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Baron Davis goes wild
He had a line of 11-20, 40 points and 13 dimes on the night against the Rockets. Congratulations goes out to BD on the big night, it seems when he actually has a good FG%, the team plays well. Funny that, huh? On a related note, the Warriors have won 9 of 10. Seems to me the Warriors came on strong at the end of last year as well, where they won 12 of their last 17. What good did it do them? They fired the coach! The moral of the story is, just because a team plays well when it doesn't matter, doesn't mean they'll continue the trend when it's time for the tough to get going.
Jim Paxson's going to get axed
Seeing as how they already canned the coach, there's new ownership and the team is underachieving, this one is about as obvious as who'd win a three point shootout between Antoine Walker and Fred Hoiberg.
Mavs earn fifth straight 50-win season and clinch playoff spot
Too bad they've only been past round two once in the first four, eh?
8th seed out West
Seems like there's a bit of debate that the T'Wolves can actually take over for the Grizz. Currently, Memphis (41-32) has a 2.5 game lead on KG's squad (39-35). Let's do a little "expected victory" thing with their remaining schedules.
Apr 6 @TOR .6
Apr 8 MIA .4
Apr 10 CHA 1.0 (I know there are no sure things in this league I love, but they're not going to be dropping this one)
Apr 11 @DAL .3
Apr 13 @HOU .4
Apr 15 @DEN .3
Apr 16 @SA .4
Apr 18 SA .6
Apr 20 DAL .6
Total = 4.6 = 5 wins
Ouch. Now, for Minnesota.
Apr 6 UTA 1.0 (See Charlotte at Memphis above)
Apr 8 DEN .5
Apr 9 @ATL .7
Apr 13 GS .5 (Normally this would be higher, but as mentioned above, the Warriors are on a tear)
Apr 15 @UTA .6
Apr 17 SEA .5
Apr 18 @NO .8
Apr 20 SA .6
Total = 5.2 = 5 wins
Thus, by my numbers, Memphis would finish the year at 46-36 while Minnesota would be 44-38. Close, but not close enough.
Suns on the road
Phoenix is currently 30-8 away from home. If they win their last three road games, they'll have the best road record of all time. Isn't that wild? It'll certainly be helpful in their playoff run, as San Antonio was almost 1986 Celtics-esque (they had a 40-1 home record) earlier in the year (35-3 now, but one of those was sans Duncan).
Maybe I was wrong about interpreting Bayless
Rookie J.R. Smith has been the Western Conference's top rookie all season, serving as the brightest of the team's scarce bright spots in an otherwise disastrous year.
- Tony Mejia, this week's Power Rankings
Oh, what an honour. The West has had tons of great rookies this year, like Sebastian Telfair (8.91 PER) and Shaun Livingston (8.37 PER). However, there has been a guy by the name of Andris Biedrins (15.39 PER) who is only playing 12 minutes a game, but is putting up alright numbers (3.8 PPG, 2.0 RPG, 58.9 FG% and 1.43 PPS, which slanted up are 11.4 and 6) which point to him as being the best West rookie so far this year to me. But what do I know? I just base my thoughts on all around play rather than plain scoring ability on a team desperate for people to put it in the bucket.
Suns block Lakers from playoffs
Still think Kobe will get a title again someday... but clearly, it won't be this year. The team has plenty of pieces (their starting five, Jones) but needs to do some moving to balance the roster (Devean George is the third best SF but could be a 7th man on some other team, their backup centre is unathletic, 6'9, 254 Brian Grant, etc.) before they can get anywhere. If Kupchak makes some solid moves during the offseason and does well at the draft, they'll probably be back in the playoffs next year.
Piston preview
The Wizards have dropped two straight (at home to Indy and Boston) but come on the road to take on Detroit. Jamison's been hurt for almost three weeks, but might be activated in time for the game. Brendan Haywood's still hurt, as is Jarvis Hayes. The team is pretty beat up, but they're still fighting with the Bulls for the 4th seed in the East. The Heat secured the #1 spot, but the Pistons would still do well to build momentum and fend off the teams that could possibly knock them out of the second best record spot (such as these Wizards and the Bulls). Rip, Rasheed and Ben can all claim that they're ex-Wizards/Bullets, which is often incentive to play well. So, I suspect the Pistons will be victorious here, since the Wizards are too beat up and the Pistons have won their last nine against the them.
