The Hunt 12-28-09
by BlaseE on Dec 28, 2009 4:06 AM CST
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So winning both games of a back to back has motivated me to not only write another "The Hunt" but to make a graphic. Yeah, pretty cheesy play on the hunter/gatherer thing but that's the way I am. After the jump, your schedule analysis for the week and a look at last week.
Last Week for the Good Guys
So we add another loss to a team over .500 by dropping a game and the season series to Portland. That's right we've lose two season series already, Utah and Portland, and they are both teams were that could come into serious play. They aren't the '08 Bucks. The game was terrible considering their injury woes and that they were on a back to back, but we did fair on the week overall. We won both games of our back to back with all of the crazy situational stuff for that New York game (early start, plane delays, SEGABABA etc.). It's also important to remember we are playing without Bonner and Finley who are important to the team. We also got some relief from our competitors and Portland dominating other good teams. See more below.
Standings
1. Lakers (24-5): The Lakers went 2-1 this week. The got blown out by Cleveland on Christmas and escaped with an overtime win against Sacramento. This team is good, but they continue to look better than they really are. They are overachieving and have been since last year's playoffs.
2: Mavericks (22-9): They also went 2-1. They lose to Portland the night before the Blazers beat us, escape a close game against Memphis and then play a really good game against Denver (without Billups) on the road.
3: Denver (20-11): Denver went 1-2. They started the week by destroying Atlanta by 20 but then followed it up with a road loss to Portland and then another to the Mavs.
4. Portland (20-12): They go 3-0 beating Dallas and us in a Texas back to back and then beat Denver on Christmas. Outstanding week for them in spite of their woes.
5. Phoenix (19-12): The Suns went 1-3. They beat the Clippers, but lost to OKC, Golden State, and Cleveland. This was a very bad week for the Suns.
6. San Antonio (17-11): You know how we did going 3-1....stupid Portland.....
7. Houston (18-13): The Rockets went 2-2. They beat the Clippers and the Nets, but lost on the road to both the Magic and the Cavs. Tough week for the Rockets.
8. Utah (17-13): The Jazz go 1-2 last week with two rough road losses to Miami and Orlando. They dominated the Sixers by 20 on Saturday though.
So to recap, every team but Portland lost at least one game and Denver, Houston, Phoenix, and Utah all lost 2 or more (Phoenix,3) games. So by losses, we are tied for third with Denver now at 11 losses. LA with 5 and Dallas with 9 are the only teams above us. We sit at 6th overall though because of our lack of games limiting us to 17 wins.
Next Week's Games
Spurs
Spurs have a somewhat similar schedule to last week.
Tuesday: Minnesota
Thursday: Miami (over .500/playoff team, they play the Hornets on Wednesday night too so it is possible they kick our ass without Wade)
Saturday: Washington
Sunday: Toronto (@5:00 again, less than 24 hours after tip for the Washington game)
These teams are a combined 19-21 in their last 10's. No team is better than 6-4 (Miami and Toronto).
Monday
Lakers @ Suns
Nuggets @ Kings
Celtics @ Warriors
Tuesday
Cavaliers @ Hawks: I don't care who wins but I like the Hawks a little more. Either way one of these elite teams is getting a loss. Some other good teams play this night but not really great games. Houston and New Orleans isn't that big to me. I sure as hell am not going to root for NO to beat Houston though.
Wednesday
Hawks @ Cavaliers: Seriously, NBA, seriously? I swear a monkey is making these schedules. Even a computer has better judgement than this. Later in the year, we do one of these stupid things with the Hornets. Anyways, another loss for an elite Eastern team.
Celtics @ Suns
Thursday
Mavericks @ Rockets: We gotta root Rockets, but either way is sort of good for us.
Jazz @ Thunder: The Thunder could be a playoff team with this win a good week. I thought about including them in the standings since they over .500 but they don't scare me enough yet. I mean in terms of seeds. I don't want to play them anymore..... the Durantula's success on us has given me a little arachnophobia.
