Playoff picture thread

[Colbinii]

Kyrie was making some absolutely ridiculous shots. Credit to him, not our defense.

[minimus]

Kyrie was making some absolutely ridiculous shots. Credit to him, not our defense.

There was one Kyrie possession, when he attacked Conley directly and I preferred Edwards to be Kyrie defender. And there was another possession when Conley waved Edwards off and jumped on Kyrie in corner and Kyrie hit three over Conley.

Such things should be resolved with pre-switch or better crossmatch defense like GSW does with Curry/Wiggins/Green, to prevent mismatch against Curry.

[thinktank]

Kyrie was making some absolutely ridiculous shots. Credit to him, not our defense.

There was one Kyrie possession, when he attacked Conley directly and I preferred Edwards to be Kyrie defender. And there was another possession when Conley waved Edwards off and jumped on Kyrie in corner and Kyrie hit three over Conley.

Such things should be resolved with pre-switch or better crossmatch defense like GSW does with Curry/Wiggins/Green, to prevent mismatch against Curry.

I didn't see any play where Conley waived off Edwards and guarded Kyrie in the corner. In fact, I saw one where Conley successfully defended Kyrie in the corner.

Watch on YouTube

[minimus]

Kyrie was making some absolutely ridiculous shots. Credit to him, not our defense.

There was one Kyrie possession, when he attacked Conley directly and I preferred Edwards to be Kyrie defender. And there was another possession when Conley waved Edwards off and jumped on Kyrie in corner and Kyrie hit three over Conley.

Such things should be resolved with pre-switch or better crossmatch defense like GSW does with Curry/Wiggins/Green, to prevent mismatch against Curry.

I didn't see any play where Conley waived off Edwards and guarded Kyrie in the corner. In fact, I saw one where Conley successfully defended Kyrie in the corner.

Watch on YouTube

It was 3rd quarter

Watch on YouTube

[moss_is_1]

Big games tonight.
Mavs at Denver, Jazz at Memphis, and Pelicans at Lakers. Tomorrow we play Washington at home who will be on their 3rd game in 4 nights(all on the road), as well as Clippers at Suns.

[Guidus88]

Big games tonight.
Mavs at Denver, Jazz at Memphis, and Pelicans at Lakers. Tomorrow we play Washington at home who will be on their 3rd game in 4 nights(all on the road), as well as Clippers at Suns.

Matchup seems easy, but this season we have always struggled with underdogs teams…let’s change this trend!!

[shangrila]

Big games tonight.
Mavs at Denver, Jazz at Memphis, and Pelicans at Lakers. Tomorrow we play Washington at home who will be on their 3rd game in 4 nights(all on the road), as well as Clippers at Suns.

Memphis over Jazz, irrelevant for us I guess. Though it's good if the Jazz keep losing.

Denver over Dallas. Good for us, we're now tied in record with a chance to get ahead tomorrow.

Lakers currently up on the Pels. Would be great for us if they won.

I think most likely we're heading into the break as the 6th seed.

[Ethomasp31]

Big games tonight.
Mavs at Denver, Jazz at Memphis, and Pelicans at Lakers. Tomorrow we play Washington at home who will be on their 3rd game in 4 nights(all on the road), as well as Clippers at Suns.

Memphis over Jazz, irrelevant for us I guess. Though it's good if the Jazz keep losing.

Denver over Dallas. Good for us, we're now tied in record with a chance to get ahead tomorrow.

Lakers currently up on the Pels. Would be great for us if they won.

I think most likely we're heading into the break as the 6th seed.

Clippers play at Phoenix tomorrow....it's possible we will be tied for 5th.

[shangrila]

Big games tonight.
Mavs at Denver, Jazz at Memphis, and Pelicans at Lakers. Tomorrow we play Washington at home who will be on their 3rd game in 4 nights(all on the road), as well as Clippers at Suns.

Memphis over Jazz, irrelevant for us I guess. Though it's good if the Jazz keep losing.

