April madness

[Griffin]

Remaining schedules for the top 4 Western conference teams:

SUNS (53-26)		LAKERS (53-25)		HORNETS (55-23)		SPURS (53-25)
			- Tiebreak: Lakers	- Tiebreak: Hornets	- Tiebreak: Suns

[COLOR="Red"][B]@Denver[/B][/COLOR] (b2b)		[COLOR="Green"]Portland[/COLOR] (2dr)		[COLOR="Green"][B]@Orlando[/B][/COLOR]		[COLOR="Green"][B]Golden State[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR="Green"]Minnesota[/COLOR] (2dr)		[COLOR="Green"][B]Dallas[/B][/COLOR]			[COLOR="Green"]@Miami[/COLOR] (b2b)		[COLOR="Red"][B]Utah[/B][/COLOR] (2dr)
[COLOR="Red"][B]Dallas[/B][/COLOR]			[COLOR="Green"]@Sacramento[/COLOR]		[COLOR="Green"]New York[/COLOR]		[COLOR="Green"]@Portland[/COLOR]
[COLOR="Green"]@Memphis[/COLOR]		[COLOR="Red"]@Portland[/COLOR]		[COLOR="Green"][B]Golden State[/B][/COLOR]		[COLOR="Red"][B]Phoenix[/B][/COLOR] (2dr)
[COLOR="Green"][B]@San Antonio[/B][/COLOR] (b2b)	@Clippers		[COLOR="Red"][B]Utah[/B][/COLOR]			Seattle
[B]@Houston[/B]		[COLOR="Blue"][B]New Orleans[/B][/COLOR] (b2b)	[COLOR="Green"]@Minnesota[/COLOR] (b2b)	[COLOR="Blue"][B]@Lakers[/B][/COLOR]
[B]Golden State[/B]		[COLOR="Blue"][B]San Antonio[/B][/COLOR]		[COLOR="Blue"][B]@Lakers[/B][/COLOR]			@Sacramento (b2b)
Portland		Sacramento		@Sacramento (b2b)	[B]Utah[/B]
						Clippers (2dr)
						[B]@Dallas[/B] (b2b)

b2b - second night back to back
2dr - two days rest

KEY MATCHUPS

• April 9: Phoenix @ San Antonio
• April 11: New Orleans @ Lakers
• April 13: San Antonio @ Lakers

For the Suns to have a chance to win the West, the Hornets would have to lose at least 3 more games. It looks like it will be very difficult to finish ahead of the Hornets, barring a collapse from them.

For the Suns to have a chance to win the division, the Lakers have to lose at least one more game. 5 out of our remaining 8 games are against one of the top 9 Western teams, 3 on the road. Lakers have only 3, all at home.

The April 9th game vs. Spurs will be tough. For Phoenix, this is a second night of a back-to-back on the road. The Spurs are at home with a two days rest. The Suns will get the tie-break with a win, otherwise it will go to the team with the better conference record (Spurs ahead by 2 games right now).

 

[elindholm]

Wow, look at that NOH-DAL game on the last day. Dallas might need that win to get in, and New Orleans could potentially need it to secure the #1 seed.

 

[Bufalay]

Wow, look at that NOH-DAL game on the last day. Dallas might need that win to get in, and New Orleans could potentially need it to secure the #1 seed.

all of those crazy matchups and thats the interesting one?

 

[Griffin]

Back to 6th we fall.

 

[capologist]

And 6th we will probably remain.

 

[LV-Suns]

Back to 6th we fall.

A close game between Sac town and Houston is still going on.

 

[devilalum]

And 6th we will probably remain.

How do you figure. The Suns could easily run the table. SA is the only game we won't be favored.

 

[Cheesebeef]

my bet is we win 55 or 56 games, which will give us a nightmarish matchup with Utah in round 1 and an even more nightmarish match-up with the Hornets in Round 2. Tonight's game was a killer. We're basically two back of the Lakers now because of the tie-breakers. Our best hope... to win that SA game and lose AT MOST one other game along the way. Either way, I'll be shocked if Houston ends up in the 5 slot and we end up 6.

 

[LV-Suns]

we are 1 back of the lakers.

 

[Cheesebeef]

we are 1 back of the lakers.

they own the tie-breaker, so we're essentially two back of them. Even if we ended up tied, they beat us due to head to head match-ups. Which means, with Gasol coming back tomorrow and a cake schedule with a slew of home games left, even if we went 7-0 (which ain't gonna happen), the Lakers would have to 6-2 (which could happen, but again, we ain't sweeping the rest of the year).

