Sched Ahead Daily Update, Games of 3/8

Everybody wins the games they should, New Orleans wins to get back to .500, and San Antonio misses a golden opportunity to steal a road win against the Cavs. 

Starting today, I'll try to provide daily updates of the game by game tables.

Yesterday's update.

Most recent weekly update, including game category definitions.

Yesterday's Games

1. San Antonio @ Cleveland.  LeBron was out, Shaq was out, Jamison missed the second half with a knee problem, and the Spurs still didn't get the win, despite Manu tearing up the Cavs for 38 points (7-11 on 3s).  Manu followed Kobe's example from their game against Orlando and stepped on the line when a 3 pointer was needed.  In the first half, Pops called timeout and yelled at the Spurs for lack of defense, then benched Blair and Jefferson for Hairston and Mahinmi, hoping to get some D out of them.  Hey, coach, I could have told you at draft time that Blair and Jefferson were hardly going to help your defense.  Jamison owned them for 17 points in the first half before going out.  George Hill scored 23, but Duncan (13) was the only other man in double figures for the Spurs.  Mo Williams matched Jamison's 17 for Cleveland, who had 6 in double figures.
2. Golden State @ New Orleans.  Thornton and West scored 28, Collison had 16 with 20 assists, and Okafor got 22 and 11 rebounds as the Hornets get back to .500, triggering recategorization of their games.  Both teams shot 59% and bombed away on 3 pointers, but New Orleans had a lot more success inside and outrebounded G.S. 44-23.  The Hornets had six in double figures, while the Warriors had seven, led by 28 from Morrow (11-13, 6-6 on 3s) and Reggie Williams, a D-League callup.
3. N.J. @ Memphis.  Yes, Memphis can win at home, even if it takes the Nets coming to town.  Memphis was without Zach (back trouble), but it didn't matter in the first half as they rolled to 67 points and a 16 point half time lead, but they wasted the lead and let the Nets back in, only scoring 40 in the second half.  It was enough, though, to break their 8 game home losing streak.  Gay and Conley both scored 21, Gasol 19, and balanced scoring overcame 30 from Courtney Lee and 28 from Devin Harris.
4. Dallas @ Minnesota.  Twelve straight wins for Dallas.  Shawn Marion scored 29 with 14 rebounds, Dirk had 24, and Butler had 23.  Haywood was still out for Dallas, and Al Jefferson tore them up inside with 36 points and 13 rebounds, but it was never going to be enough as the T'Wolves had 26 turnovers, 8 by Jonny Flynn.   

This result certainly improves our chances of passing the Spurs.  They have so many games remaining against the elite teams in the league, and they desperately need to win at least a couple of those.  This was a golden opportunity.  They ought to be able to win the rest of their games this week, it isn't until a couple of weeks from now that their schedule becomes really brutal, but this was a blow to their hopes. 

Chasing Pack Game by Game Table

Teams Just Ahead Game by Game Table

Projections

1. L.A.  58.4 wins (down from 58.7).   
2. Dallas.  55.8 wins (up from 55.7).
3. Denver.  53.8 wins (down from 53.9).
4. Utah.  52.3 wins.
5. Phoenix.  50.4 wins (down from 50.5).  
6. OKC.  49.6 wins (down from 50.0).
7. S.A.  48.0 wins (up from 47.7).
8. Portland.  47.4 wins.
9. Memphis.  41.9 wins (up from 41.6).
10. Houston.  41.5 wins (down from 41.4).
11. N.O.  40.9 wins (up from 40.6).

Technical adjustments due to the N.O. recategorization, mostly.  San Antonio takes a small hit due to their mostly-expected loss at Cleveland, but a big (and mostly artificial) boost from their four wins over the Hornets becoming more valuable.  

Tonight

1. Sacramento @ Portland.  Cat 1 "Cream Puff" for the Blazers, but don't let the category fool you, this is not a walk-over.  These guys won in Houston and gave OKC a couple of tough games in the last week.  We'll have to go out and take it.  The Landry/Martin trade helped them significantly, IMO, and Jason Thompson is back from injury.  We should have Marcus back, which will help.  We'd better come ready to play.  If we play well, we'll win, but if we have one of those bad nights again, we'll be in danger of taking a bad loss.
2. Houston @ Washington.  A Cat 3 "Banana Peel" for a team that has struggled against losing teams recently, and needs to stop losing to anyone for the next two weeks, at least, to get back into the hunt.  One bit of encouragement for the Rockets is that they should get Ariza back for this one, and Lowry back later this week.   But Washington just battled the Celtics down to the wire, so they may give a tough battle.
3. Utah @ Chicago.  A Cat 4 "Rocky Road" for the Jazz, who still have hopes of catching Denver, but haven't been as dominant as they were in their earlier hot streak.  Chicago is not the same team without Noah, and he won't play in this one -- I'm not sure they have an answer for Boozer and Millsap.  The Rose/Williams matchup should be an interesting one.
4. Toronto @ L.A.  A Cat 2 "Jawbreaker" at home for the L@kers.  Toronto really struggled after the Bosh injury, but he should be pretty much back to normal, and they should have their full team.  The L@kers have lost three straight and seem to have dissension right now.  It probably means little, and Toronto's defense is likely to be easy pickings for them, but if the Raptors can pull this one off with some hot three point shooting, we could see Dallas really start to pressure L.A. for the top seed.

This is a big game, even bigger than Denver.  We could accomplish just about every feasible goal left to us without a win at Denver, but we can't lose games like this.  If we win all of our remaining games against losing teams, that alone may be enough to clinch a playoff spot, and enough to get us fairly close to San Antonio.

Apologies for the late post today, work zapped me hard from very early this morning.