Scheduling Favors Hawks to Make Playoffs

Rod700 · Post #1 » by **Rod700** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:08 pm

First off, I have to give props to Hoopsguru for mentioning part of this on a previous thread before I could post my own. It's likely that others have realized this as well, but for those of you who haven't, I just wanted to point out how our schedules could work for the Hawks, and against the Nets and Sixers in the playoff race. If you have some spare time, look over each schedule and you'll see how tough the first half of March will be for the Nets and the how difficult mid- to late March could be for the Sixers. At the same time, the latter half of March should be a time when the Hawks go on a run, and they could possibly pull as many as 5 wins out of 8 games in April as well. Just a little tidbit to start the weekend on a positive note.

HoopsGuru25 · Post #2 » by **HoopsGuru25** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:36 pm

The Hawks(followed by the Bulls and Sixers) have the easiest schedule left of the 6-10 teams while Washington(they still have a stretch where they play 8 of 9 on the road in only 11 days!) and New Jersey have the toughest. I would also assume that the Hawks are as talented as any of the 6-10 teams w/ Bibby.

The Hawks have already went through two road trips on the west coast...gone through the Texas Triangle...and played Detroit(toughest team to beat)4 times. We only have 3 games where I'd be shocked if we won(Boston twice and New Orleans on the road)and six games left against Miami and New York(the two worst teams in the East). There is no excuse for not making the playoffs.

conleyorbust · Post #3 » by **conleyorbust** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:50 pm

My only real concerns are depth issues down the stretch, this is compounded by the hand injuries to every single player on our team, and the inability of our team to stay motivated for any consistent period of time - in other words, coaching. Well add to that last one our inability to win on the road as we have a couple more road games than home games (although I'm gonna be makin some noise at MSG so that'll approximate two home games).

Regardless of all that, unless there is a serious injury to one of Josh, Joe, Al, or Mike, we should make the playoffs. There is no excuse not to, if we don't heads had better roll.

Rod700 · Post #4 » by **Rod700** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:08 pm

conleyorbust wrote: (although I'm gonna be makin some noise at MSG so that'll approximate two home games).

Give em hell COB. :clap:

JoshB914 · Post #5 » by **JoshB914** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:15 pm

Regardless of what we do, I think Phili will fall off. The team I am a little worried about is Chicago. I know they suck but I'm just afraid that their annual win streak is coming. I also expect the Nets to play better with Harris at PG, but we could still catch them because of our schedule. We are almost surely one-and-done as a 7 or 8 seed, but just getting to the playoffs would be nice.

HoopsGuru25 · Post #6 » by **HoopsGuru25** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:29 pm

Philly has the advantage of having the best chemistry of the 5 teams and none of their key players are injury prone. I actually think the team with the worst chance to make the playoffs is Washigton..they are w/o their top 2 players(no one knows when either is coming back)and their schedule is brutal. New Jersey's schedule is also pretty bad. They are going to be playing alot of teams over 500 down the stretch and alot of teams over 500 on the road.

I will guess that the Hawks & Sixers will make it. I think the Bulls get in over the Wizards based on the Wizards being w/o their top two players against an awful schedule.

_BBIB_ · Post #7 » by **_BBIB_** » Sat Mar 1, 2008 3:14 am

Thing about the Hawks is that you learn that the schedule doesn't matter.

I remember when I first tried following our schedule a couple months ahead. I soon gave up when we showed complete inconsistency with the way we can beat a team like the Suns, Mavs, etc and lose to crap teams

HoopsGuru25 · Post #8 » by **HoopsGuru25** » Sat Mar 1, 2008 3:36 am

The schedule DOES matter...if it didn't then the Hawks wouldn't have gone 0-3 in Texas and wouldn't have had two terrible west coast road trips. Do you think it's a coincidence that two of the three road wins against the West are Minnesota and Seattle(and GS who we have beaten 4 times in a row)? It's also not a coincidence that the only team to beat the Hawks at home with a worse record than us is Seattle in double OT(where Wilkens scored 41. The Hawks play well at home and suck on the road(which young teams do) in general. Just because they win some HOME games against elite teams doesn't mean we play better against elite teams. I would assume the Hawks record is better against teams below 500 than teams above 500..which is a good thing considering the Hawks play alot of below 500 teams to end the year.