LA picked the right year to give us a protected pick didnt they? lol
Mike Brown...fired....D' antonio, still has a job?
Hmmmmm
LA picked the right year to give us a protected pick didnt they? lol
Mike Brown...fired....D' antonio, still has a job?
Hmmmmm
Even if they don't make the playoffs, Phoenix gets their pick. They have nothing to gain by missing the playoffs...but everything to lose. Some people, albeit stupid people, thought they were going to challenge 72-10. :chuckles:
I think I predicted they would win 56. Really far off, but I don't think anyone saw what has happened coming.
Doesn't mean I don't love it. Cavs don't get the #16 pick without a little drama. I'll take the drama. Especially if it means the laker fans have to learn how to suffer.
I think I predicted they would win 56. Really far off, but I don't think anyone saw what has happened coming.
Just when the Lakers were starting to feel good about their chances, they found out they will be without Pau Gasol for an extended period. After an MRI Wednesday, the Lakers announced that Gasol has a torn plantar fascia. Such an injury usually carries a timetable of at least 3-4 weeks, and a league source told ESPNLA.com that the Lakers are expecting to be without Gasol for 4-6 weeks -- about half the remainder of the season.
That might not be as big a loss as it sounds. The SCHOENE projection system estimates that Gasol missing 15 games would cost the Lakers about one win the rest of the way. That still leaves them making the playoffs in slightly better than 50 percent of simulations. There's even an argument to be made the Lakers might be better off without the struggling Gasol. In the 13 games he has missed this season, including three that Dwight Howard also missed, the Lakers have rated 3.3 points above average, superior to their overall mark (plus-2.1 points per game). Their 5-8 record without Gasol is largely the product of playing nine of those 13 games on the road.
So if the Lakers make the playoffs, whom will they knock out? The Hollinger Odds say Utah on the basis of Houston's superior point differential -- including a 45-point Rockets win in Salt Lake City last week that skewed the recent numbers for both teams. Even taking that out, Houston has still outscored opponents by 2.0 points per game while the Jazz would have a plus-0.4 differential. Consider the Rockets the favorites to make up the 1.5 games that separate them in the standings and finish seventh.
Portland admirably continues to hang in the playoff race despite a point differential similar to the 18-28 Minnesota Timberwolves and 17-32 Toronto Raptors. If the Blazers are still even with or ahead of the Lakers after the two teams play the day after the trade deadline, then it will be time to start taking their playoff chances seriously.