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Around the NBA

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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1201 » by winforlose » Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:00 am

Clippers down 15 with 1:30 left to play. Calling it. Clippers now have 19 losses and fall to 4th place. Kings now in 5th.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1202 » by Calinks » Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:03 am

Pretty good night for the Wolves standing wise except the Thunder keep winning and are not tied with us. Too bad we couldn't get the Bucks win. Clippers look like they got a problem against elite bigs.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1203 » by winforlose » Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:06 am

Calinks wrote:Pretty good night for the Wolves standing wise except the Thunder keep winning and are not tied with us. Too bad we couldn't get the Bucks win. Clippers look like they got a problem against elite bigs.


1. You have a typo. You said not when you meant now.

2. The Thunder should beat the Rockets. That they were down 16 and won by 13 is actually kinda Wolves like. The problem is their schedule doesn’t have the tough stretches that ours does. We need some of these middle or bottom teams to pull off an upset.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1204 » by Tukkerwolf » Mon Feb 26, 2024 9:18 am

Calinks wrote:Pretty good night for the Wolves standing wise except the Thunder keep winning and are not tied with us. Too bad we couldn't get the Bucks win. Clippers look like they got a problem against elite bigs.


Unfortunately (for us) the final standings this year won't matter much with respect Playoff matchups. Playing it's playing the Warriors, Suns, Clippers or Nuggets the first round, it's going to be incredibly hard. Finishing first in conference would be extremely awesome nonetheless.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1205 » by Worm Guts » Mon Feb 26, 2024 11:52 am

Tukkerwolf wrote:
Calinks wrote:Pretty good night for the Wolves standing wise except the Thunder keep winning and are not tied with us. Too bad we couldn't get the Bucks win. Clippers look like they got a problem against elite bigs.


Unfortunately (for us) the final standings this year won't matter much with respect Playoff matchups. Playing it's playing the Warriors, Suns, Clippers or Nuggets the first round, it's going to be incredibly hard. Finishing first in conference would be extremely awesome nonetheless.


Clippers or Nuggets? Assuming the top 4 stay the top 4, we wouldn’t face the Clippers, Nuggets or Thunder until the 2nd round. Not that that makes it easier.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1206 » by winforlose » Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:17 pm

Worm Guts wrote:
Tukkerwolf wrote:
Calinks wrote:Pretty good night for the Wolves standing wise except the Thunder keep winning and are not tied with us. Too bad we couldn't get the Bucks win. Clippers look like they got a problem against elite bigs.


Unfortunately (for us) the final standings this year won't matter much with respect Playoff matchups. Playing it's playing the Warriors, Suns, Clippers or Nuggets the first round, it's going to be incredibly hard. Finishing first in conference would be extremely awesome nonetheless.


Clippers or Nuggets? Assuming the top 4 stay the top 4, we wouldn’t face the Clippers, Nuggets or Thunder until the 2nd round. Not that that makes it easier.


I actually think it does. The weight of expectations is much heavier in the first round than the second. Also by the second round you would hope that Finch has smoothed out the offensive wrinkles.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1207 » by TimberKat » Tue Feb 27, 2024 1:37 am

winforlose wrote:
TimberKat wrote:
life_saver wrote:I really really wanna avoid Warriors in Round1

Be careful for what you wish for. Wolves may end up playing them in the play-in :D


Play in? You think we are gonna drop to 7?

I hope not and I don't expect it but not impossible. Let's assume our opponents have the tie-breaker. If we go 10-15 to finish with 50 wins, then NOP only have to go 16-8. If we go 13-12 for 53 wins, NOP needs to go 19-5. We could end up in play-in even winning 50 games this season.

However, it's impossible to miss the play-in. If we go 7-18 to finish with 47 wins, Jazz will have to go 20-4. 7-18 looks really bad now but our over and under this year was 44.5. 47 wins ties the most win since the KG era and is the most wins by a Finch team.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1208 » by m2002brian » Tue Feb 27, 2024 2:41 am

I’ll call it now. We win 56 games and are either the 1 or 2 seed.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1209 » by winforlose » Tue Feb 27, 2024 2:43 am

TimberKat wrote:
winforlose wrote:
TimberKat wrote:Be careful for what you wish for. Wolves may end up playing them in the play-in :D


Play in? You think we are gonna drop to 7?

I hope not and I don't expect it but not impossible. Let's assume our opponents have the tie-breaker. If we go 10-15 to finish with 50 wins, then NOP only have to go 16-8. If we go 13-12 for 53 wins, NOP needs to go 19-5. We could end up in play-in even winning 50 games this season.