Denver over Dallas. Good for us, we're now tied in record with a chance to get ahead tomorrow.

Lakers currently up on the Pels. Would be great for us if they won.

I think most likely we're heading into the break as the 6th seed.

Clippers play at Phoenix tomorrow....it's possible we will be tied for 5th.

Good point.

I'd have leaned towards a Phoenix win given they're incredible at home this season but they're still missing Durant and the only player listed as out for the Clippers is Powell. I'm not sure that Phoenix has the personnel to guard either of PG or Kawhi anymore.

[moss_is_1]

6th in the West. 2.5 games back of 3rd, and been missing our best or 2nd best player for all but 21 games this season. Lets hope we can finish strong. ASB to get some rest and some practice for KAT/Conley will be huge.

[Murphs56]

6th in the West. 2.5 games back of 3rd, and been missing our best or 2nd best player for all but 21 games this season. Lets hope we can finish strong. ASB to get some rest and some practice for KAT/Conley will be huge.

If we win tomorrow we'll be 32-29 at 61 games played which would be the exact record we had at 61 games last year. Feels like it's been a lot bumpier this year.

[shrink]

A few semi-obvious thoughts:

Nice to see some of our neighbors drop a game. We will all be playing a wider percentage of our games against west coast opponents the rest of the way, so they will beat each other down, and we gain ground simply by taking care of our own wins. Tonight’s game against the Wizards is very important, and they will be competitive trying to maintain their 10th seed to make the playoffs. We can’t afford to drop a home game, especially to an opponent with a lesser record. But I think if we go into the All Star break on a little win streak, we feel more confident, and other teams (and national media), will take us more seriously.

The goal is to make the Top 6, but home court advantage is very possible. We need to avoid the play in, which will contain some talented teams with vet experience that could beat us in a single-game format.

[shrink]

Btw, we have went 7-3 against our last 10 Western Conference opponents, and they have all been in the playoff picture.

We’re earning our spot in the playoffs by doing the work ourselves.

[minimus]

Today is a classic TRAP game

Read on Twitter

?s=20

[thinktank]

I think if we go into the All Star break on a little win streak, we feel more confident, and other teams (and national media), will take us more seriously.

We don’t want teams to take us seriously but we sure do need the wins!

[Colbinii]

Today is a classic TRAP game

Read on Twitter

?s=20

And before that they lose 13 of 14.

[Guidus88]

Today is a classic TRAP game

Read on Twitter

?s=20

And before that they lose 13 of 14.

let me guess...their only win in that stretch it was against us right?

[shrink]

Tie-Breakers.

3 SAC (32-25): 1-1, @SAC, @SAC
4 LAC (33-28): 1-1, @LAC
5 PHX (32-28): 1-2, @PHX
6 DAL (31-28): 2-1
—————————————————
7 NOP (30-29): 1-1, vsNOP
8 MIN (31-30)
9 GSW (29-29): 1-1, @GSW, @GSW
10 OKC (28-29): 3-1
—————————————————
11 UTA (29-31): 2-2
12 POR (28-30): 1-2, vsPOR
13 LAL (27-32): 1-0, @LAL, vsLAL

Tie-Breaker Rules for 2-way Ties: Head-to-Head, then Division Record (if teams in the same division), otherwise Conference Record

Tie-Breaker for 3-way Ties: Winning Percentage vs Tied Teams, then Division Percentage, otherwise Conference Percentage

[Klomp]

I don't think the division record tiebreaker will come into play for us, but we are currently the only Northwest team except Denver with a winning record in the division.

Our games against the West going forward are HUGE. It starts with the 4-game trip to California after opening with Charlotte. Then, after 8 against the East, we go 7 of our last 8 to close the season against the West (with a trip to Brooklyn in there).

[shrink]

I checked out last night’s scores, but the standings are so close, it’s hard for me to know which results I should be happy about. LAL beat GSW? SAC beat POR? UTA beat OKC? Yay?

MIN is solely in the #7 spot, a game behind DAL