 

[hsandhu]

my bet is we win 55 or 56 games, which will give us a nightmarish matchup with Utah in round 1 and an even more nightmarish match-up with the Hornets in Round 2. Tonight's game was a killer. We're basically two back of the Lakers now because of the tie-breakers. Our best hope... to win that SA game and lose AT MOST one other game along the way. Either way, I'll be shocked if Houston ends up in the 5 slot and we end up 6.

I would much rather end up on the same side of the bracket as utah and n.o. Not saying we can definitely beat both teams, but the other side of the bracket will have the two best teams in the conference s.a. and lakers (and maybe throw in a healthy dallas which CAN beat either of those two). If the playoff started today I would be happy with our seeding.

Would we like to move up to 3 to get houston in round 1, but then we get s.a. in round 2? I'd rather take utah, n.o....

Of all the permutations of matchups one thing I'm reasonably confident in saying is there is no way in hell we are getting to the finals having to play both s.a. and the lakers.

 

[LV-Suns]

still #5

 

[arwillan]

How do you figure. The Suns could easily run the table. SA is the only game we won't be favored.

We should be the favorite in that game too. I see us landing at either 3rd or 5th. 6th wouldn't necessarily be bad, but we could use the home court. Any advantage we can get, i'll take.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I would much rather end up on the same side of the bracket as utah and n.o. Not saying we can definitely beat both teams, but the other side of the bracket will have the two best teams in the conference s.a. and lakers (and maybe throw in a healthy dallas which CAN beat either of those two). If the playoff started today I would be happy with our seeding.

Utah's just a bad matchup for us and I know everyone's counting on NO's "inexperience" to do them in, but man, that team is just damn good. I mean, inexperience didn't do us in in 2005 until we actually ran into someone better than us. That Dallas team we beat the crap out of with only 4 starters had a lot more experience than we did and it didn't matter. I just don't like that matchup.

Personally, this banged up, exhausted Laker team doesn't scare me anymore and I think we FINALLY matchup well with the Spurs. To be honest, I'd rather see them get the #1 seed over NO, so if we did get the 5, we could face them rather than NO. That team is the one that scares me the most in our conference.

[/QUOTE]
Would we like to move up to 3 to get houston in round 1, but then we get s.a. in round 2? I'd rather take utah, n.o....[/QUOTE]

You'd rather take a likely 7 game war against Utah (and possible ouster) and then another 6 or 7 game war (or likely ouster) before even getting to SA? No thanks. I'll take a 4 or 5 game ass-kicking of Houston right before taking on SA, rather than being beaten to a pulp before we even get there. We beat SA and no one in the conference championship is stopping us at that point, not even a somewhat healthy (and likely already to be eliminated) Laker squad.

 

[hsandhu]

You'd rather take a likely 7 game war against Utah (and possible ouster) and then another 6 or 7 game war (or likely ouster) before even getting to SA? No thanks. I'll take a 4 or 5 game ass-kicking of Houston right before taking on SA, rather than being beaten to a pulp before we even get there. We beat SA and no one in the conference championship is stopping us at that point, not even a somewhat healthy (and likely already to be eliminated) Laker squad.

Well i'd have to extend it to hous/s.a./lakers vs. utah/n.o./lakers or s.a. Yes, I would take the second. I just am much higher on the lakers and s.a. and you seem to be on n.o.

I think n.o. is a hell of a team, has the best pg and mvp and will be a contender in the future. But IF we beat utah (which I agree will be a brutal series, we need home court) we're going to the wcf.

4-0 regular season or not ( 3 games w/o shaq, 1 a marion stupid shot loss, 1 peja buzzer beater) I don't sweat them. I just don't think they are ready yet. Plus they have no answer for amare, no even to slow him down. He loves punking chandler, and chandler won't even be guarding him, it'll be david west. Amare may average 35 (also probably give up 27 to west).

On the other hand the lakers have played like trash this past week but just getting back gasol makes them the team to beat in the west, imo. Who knows about bynum... You have the ultimate closer in sports, the one guy in the league who has the ability to make back breaking/spirit crushing shots in the 4th. Add the fact they have by far the best bench in the conference and a legit 2 in gasol and odom at 3 (who we couldn't guard when he was their 2!).

And yes we match up better with the spurs, but come playoff time they still are the favorites over us, especially when they have the home court.

You think we can beat both l.a. and s.a.? I'll do anything to avoid that path, let them beat the hell out of each other in the semis..

 

[Cheesebeef]

Well i'd have to extend it to hous/s.a./lakers vs. utah/n.o./lakers or s.a. Yes, I would take the second. I just am much higher on the lakers and s.a. and you seem to be on n.o.

I think n.o. is a hell of a team, has the best pg and mvp and will be a contender in the future. But IF we beat utah (which I agree will be a brutal series, we need home court) we're going to the wcf.

