Next 20

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Looking at the upcoming schedule, the next twenty games is what the season is really about. In this span we have twelve road games, twelve against teams that are currently in the playoffs, eleven against teams currently .500 or above (not including OKC x 2) and eleven against the West. These games include:

-HOU
-DAL
-SA x 2
-OKC x 2
-ATL
-CHI x 2
-NOP
-POR
-PHX
-TOR

What are all your thoughts or prognostications on how we'll do? What do you think the team will or will not prove during this stretch? We are currently 20-8, throw out any numbers, stats, and records you think will be relevant in this brutal stretch.

[deneem4]

14 and 6

[J-Ves]

I've got them going 9-11 in that stretch. Going 4-9 vs the teams you posted, splitting vs the x2 teams and finding one win vs the rest. Then I have them going 5-2 vs the rest of the schedule, splitting vs the Nets and losing one either to Denver or Lakers out west.

That would put them at 29-19, a 49.5 win pace with 34 games left.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Looking at the upcoming schedule, the next twenty games is what the season is really about. In this span we have twelve road games, twelve against teams that are currently in the playoffs, eleven against teams currently .500 or above (not including OKC x 2) and eleven against the West. These games include:

-HOU
-DAL
-SA x 2
-OKC x 2
-ATL
-CHI x 2
-NOP
-POR
-PHX
-TOR

What are all your thoughts or prognostications on how we'll do? What do you think the team will or will not prove during this stretch? We are currently 20-8, throw out any numbers, stats, and records you think will be relevant in this brutal stretch.

COSC, out of the 13 games in bold I think 4-9 or 5-8 is reasonably pessimistic. Out of the other 7 maybe 4-3 or 5-2?

So, I will guess 8-12, or 9-11. They would be 28-20 or 29-19..

Right now, they are on pace to win 14 or 15 out of 20. If they keep it up, that would make the Wizards 34-14 or 35-13, on the way to near 60 wins.

The western teams are way tougher. They also play Atlanta, Chicago, and Toronto. COSC, the good news is the strong start is still going to put the Wizards in decent shape 20 games from now.

[nate33]

It's a shame we couldn't play OKC once when Durant and Westbrook were out. Here is the actual schedule starting the 29th. This looks like a lot of losses:

vs Boston Celtics - Sat Dec 27 2014 - 7:00p
@ Houston Rockets - Mon Dec 29 2014 - 8:00p
@ Dallas Mavericks - Tue Dec 30 2014 - 8:30p
@ Oklahoma City Thunder - Fri Jan 2 2015 - 8:00p
@ San Antonio Spurs - Sat Jan 3 2015 - 8:30p
@ New Orleans Pelicans - Mon Jan 5 2015 - 8:00p NBA TV
vs New York Knicks - Wed Jan 7 2015 - 7:00p
vs Chicago Bulls - Fri Jan 9 2015 - 8:00p ESPN
@ Atlanta Hawks - Sun Jan 11 2015 - 3:00p
vs San Antonio Spurs - Tue Jan 13 2015 - 7:00p
@ Chicago Bulls - Wed Jan 14 2015 - 8:00p
vs Brooklyn Nets - Fri Jan 16 2015 - 7:00p
@ Brooklyn Nets - Sat Jan 17 2015 - 8:00p
vs Philadelphia 76ers - Mon Jan 19 2015 - 2:00p
vs Oklahoma City Thunder - Wed Jan 21 2015 - 8:00p ESPN
@ Portland Trail Blazers - Sat Jan 24 2015 - 10:00p
@ Denver Nuggets - Sun Jan 25 2015 - 8:00p NBA TV
@ Los Angeles Lakers - Tue Jan 27 2015 - 10:30p
@ Phoenix Suns - Wed Jan 28 2015 - 10:30p ESPN
vs Toronto Raptors - Sat Jan 31 2015 - 7:00p

There are 8 home games and 12 away games. We should take Boston, New York, Brooklyn and Philly at home. We can probably win 2 out of the 4 home games against Chicago, San Antonio, OKC and Toronto. So that's 6 wins out of our 8 home games. Those road games look brutal. We can win at Brooklyn, at LA and at Denver, but will probably lose at least one of those 3 (Denver is a B2B). We are the clear underdog on the other 8 road games. We can probably steal 1 or 2. So, optimistically, I'd say we can win 10 out of 20 but my guess is we win 9.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

If there's any positive thing about the stretch is that they will get more and more used to playing superior opponents on a routine basis. I say anything above 10 wins and we should be very happy with ourselves. 9 or 10 would be satisfactory. Anything below 8 would be disappointing. If we surprise and go for 12 or more wins in that stretch, I think it would be hard to say that we don't have a good shot at the Eastern Crown. Regardless its going to be a fun time to really see what the team is made off. I'm eager to see how Wall does. Webster coming back will hopefully provide a boost and some greatly needed three point attempts.

[Hidden Eye]

Wizards r gonna be ready for that schedule

Now would be a good time to switchup the lineups and rotations imo.

[jangles86]

If we go .500 we are very well placed.

[sfam]

If we hit anything close to 50% we're going to be looking good.