However, it's impossible to miss the play-in. If we go 7-18 to finish with 47 wins, Jazz will have to go 20-4. 7-18 looks really bad now but our over and under this year was 44.5. 47 wins ties the most win since the KG era and is the most wins by a Finch team.


Have you seen our schedule? Even when we suck we still compete and often win. It isn’t a small thing to be the first western team to reach 40 wins. If we make the play in and not the playoff we need to fire Finch, trade KAT and blow it up. That is beyond a collapse, that is the damn apocalypse!
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1210 » by TimberKat » Tue Feb 27, 2024 3:27 am

winforlose wrote:
TimberKat wrote:
winforlose wrote:
Play in? You think we are gonna drop to 7?

I hope not and I don't expect it but not impossible. Let's assume our opponents have the tie-breaker. If we go 10-15 to finish with 50 wins, then NOP only have to go 16-8. If we go 13-12 for 53 wins, NOP needs to go 19-5. We could end up in play-in even winning 50 games this season.

However, it's impossible to miss the play-in. If we go 7-18 to finish with 47 wins, Jazz will have to go 20-4. 7-18 looks really bad now but our over and under this year was 44.5. 47 wins ties the most win since the KG era and is the most wins by a Finch team.


Have you seen our schedule? Even when we suck we still compete and often win. It isn’t a small thing to be the first western team to reach 40 wins. If we make the play in and not the playoff we need to fire Finch, trade KAT and blow it up. That is beyond a collapse, that is the damn apocalypse!

Yes, we certainly had moved the goal post and rightly so. The interesting fact is Western Conference is very competitive like last year but in a different way. Last year DEN won the conference with 53 wins. 51 wins is second place. This year 53 or 51 wins could land you in the play-in.
Not saying we will end up there but if we do get 53 win and end up 7th place. Sure you could fire Finch but are we really ready to break up a team that just gone from 23 to 46 to 42 to 53 wins?
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1211 » by winforlose » Tue Feb 27, 2024 4:07 am

TimberKat wrote:
winforlose wrote:
TimberKat wrote:I hope not and I don't expect it but not impossible. Let's assume our opponents have the tie-breaker. If we go 10-15 to finish with 50 wins, then NOP only have to go 16-8. If we go 13-12 for 53 wins, NOP needs to go 19-5. We could end up in play-in even winning 50 games this season.

However, it's impossible to miss the play-in. If we go 7-18 to finish with 47 wins, Jazz will have to go 20-4. 7-18 looks really bad now but our over and under this year was 44.5. 47 wins ties the most win since the KG era and is the most wins by a Finch team.


Have you seen our schedule? Even when we suck we still compete and often win. It isn’t a small thing to be the first western team to reach 40 wins. If we make the play in and not the playoff we need to fire Finch, trade KAT and blow it up. That is beyond a collapse, that is the damn apocalypse!

Yes, we certainly had moved the goal post and rightly so. The interesting fact is Western Conference is very competitive like last year but in a different way. Last year DEN won the conference with 53 wins. 51 wins is second place. This year 53 or 51 wins could land you in the play-in.
Not saying we will end up there but if we do get 53 win and end up 7th place. Sure you could fire Finch but are we really ready to break up a team that just gone from 23 to 46 to 42 to 53 wins?


Not even a question, an absolute fact. We were beat to hell last year. This team should easily win 60, and anyone who says otherwise hasn’t been paying attention. The fact that people had low expectations doesn’t change the fact that our talent level is too good to be that bad.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1212 » by winforlose » Tue Feb 27, 2024 5:14 am

Kings down 9 with 29 seconds left. Calling it. Kings now have 24 losses and that now means the Wolves are 7 games ahead of the entire entire second tier in the loss column. 5-8 all have 24 losses and either 33 or 34 wins.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1213 » by TimberKat » Tue Feb 27, 2024 1:50 pm

winforlose wrote:
TimberKat wrote:
winforlose wrote:
Have you seen our schedule? Even when we suck we still compete and often win. It isn’t a small thing to be the first western team to reach 40 wins. If we make the play in and not the playoff we need to fire Finch, trade KAT and blow it up. That is beyond a collapse, that is the damn apocalypse!