4-0 regular season or not ( 3 games w/o shaq, 1 a marion stupid shot loss, 1 peja buzzer beater) I don't sweat them. I just don't think they are ready yet. Plus they have no answer for amare, no even to slow him down. He loves punking chandler, and chandler won't even be guarding him, it'll be david west. Amare may average 35 (also probably give up 27 to west).

On the other hand the lakers have played like trash this past week but just getting back gasol makes them the team to beat in the west, imo. Who knows about bynum... You have the ultimate closer in sports, the one guy in the league who has the ability to make back breaking/spirit crushing shots in the 4th. Add the fact they have by far the best bench in the conference and a legit 2 in gasol and odom at 3 (who we couldn't guard when he was their 2!).

And yes we match up better with the spurs, but come playoff time they still are the favorites over us, especially when they have the home court.

You think we can beat both l.a. and s.a.? I'll do anything to avoid that path, let them beat the hell out of each other in the semis..

I think we match-up better with them than we do with NO and Utah and I think a breeze oif a first round series will be GINORMOUS for any team that hopes to get through the hell that will be the Western Conference playoffs. Like I said, the Lakers don't scare me. That team is gonna be so run down and worn out, if they have to start the playoffs against Utah and NO, they ain't making it to the Conference Finals, even with a healthy Pau (who's a perenial playoff no-show) And I'd rather face SA as fresh as possible rather than play them coming off two completely brutal playoff series.

Besides, I can't agree that the "close" games against NO are proof that we can beat them considering that a) in two of those games, they beat us when we were at full strength while in one they were without David West and in the other, they were without Peja... and those were games against a completely different suns team. The only time this Suns team played them, they kicked the snot out of us. I just think they're 2004-5 Suns good and inexperience isn't gonna hold them back from beating someone they're better than.

 

[hsandhu]

ok thinking about it, my ideal scenario (that actually has a reasonable chance of playing out), and I think I'm on page with cheese now

1. n.o.
2. lakers ( we will not overtake them, especially with tie breaker)
3. suns
4. jazz
5. san antonio
6. hou
7. dallas
8. g.s.



There is no guarantee s.a. makes it to the wcf taking this path, so i'll take that gamble that we can avoid s.a./lakers. Also if dirk is healthy the mavs CAN (not likely) beat l.a..


There is a chance we can overtake s.a., if we win the game next week we win the tie-breaker.

 

[Cheesebeef]

really, the bottom line for me is this team is pretty old and the West is going to be a war of attrition. The only way we stay sharp and aren't exhausted is if we get that Houston gimme series in round 1. Hell, if Dirk's back, who knows what happens with SA/Dallas. We could even get lucky and get the Mavs in round 2.

Bottom line, either way, Utah, NO, SA is brutal, but with Hou, SA, Someone, at least we KNOW we get out of the first round before facing a drag-it-out toss-up series. I'd just rather not begin with one of those in such a tough conference.

 

[Cheesebeef]

ok thinking about it, my ideal scenario (that actually has a reasonable chance of playing out), and I think I'm on page with cheese now

1. n.o.
2. lakers ( we will not overtake them, especially with tie breaker)
3. suns
4. jazz
5. san antonio
6. hou
7. dallas
8. g.s.



There is no guarantee s.a. makes it to the wcf taking this path, so i'll take that gamble that we can avoid s.a./lakers. Also if dirk is healthy the mavs CAN (not likely) beat l.a..


There is a chance we can overtake s.a., if we win the game next week we win the tie-breaker.

i'd rather see SA keep that 2 seed... but i'll take either one. Personally, I think we match-up better with the Spurs than we do the Lakers.

blowing that Detroit game is just a killer (and yes, I'm saying BLOWING and not blaming the refs). 5 point lead with 2 to go, missing 2 FTs and giving up 2 OR... we'd probably win the division with that game as a W. Damn!

 

[cly2tw]

Let's lock down the 3rd seed to match up with the Rockets. After that, I don't care who we meet.

 

[az1965]

Back to 6th we fall.

Rockets lost so we are back at #5.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Let's lock down the 3rd seed to match up with the Rockets. After that, I don't care who we meet.

agreed. unfortunately, i think that's gonna take running the table at this point. I think we probably go 5-2 and get the 5 and then get ready for war.

 

[mojorizen7]

I'm not as reluctant to face the JAZZ as i was earlier in the season.
Obviously one reason is the fact that we won't get brutalized on the boards like before(Shaq trade), and i've seen Utah play several games this year and although they still execute like no other team on offense, they don't dictate tempo as much as they have in the past. IMO their Defensive prowess has slipped some with Sloan allowing them to play faster.

 

[mojorizen7]

I still want no part of the Warriors,Hornets, or the Kobe's.

 

[az1965]

The West is going to be a war no matter where any of the top eight teams end up. I just want to make sure we have home court at leat first and maybe second round.