I am not a LA fan or Sacramento fan. I am a long time Houston fan. So, no bias.
There's a tonne of posts here about LA will win / they are gone etc.
If you want to write them off, you need to give a valid reason. So...here's my valid reason. And yes, I am writing them off. (Despite the fact I think they'll go on a mini run in January due to an easy stretch of games)
Last seasons 8th place in the west was Utah with 44 wins. This year, Houston and Phoenix are both stronger + Utah has not taken the nose dive I and most people expected.
Thus, the likely amount of wins to make the 8th seed is probaly going to be higher than 44. More like 48.
To get to 48 wins, the Lakers will need to win about 75% of their remaining games.
That means playing play off intensity type basketball for the next 3 months. That's just highly unlikely. It means getting every ball bounce your way for three months. It means no one going down injured for three months. It means Kobe and Shaq cannot be rested for a single game.
That's a tough, tough ask.
That means going to places like Detroit, Minnesota, Milwaulke, Sacramento, San Antonio and Houston all within two weeks in March all will be must win games. All those teams will come out of the gate firing. It means being ready every second of every game.
It also means playing teams like Phonenix and Seattle in back to back games they can't be happy spliiting it 1 and 1, as they'd of been any other season.
It's almost impossible. Shaq sprains an ankle or Kobe gets hit in the back one game...they miss a few games...and it's over.
It also means, if they did scrape in as number 8, they'd have to win every series on the road...having not had a let up for three months.
There's no "let Shaq miss Denver and Golden State to freshen him up" type scenarios available to them.
To the LA fans still saying they can win it all, can you explain (rationally) why you think they can overcome all this?
I don't expect my Rockets to be ready for a championship run for two years...so LA don't bother me too much. I don't like them, I'll admit that, but they aren't a threat to me like say Sac fans who really hate them.
There's a tonne of posts here about LA will win / they are gone etc.
If you want to write them off, you need to give a valid reason. So...here's my valid reason. And yes, I am writing them off. (Despite the fact I think they'll go on a mini run in January due to an easy stretch of games)
Last seasons 8th place in the west was Utah with 44 wins. This year, Houston and Phoenix are both stronger + Utah has not taken the nose dive I and most people expected.
Thus, the likely amount of wins to make the 8th seed is probaly going to be higher than 44. More like 48.
To get to 48 wins, the Lakers will need to win about 75% of their remaining games.
That means playing play off intensity type basketball for the next 3 months. That's just highly unlikely. It means getting every ball bounce your way for three months. It means no one going down injured for three months. It means Kobe and Shaq cannot be rested for a single game.
That's a tough, tough ask.
That means going to places like Detroit, Minnesota, Milwaulke, Sacramento, San Antonio and Houston all within two weeks in March all will be must win games. All those teams will come out of the gate firing. It means being ready every second of every game.
It also means playing teams like Phonenix and Seattle in back to back games they can't be happy spliiting it 1 and 1, as they'd of been any other season.
It's almost impossible. Shaq sprains an ankle or Kobe gets hit in the back one game...they miss a few games...and it's over.
It also means, if they did scrape in as number 8, they'd have to win every series on the road...having not had a let up for three months.
There's no "let Shaq miss Denver and Golden State to freshen him up" type scenarios available to them.
To the LA fans still saying they can win it all, can you explain (rationally) why you think they can overcome all this?
I don't expect my Rockets to be ready for a championship run for two years...so LA don't bother me too much. I don't like them, I'll admit that, but they aren't a threat to me like say Sac fans who really hate them.
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