[dobrojim]

Wizards r gonna be ready for that schedule

Now would be a good time to switchup the lineups and rotations imo.

Not sure I get it. We're achieved great success, albeit against mediocre competition,
with the lineups and rotations we've been using. In the absence of a compelling
reason to change, and there may be some games where a tweaking might be
worth considering, but generally speaking, we've established a formula for
success. My first inclination would be to stick with it. And even if we
start losing a bunch of games, I don't know that I 'panic' and start changing.
We could play really well over these 20 games and still lose a bunch of them.

I would tweak things to get Martell back involved especially as a backup 2
although Rasual has been amazing so far this year so I'd hate to cut his minutes
just to play Martell. Their depth should allow them to ease Web back in at
their convenience, not as anything remotely resembling desperation.

[Hidden Eye]

Wizards r gonna be ready for that schedule

Now would be a good time to switchup the lineups and rotations imo.

Not sure I get it. We're achieved great success, albeit against mediocre competition,
with the lineups and rotations we've been using. In the absence of a compelling
reason to change, and there may be some games where a tweaking might be
worth considering, but generally speaking, we've established a formula for
success. My first inclination would be to stick with it. And even if we
start losing a bunch of games, I don't know that I 'panic' and start changing.
We could play really well over these 20 games and still lose a bunch of them.

I would tweak things to get Martell back involved especially as a backup 2
although Rasual has been amazing so far this year so I'd hate to cut his minutes
just to play Martell. Their depth should allow them to ease Web back in at
their convenience, not as anything remotely resembling desperation.

Given the diffulculty of the schedule changing the lineups would be good. If it works on the elite teams Wizards could use it on anybody. I wouldn't start Miller and Pierce every game during this stretch, same with Nene but not as much.

[Illmatic12]

If we go .500 over that stretch, we will be on pace for 50+ wins at that point (possibly more, because our schedule would then lighten up considerably).

Actually we can even go slightly under .500 on the West Coast trip and still be on pace for 50 wins.

[sfam]

How long has it been since you saw a Wizards player say something like this?

“It is a test,” Wizards forward Paul Pierce said following Saturday’s win. “We get a chance to play against some of the upper-echelon Western Conference teams. It will be a great measuring stick about where we are. We know we are an upper-echelon team in the East, but we know if we want to be champions, this is an opportunity with the East being wide open for us to get to the Finals, for us to gauge where we are as an elite team in this league.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wizards/wizards-tough-road-test-starts-monday-in-houston/2014/12/28/9d00bfd2-8ed3-11e4-ba53-a477d66580ed_story.html

Pretty nice to see a vet like Pierce wanting to see where this team is in hopes of making a finals run. Pretty rare stuff for a Wizards fan to see. I'm liking this moment. I may not be fun five games from now, but I'm enjoying the moment.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Well, at the very least we are off to a 1-0 start...

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

2-0

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

3-3 with 14 to go

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

5-3…12 to go.

We are doing well so far, if we can get two wins in our next three I think its fair to say we are going to exceed many peoples expectations.

[FreeBalling]

Revised, I have us going 13 and 7 with a +/- of 1 game. My biggest clam to fame will be the 6 game winning streak.

w vs Boston Celtics - Sat Dec 27 2014 - 7:00p
w @ Houston Rockets - Mon Dec 29 2014 - 8:00p
l @ Dallas Mavericks - Tue Dec 30 2014 - 8:30p
l @ Oklahoma City Thunder - Fri Jan 2 2015 - 8:00p
l @ San Antonio Spurs - Sat Jan 3 2015 - 8:30p
w @ New Orleans Pelicans - Mon Jan 5 2015 - 8:00p NBA TV
w vs New York Knicks - Wed Jan 7 2015 - 7:00p
w vs Chicago Bulls - Fri Jan 9 2015 - 8:00p ESPN
________________________________________________________________
l @ Atlanta Hawks - Sun Jan 11 2015 - 3:00p
w vs San Antonio Spurs - Tue Jan 13 2015 - 7:00p
w @ Chicago Bulls - Wed Jan 14 2015 - 8:00p - Nene & Gortat double team Joakim Noah for group fun.
w vs Brooklyn Nets - Fri Jan 16 2015 - 7:00p
w @ Brooklyn Nets - Sat Jan 17 2015 - 8:00p
w vs Philadelphia 76ers - Mon Jan 19 2015 - 2:00p
w vs Oklahoma City Thunder - Wed Jan 21 2015 - 8:00p ESPN
l @ Portland Trail Blazers - Sat Jan 24 2015 - 10:00p
w @ Denver Nuggets - Sun Jan 25 2015 - 8:00p NBA TV
w @ Los Angeles Lakers - Tue Jan 27 2015 - 10:30p
l @ Phoenix Suns - Wed Jan 28 2015 - 10:30p ESPN
w vs Toronto Raptors - Sat Jan 31 2015 - 7:00p
__________________________________________________________________ 9-3

[deneem4]

12 game win streak

[WallToWall]

I see 9-11. I am more concerned with rest for the players and back-to-backs. I think that will take its toll.