He had a line of 11-20, 40 points and 13 dimes on the night against the Rockets. Congratulations goes out to BD on the big night, it seems when he actually has a good FG%, the team plays well. Funny that, huh? On a related note, the Warriors have won 9 of 10. Seems to me the Warriors came on strong at the end of last year as well, where they won 12 of their last 17. What good did it do them? They fired the coach! The moral of the story is, just because a team plays well when it doesn't matter, doesn't mean they'll continue the trend when it's time for the tough to get going.
Jim Paxson's going to get axed
Seeing as how they already canned the coach, there's new ownership and the team is underachieving, this one is about as obvious as who'd win a three point shootout between Antoine Walker and Fred Hoiberg.
Mavs earn fifth straight 50-win season and clinch playoff spot
Too bad they've only been past round two once in the first four, eh?
8th seed out West
Seems like there's a bit of debate that the T'Wolves can actually take over for the Grizz. Currently, Memphis (41-32) has a 2.5 game lead on KG's squad (39-35). Let's do a little "expected victory" thing with their remaining schedules.
Apr 6 @TOR .6
Apr 8 MIA .4
Apr 10 CHA 1.0 (I know there are no sure things in this league I love, but they're not going to be dropping this one)
Apr 11 @DAL .3
Apr 13 @HOU .4
Apr 15 @DEN .3
Apr 16 @SA .4
Apr 18 SA .6
Apr 20 DAL .6
Total = 4.6 = 5 wins
Ouch. Now, for Minnesota.
Apr 6 UTA 1.0 (See Charlotte at Memphis above)
Apr 8 DEN .5
Apr 9 @ATL .7
Apr 13 GS .5 (Normally this would be higher, but as mentioned above, the Warriors are on a tear)
Apr 15 @UTA .6
Apr 17 SEA .5
Apr 18 @NO .8
Apr 20 SA .6
Total = 5.2 = 5 wins
Thus, by my numbers, Memphis would finish the year at 46-36 while Minnesota would be 44-38. Close, but not close enough.
Suns on the road
Phoenix is currently 30-8 away from home. If they win their last three road games, they'll have the best road record of all time. Isn't that wild? It'll certainly be helpful in their playoff run, as San Antonio was almost 1986 Celtics-esque (they had a 40-1 home record) earlier in the year (35-3 now, but one of those was sans Duncan).
Maybe I was wrong about interpreting Bayless
Rookie J.R. Smith has been the Western Conference's top rookie all season, serving as the brightest of the team's scarce bright spots in an otherwise disastrous year.
- Tony Mejia, this week's Power Rankings
Oh, what an honour. The West has had tons of great rookies this year, like Sebastian Telfair (8.91 PER) and Shaun Livingston (8.37 PER). However, there has been a guy by the name of Andris Biedrins (15.39 PER) who is only playing 12 minutes a game, but is putting up alright numbers (3.8 PPG, 2.0 RPG, 58.9 FG% and 1.43 PPS, which slanted up are 11.4 and 6) which point to him as being the best West rookie so far this year to me. But what do I know? I just base my thoughts on all around play rather than plain scoring ability on a team desperate for people to put it in the bucket.
Suns block Lakers from playoffs
Still think Kobe will get a title again someday... but clearly, it won't be this year. The team has plenty of pieces (their starting five, Jones) but needs to do some moving to balance the roster (Devean George is the third best SF but could be a 7th man on some other team, their backup centre is unathletic, 6'9, 254 Brian Grant, etc.) before they can get anywhere. If Kupchak makes some solid moves during the offseason and does well at the draft, they'll probably be back in the playoffs next year.
Piston preview
The Wizards have dropped two straight (at home to Indy and Boston) but come on the road to take on Detroit. Jamison's been hurt for almost three weeks, but might be activated in time for the game. Brendan Haywood's still hurt, as is Jarvis Hayes. The team is pretty beat up, but they're still fighting with the Bulls for the 4th seed in the East. The Heat secured the #1 spot, but the Pistons would still do well to build momentum and fend off the teams that could possibly knock them out of the second best record spot (such as these Wizards and the Bulls). Rip, Rasheed and Ben can all claim that they're ex-Wizards/Bullets, which is often incentive to play well. So, I suspect the Pistons will be victorious here, since the Wizards are too beat up and the Pistons have won their last nine against the them.
posted by Corey at 5:55 a.m.
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