Yes, we certainly had moved the goal post and rightly so. The interesting fact is Western Conference is very competitive like last year but in a different way. Last year DEN won the conference with 53 wins. 51 wins is second place. This year 53 or 51 wins could land you in the play-in.
Not saying we will end up there but if we do get 53 win and end up 7th place. Sure you could fire Finch but are we really ready to break up a team that just gone from 23 to 46 to 42 to 53 wins?


Not even a question, an absolute fact. We were beat to hell last year. This team should easily win 60, and anyone who says otherwise hasn’t been paying attention. The fact that people had low expectations doesn’t change the fact that our talent level is too good to be that bad.

I don't think Wolves will win 60 games this year. Assuming everyone is healthy, 57 games seem realistic to me. Will be in the 58-55 range. I don't feel our talent level is as high as OKC, LAC or DEN. Ant is not going to mature or take a giant leap in two weeks. We will continue to deal with the same issue that led to losses. At the start of the season, I was expecting 50 or 51 games win.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1214 » by winforlose » Tue Feb 27, 2024 1:59 pm

TimberKat wrote:
winforlose wrote:
TimberKat wrote:Yes, we certainly had moved the goal post and rightly so. The interesting fact is Western Conference is very competitive like last year but in a different way. Last year DEN won the conference with 53 wins. 51 wins is second place. This year 53 or 51 wins could land you in the play-in.
Not saying we will end up there but if we do get 53 win and end up 7th place. Sure you could fire Finch but are we really ready to break up a team that just gone from 23 to 46 to 42 to 53 wins?


Not even a question, an absolute fact. We were beat to hell last year. This team should easily win 60, and anyone who says otherwise hasn’t been paying attention. The fact that people had low expectations doesn’t change the fact that our talent level is too good to be that bad.

I don't think Wolves will win 60 games this year. Assuming everyone is healthy, 57 games seem realistic to me. Will be in the 58-55 range. I don't feel our talent level is as high as OKC, LAC or DEN. Ant is not going to mature or take a giant leap in two weeks. We will continue to deal with the same issue that led to losses. At the start of the season, I was expecting 50 or 51 games win.


I don’t think I expressed myself properly. I don’t think we will win 60. What I meant is that once you see this team play together healthy, and establish the #1 defense, basically the entire season (might have started slow and dipped for a game or two early,) then you need to recalibrate your expectations. This team SHOULD win 60. Anything below 60 is IMO a failure to reach our potential. Now how far below 60 we end up, and the consequences to our seeding are relevant, but not that relevant. What is truly relevant is our playoff performance and especially our playoff results. No one cared that the Heat were the 8 seed last year, they cared that they went to the finals. The true goal post is and will always be, how close did the team get to winning a title, and how well did the HC do in getting them there. A late season collapse going 7-18 when you went 40-17 would bode poorly for our playoff chances.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1215 » by shrink » Tue Feb 27, 2024 3:23 pm

We’re 40-17, with 25 games left. And we have a really good schedule.

The next 9 games are SA, MEM, SAC, LAC, POR, IND, CLE, LAL, LAC. 6-3 seems very reasonable.

In the middle of March, our 16 games are UTA, UTA, DEN, CLE, GSW, DET, DEN, CHI, HOU, TOR, PHX, LAL, WAS, DEN, ATL, PHX.

In the final month, lottery teams will start to embrace the tank, and half those teams could be tankers.

Let’s say 7-1 against tankers, and 5-3 against good teams ( which we seem to get up for), that’s 12-4.

That’s a 58 win season, which should be good for a top two spot in the West. 60 is possible too, if we continue to beat up good teams, and don’t slip up on bad ones who may be trying to lose.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1216 » by TimberKat » Thu Feb 29, 2024 4:05 am

No help from Kings. Lakers not looking good against a PG13-less Clippers team.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1217 » by winforlose » Thu Feb 29, 2024 4:17 am

Cavs have hit 20 losses before 40 wins. Denver has hit 40 before 20.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1218 » by Loaf_of_bread » Thu Feb 29, 2024 4:33 am

Phoenix has the toughest sos by far. 2 games against each of: us, Boston, Cleveland, okc, Denver, and lac. Brutal
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1219 » by winforlose » Thu Feb 29, 2024 5:33 am

Clippers had a 21 point lead in the fourth with 11:40 to
go. They lost by 4. 20 loses before 40 wins.
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Re: Around the NBA 

Post#1220 » by TimberKat » Thu Feb 29, 2024 5:35 am

LBJ had an awesome game and Lakers came backup from 20 down. LAC 4 games behind Wolves.

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