Portland had the number ONE SoS partway through the streak (at the time atleast).
When? Can you explain how that counters the fact that your 17-1 streak (the vast majority of your wins) were against <.4X0 competition and a slumping Utah Jazz team?
You rag on Utah, saying those games we beat them are meaningless because they were in the midst of a rough streak. The 3 games we beat them...had the outcome been different, would completely change the division standings. Give them 3 wins, give us 3 losses, and they're 1st in their division, and 3-4th in the west. They're in the 9th seed BECAUSE WE BEAT THEM.
YOUR DIVISION SUCKS!
They'd be 25-14 if they had beaten you all 4 times. That's good enough for first in your weak ass division but they'd still be worse (record-wise) than 3 teams in the Southwest and two teams in the Pacific. In other words, they'd still have the 6th best record in the west. That's just barely in the upper half of the Western Conference. Only reason they'd have the 4th seed is because of the same reason you have it now... the messed up playoff system.
FYI, had they beaten you all three more times they still would have only been 8-8 for the month.
Since were on the topic of Utah and how unbelievably awesome you think they are... They're 6-14 on the road. They've won their last 4 and they're
still in 9th place. Even not including the games they played you, they went 4-9 in December. This isn't Utah of last season or even Utah of early this season.
They sucked really bad for a solid stretch of games and you guys got lucky enough to get all your games in against them in that stretch. Good job, it should help you come playoff time if they crawl back in to the playoff picture.
Boston has had a, as you so cutely put it, "cupcake schedule" as well. And while they have taken some flack for it, no one doubts that they are one of the best teams in the league.
If they took flack for it despite having three superstars and BLOWING TEAMS OUT to the tune of a 12 point margin then why are you so upset about taking the same flack? Your team is led by players still on their rookie contracts and your winning margin is the lowest of any team with a wining record. "Flack" should be expected. Especially when you guys are running around claiming you could be anyone but SA and PHX.
Hell, before tonight your SoS was 0.03 higher than ours. CLEARLY you've had a much much much tougher schedule than us.
Yes, but 75% of your wins come from a streak of sub .440 opponents and you played over 60% of those games at home. Let's not forget your 6-11 record on the road compared to our 11-6 record on the road. Again look at the margin of victory.
Point differential: Is there a more meaningless stat EVER? Maybe if we were +2 and you guys were +20 it would mean something, but +2 vs +6 means absolutely jack ****.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger ... order=trueSorted by margin of victory it clearly shows a ranking VERY similar to how most people would currently rank the teams play so far this season.
Likewise a reverse raning tells you who's the worst in most people's minds:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger ... rder=falseFYI the point difference between our 6.5 and your 1.1 is about the same as between you guys and the Grizzles or Bobcats. Or between the Nets and the Wolves. It's a pretty good indicator of how throughly you dominate the teams you've played.
And keep in mind that it's not just 5.5 points in one game but 5.5. points in EVERY GAME. A team you squeeze out a 2 point win against we beat by a comfortable 7 or 8 points. That's the difference.
3 point shooting: This seems to be a BIG deal to you. Does our 4th player off the bench shooting a high % diminish what the rest of the team is doing?
Nope, it doesn't diminish the fact that Steve Blake, your starting PG, is shooting just as well over the same period of games.
I'm sure no one in the history of sports has EVER had a career year before.
Not a career year at .532 from the 3 point line. IIRC Kerr hit 52% in one of the years the line was moved in and he was playing with Jordan.
In the same vein, how do we know Bynum can maintain the pace he's on.
You don't. Still doesn't make it a sane assumption that your starting PG and leading bench scorer will continue to shoot record breaking 3 point percentages though.
Before this season he's shown he's only a backup center.
Actually he was selected 10th in the draft, he started many games last year and did well, and many people (including the Lakers front office) have always expected greatness from him. Can you say the same about James Jones or Steve Blake? Notice you don't see me saying LeMarcus Aldridge or Brandon Roy is a fluke?
Surely you don't think he can maintain this do you?!?!?!?!
Maintain what? 13 and 10? Even on nearly 60% shooting that's not exactly record breaking numbers. You keep trying to draw out similarities between our teams when there clearly aren't any. Bynum's numbers as
evidenced by history are far more sustainable than the 3 pont shooting of James Jones and Steve Blake.
"I'm sure they'll jump off the bandwagon. Then when we do get back on top, they're going to want to jump back on, and we're going to tell them there's no more room." - Kobe in March of 2005
Youre just asking for a **** storm.. Dont do it here in the General Forum
