we had then, I would have said we might win 3 to 5 of these 12. But (thank the good Lord above and Larry Brown and yes, even our front office) this is February and our roster finally makes me think that we can probably do well with these games. And look again- seven of these twelve are HOME games!

Oh, and I agree that the western swing will be super important. But we have the lesser degree of difficulty teams this time- Rockets, Suns, Kings, Warriors and Clippers. I'll say this- If we come back from THAT road trip 1-4, forget the playoffs. There won't be a mountain to climb- it will be a sheer cliff with no footholds.

It also won't hurt if we get some help from the Magic, Celtics, Hawks, and Cavaliers to hold serve against those teams I mentioned earlier. It's much easier to leapfrog a team if they are holding steady instead of on the rise.

One other thing that has bothered me in the past couple of years is that we do amazingly well against the teams that are "supposed" to beat us, yet we have the most trouble with teams we should be able to handle. I hope that with the infusion of new "depth" players that some of that lack of "motivation" will be gone. The team looked fabulous last night. And a little OT- I have a nickname for Radmanovich. How about "Vlad the Impaler"! He sure ran a spear through the Wizards last night!

Claw on!

[ccbballin]

I think the Bobcats have a really good shot at finishing 20-10 to end at .500. There are some tough games and six games are back-to-back. But they always find a way to beat some of the elite teams and if we win games we're supposed to win then we have a good chance.

Also this team has gotten better every month and if we can finish this month with a good winning streak then we have a chance. Plus a lot of the new guys probably dont feel that much more at home than on they do feel at home on the road since they are coming from new places so that may help.

[BigSlam]

With Miami just trading for Jermaine, and assuming he stays healthy, it looks like they might have just got a little stronger - which is not good for us.

[chabber]

I take it you just mean in general long term goals? Yes they will do nothing but improve over the next few years with Riley having tools he does to rebuild that team.

However for this year at least if this trade made them better equipped to hold down some of the teams vying for the 7th and 8th spots it could work out in our favor. We only play them 1 more time and they are currently the 5th seed. Very unlikely that we'd climb that high in the standings. I'm going to check out how many games they have left against the playoff contenders.

Edited above because the last paragraph made little sense when i posted it.

Heat's games against teams vying for the last 2 playoff spots.

76ers
Pistons
Knicks
@76ers
@Nets
@Pistons
@Pacers
@Bulls
Bucks
@Bobcats
Knicks
Pistons

[Bassman]

The Bulls are getting better, the Bucks and Knicks are slipping, 76'ers, Pistons and Pacers are unknowns until we see the results of trades or possible trades.

Key, as another poster said earlier, is the health of this team. I like the potential, but LB is building this team for a run next season more than this one. If we make a deadline deal that shakes the equilbrium for a week or more, this season's playoffs are toast. BUT, the right deal could set us up for a deeper run next year.

[thruthefire]

Does anyone have a stat on what are record is with our starting lineup as:

Okafor
Diaw
Wallace
Bell
Felton

A poster on the Charlotte Observer said we are 9-6 with that lineup. Just wondering if that is the truth.

[Walt Cronkite]

Does anyone have a stat on what are record is with our starting lineup as:

Okafor
Diaw
Wallace
Bell
Felton

A poster on the Charlotte Observer said we are 9-6 with that lineup. Just wondering if that is the truth.

This line-up is far and away our best one atm. In 331 documented minutes they have an 81.2% win % and a +/- of +113!!

(JIC this is an Anti-DJ bait--DJ only has 2 lineups with 26 combined minutes with Raja)

[thruthefire]

Does anyone have a stat on what are record is with our starting lineup as:

Okafor
Diaw
Wallace
Bell
Felton

A poster on the Charlotte Observer said we are 9-6 with that lineup. Just wondering if that is the truth.

This line-up is far and away our best one atm. In 331 documented minutes they have an 81.2% win % and a +/- of +113!!

(JIC this is an Anti-DJ bait--DJ only has 2 lineups with 26 combined minutes with Raja)

It's not. I just wanted to know what the truth was and what to expect after the break.

That's a pretty remarkable statistic, where did you get it from?

[Walt Cronkite]

82games.com-Bobcats-Bell-5 man units
http://www.82games.com/0809/08CHA5.HTM

[BigSlam]

Steve Martin was saying pregame Vs the Clipps that he figures we'll need to finish winning 38 games on the season to sneak into the 8th playoff spot.

He has a formula that he uses to deduce if it's "doable" or not which he sort of bumbled through without properly explaining it, but it consisted of:

We have to win 80% of our remaining home games. We have 10 home games left so we have to to win 8 of them.

We need to have wins against 6 sub .500 teams. We play 8 sub .500 teams to close out the season.

There was more to it but he sort of confused himself and in turn me. Did anyone else catch the explanation of his formula? Steph seemed very excited about it so I think there must be some merit to it.

[BigSlam]

Most felt that Feb 22- Feb 28 was going to be a very telling run of games. We finished it 3-2.

Pretty happy with that result (even though the two loses were blow outs).

[e4Nf6]

Is it completely crazy to say we could catch the Pistons as well? My first instinct is that there is no way that team misses the playoffs, but who knows.

We're down five games to them, which wouldn't be impossible to make up in the 20-25 games left, especially if they continue to death-spiral....

[amcoolio]

I haven't noticed before reading that link that Bell doesn't really play with Augustin that much. Neat observation. It seems Augustin only plays with Felton in the backcourt.