Looking ahead to the next dozen games

by kobestopper on Feb 19, 2009 6:52 PM PST

I haven't contributed anything in a long while but I was just poring over the next few weeks for the Blazers and thought I'd share a few observations.

First, the schedule:

2/20 Atlanta

2/22 Clippers

2/24 @ Houston

2/25 @ San Antonio - 2nd night of Back to Back games

2/27 @ Minnesota

3/1 San Antonio again

3/4 Indiana

3/5 @ Denver - 2nd night of Back to Back games

3/7 Minnesota

3/9 Lakers

3/11 Dallas

3/13 New Jersey

Things that stand out to me:

1) Out of the 12 games, 8 are at home. I bet we'll win 6 of those games.

2) Out of the four road games, three are against teams that are contending for playoff spots. I bet we still get 2 of those games.

3) I bet we'll lose the two back to back 2nd night games (against the Spurs and the Nuggets) but since those are teams that often beat us in their buildings anyway, I can live with it. In other words, it's kind of a favorable schedule, in a way.

Summary:

I believe we will win 8-9 of these 12 games. One the other hand, even if we only win 6 of the 12 (unlikely) we will still be sitting at 13 games over .500, with 17 games left.

All in all, I like the way things look. Any other insights?

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7-5.

by dario argento on Feb 19, 2009 7:18 PM PST reply actions

Based on our play for the whole season and taking home/away into account

I’d consider us the favorites against Atlanta, the Clips, the Wolves, the home Spurs game, the Pacers, the Wolves again, the Mavs and the Nets.

I’d give us a decent shot to beat Houston. I can’t see us winning on back-2-backs in SA or Denver or beating the Lakers, and there’s a definite chance we’d lose the home Spurs game also.

Overall, I think we’ll win 7 or 8. I’ll be an optimist and say 8.

If we keep playing like we have in the last 7, we’ll win closer to 5 of the 12. I’m banking on a post-deadline return to our early season form.

Boomshakalaka

by jksnake99 on Feb 19, 2009 7:19 PM PST reply actions

important to note

that SA will be on a back to back when we play them. They are not great on back to backs.

by Cablinasian on Feb 19, 2009 9:40 PM PST up reply actions

I think/hope it'll be around 8

I can see us winning 3 of the road games, but think it’s much more likely to get 2 or 1—SA may not be great on back to backs, but we aren’t great on the road. I like our home chances much better, the only game I really see us losing is LA and maybe Dallas. I’ll say they get 1.5 of the road games and 6.5 at home… thus, we should shoot for 8. 7 will be ok but underwhelming. 6 or less, while we will still be 13 games over .500, I don’t think that helps us keep pace with the teams below us (remember the posts saying we would be first in the division by the end of february? Right now we are closer to being out of the playoffs (3 games) than in first in the division (3.5 games))… If Phoenix starts playing well like they recently have, and Utah picks up, then it could be another year where it will take 50 wins to get in to the playoffs, and 6 wins or less in this stretch doesn’t help us.

by TimG on Feb 19, 2009 11:56 PM PST reply actions