Friday
Kings @ Lakers: This isn't really a good game, but there are only 3 games on Friday.
Saturday
Grizzlies @ Suns: Randolph has been going off and if he rebounds like he has, they might pull the upset in Phoenix. It's a longshot though.
Nuggets @ Jazz
Mavericks @ Kings
Sunday
Mavericks @ Lakers: This has to be the biggest game of the week. We win no matter what. I think it's better for the Spurs if the Lakers win but I think I will be rooting for the Mavs in this one. I hate for the Mavs to have such a quality road win, but I think the Lakers are on the verge of a reality check.
Hopefully you found this informative. This could definitely be another good week for the Spurs to gain some ground on the Western playoff teams. Also very important is that the Spurs can win out and be one game shy of the very important 2/3rds games won. Go Spurs Go!!!
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The Hunt to gather seeds? That might be the easiest hunt ever.
I loved the banner, BlaseE, and the whole idea behind this post, too. Well done.
Bone breaking? -340
Dunkin' Cheerleaders
i’ve never hunted seeds, but….
without spoiling a really awesome movie, it is harder to be a gatherer than one might think….
he dies in the end after poisoning himself….
shit….you really should still see that movie
There’s a movie? I’m afraid the ref had gone way over my head.
Bone breaking? -340
Dunkin' Cheerleaders
….i can’t name the movie because it would actually spoil it….i figured i could spoil the movie without giving the movie away and if you had seen it you would go “oh yeah” and if you haven’t seen the movie and then see it, you’ll go “oh yeah”
its a somewhat recent somewhat indie movie that was very popular
Rec'd
This is now one of my favorite things here on PtR.
As Spurlady said, as bad as it seems to have been for the Spurs, we are only 2 games out in the loss column from being the second seed in the West. Which is where most of us thought we would be.
I am full of hope and optimism. That might just be because the Cowboys are in the playoffs…
Gosh BlaseE, your kind words about the Lakers always make me blush.
The Lakers "Too big, too strong, too long, too good."
I’m really liking this post a lot, Blase, thanks. The Suns are crashing back to earth, which is a good thing. The Raptors and Heat games are the two that I’m wary of. Hopefully we can get a nice streak going with this stretch.
by silverandblack_davis on Dec 28, 2009 7:36 PM CST reply actions
This post was some good mojo….
Tonight, LA, Portland, Boston, and Denver all lost to teams with a combined 47-71 record going into the night. Phoenix had 19 of the wins too…
Last 10’s
1. Cleveland (9-1)
2. San Antonio, Atlanta, and Dallas (8-2)
5. Boston, LA Lakers (7-3)
7. 8 teams at 6-4
Our strength of schedule has been fortuitous lately so we are recouping from those earlier tough losses and putting ourselves in a position to really make the RRT and tough later schedule matter.
another note because i didn’t include them last time i did this…
Lakers average loss is by 14.7 points. Their peak loss is 26 points. Their last two losses are 15 points. Our worst loss is lower than their average, 14 points. We aren’t winning the close, tough games but that is where cohesion and execution and chemistry are most important. The Lakers have 4 OT wins and 2 other wins by single possessions. If they lose those games, maybe their average comes down some. As it stands now, the Lakers haven’t lost a game by less than 8 points. That is impressive and bad at the same time, a real double-edged sword.
The Spurs currently have one OT loss, one win by a single possession and 2 losses by a single possession. We are 3-8 in games decided by 7 points or less. For comparison, last season, we were 29-15 in games decided by 7 points or less. That’s good but that means 44 of our 82 games (53.7%) were decided by 7 points of less. This season, that is 11 of 28 games so far which is a much better 39.3%.
Yeah I know the Lakers are pathetic (and lucky). But it is only December so hopefully they’ll get better before the playoffs. Last year they were so far ahead by February that there wasn’t much incentive to keep working hard to improve. And so they weren’t really playing well when the playoffs finally started.
Here’s another interesting note for you, over their last 11 games the Lakers have played 5 sets of back-to-back games – all within the last 2 1/2 weeks.
The Lakers "Too big, too strong, too long, too good."
Thanks for sharing the back to back thing. That is an important factor as we all know. I think I saw the Suns are 1-6 in SEGABABA’s on Stein’s power rankings today.
Pathetic and lucky? I didn’t really say all that. I mean you can look at it this way, you are winning every close game you are in. That is amazing. I wish I could say that about the Spurs. The Spurs bench isn’t letting us get blown out by 26 points though, at least not yet. We are also playing Duncan and Manu very consistent minutes to give them conditioning. It helps run up the score against bad teams and keep scores close on losses. Later in the season, Pop will be more willing to pull the plug earlier unless the bench does something amazing.
OK, however you want to word it, the Lakers aren’t playing too well – worse than they were this time last year. But in spite of that they have still managed rack up some wins.
January is a tough stretch of the schedule for them but hopefully somewhere along the way they will be able to start playing better. But win or lose it is still early.
The Lakers "Too big, too strong, too long, too good."
Just fall into the ocean already, would ya? :-)
"We suck on 'D. Both individually and team-wise, we suck. We're pretty consistent that way. I don't know if I have an answer to that. If I did, we wouldn't suck quite so bad." - Popovich
by Aaron "Hirschof" Preine on Dec 29, 2009 3:01 PM CST up reply actions
Sorry, have to wait ‘til summer. Just got back from there and the water was f’ing freezing! :)
The Lakers "Too big, too strong, too long, too good."
hopefully another good news
hope that l.a. will lose to gsw…cuz now their down 7…hopefully they can’t comeback and pull an upset!
they always can, hopefully they won’t.
When the tooth fairy's own tooth falls out, it is taken during the night by Princess Peanut.
by the little o on Dec 29, 2009 11:01 PM CST up reply actions
Lakers' Next 11
Sacramento
Dallas
Houston
@ Clippers (lol-ing with Blair) and a segababa
@ Portland
Milwaukee
@ San Antonio
@ Dallas (segababa)
Clippers
Orlando
@ Cleveland
They could easily drop 3+ of those games. The Spurs games in that same period of time (til Jan 21st):
Miami
@ Washingon
@ Toronto (segababa)
Detroit
Dallas
New Jersey
Lakers
@ OKC (segababa)
@ Charlotte
@ Memphis (segababa)
@ New Orleans
Utah (first game of 6 game homestand)
Also 11 games with 1 more BABA. Our schedule is much easier. Our only road game against a team over .500 is the OKC one. Besides that OKC SEGABABA, the Dallas, Lakers, and Utah games are the key games for us to really show any improvement that we think we may have made against these bottom feeders recently. I could definitely see us getting through that stretch with only 2 losses. That would put us a 27-13, and if the Lakers lost 4 including tonight’s game with GS, they would be at 32-10. That would be 3 losses back with half the season and 2 head to head’s to play.
So the Lakers go 8-3 (that could easily happen) while the Spurs extend their 3 game wining streak to 14?
OK, good luck.
The Lakers "Too big, too strong, too long, too good."
wer 3rd
ok can we have a 20 or 30 game winning streak?!cuz right now we’re thrid let us pray dallas will loose 2 games in a row to let us secure the 2nd spot in the west.and hopefully l.a. will loose some of their games so that we can edge and be closer to number 1!
Well, Dallas and LA play each other tonight and they play again next Wednesday. We also play Dallas and LA one time each between their games. Ideally, Dallas could win both and then we beat them. Ignoring all other games in that span, we’d be at 11 losses, tied with Dallas, and LA would be at 9. We’d have the tiebreak on Dallas so we’d be the number 2 if we had played equal games. The race between our three teams will get very interesting over the next week and a half.
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