Lakers standing in Western Conf. Discussion

JoelMyersScrotalSack wrote:I'm pretty sure the Grizzlies will cool off, they're playing at a 57 win rate right now and I doubt you will need 57 wins to take the 4th seed. Either way it will be really close and probably come down to the final few games.

They're also struggling a little bit

The only team out there with a legit 2 big man lineup is 17th in NBA in offense

https://twitter.com/noamschiller/status/284317553461956608

Memphis' offense is down to 17th in the league.

Memphis also has a lot of road games left to play, and they're only 6-5 right now. Fools gold, maybe? We'll see...

Interestingly, GS is 11-6 on the road... When was the last time they had HCA in the playoffs?

With the way the Clips, San Antonio and OKC are playing I dont think they're slowing down unless they suffer major injuries. Realistically I think we should shoot for the 4th seed. We're 5 games out of that spot that Memphis currently holds, I think Memphis will start slipping they've played only 11 road games the fewest in the NBA. Then I hope we draw the Clippers in the 2nd round (so that means Flop City has to be 1 seed), this way even though we're the "Road" team the games will be played in our building, no travel = good for this team then go face OKC or SAS in WCF. Im down for that

I can see that happening. The Clippers are really deep and are built to win regular season games so the 1st seed is feasible for them. And we can get the 4th seed without it being too much of a stretch

Might be the only way we'll be able to succeed in these playoffs regardless of how well we're playing.

The 4th seed does seem realistic as long as we don't go on long losing streaks like we have in the past. Hopefully we can go on another small run and try to get above .500

wcsoldier81 wrote:Tough schedule in January .... we still may be stuck at 0.50 ball after 46 games

Fri 28 vs Portland

January
Tue 1 vs Philadelphia

Fri 4 @ L.A. Clippers

Sun 6 vs Denver

Tue 8 @ Houston

Wed 9 @ San Antonio

Fri 11 vs Oklahoma City

Sun 13 vs Cleveland

Tue 15 vs Milwaukee

Thu 17 vs Miami

Sun 20 @ Toronto

Mon 21 @ Chicago

Wed 23 @ Memphis

Fri 25 vs Utah

Sun 27 vs Oklahoma City

Tue 29 vs New Orleans

Wed 30 @ Phoenix

OUCH. Yeah I noticed this earlier too. On a positive note though our last month is relatively easy. Perfect for building momentum heading into the playoffs.

the way were playing D and not slowing our pace down a bit we'll be .500 or less after january

I think 50 wins can get you a 4 seed in the West, I dont see Denver, Golden State, Utah and Houston getting there. We need to go 36-17 to get to 50 wins. And hopefully Clippers get the 1st seed. No travel in 2nd round would be ideal for a team like this. But we need to beat these guys a couple of times when we face them, get some confidence going.

Also 36-17 doesnt seem impossible if we could rest Pau, Nash and Kobe here and there we can afford to.

50 wins is probably too few. These are the win percentages of the 4th seed over the last 5 seasons:

11-12: 62.1
10-11: 67.1
09-10: 64.6
08-09: 65.9
07-08: 65.9

11-12 was a down year and you still needed about 51 wins.

Memphis is still a good team and they will finish with at least 50 wins unless major players get severely injured

Ordinarily I would say seeding isn't that important but in the West where the top 3 teams are so good and there is an unlikely chance of upsets in the 1st round, we really need that 4th seed or we will be in for a hellish playoff run.

The 5th seed would mean a first round matchup with the Grizz, followed by Clipps/Thunder/Spurs, and then a WCF showdown with one of those teams. All without HCA

That would honestly be one of the most difficult playoff runs ever, if not the most difficult.

^ we have to take it one stretch at a time. We play next 4 games in a 10 night stretch, we have to win all 4 of these games played in Staples Center. I think we play Portland and Denver who are directly above us so getting some wins up vs them can get us into the playoff picture and then move up from there

energy better be there for every game. theyre gunna have plenty of rest so they better bring it for 48 mins and play desperate. bc were facing falling too far to come back. nash comes back and we've been playing well..had a 5 game win streak and lost on a b2b in denver so ill take that but now we gotta start another streak.

play together. play with intensity. knock down shots. hopefully well get the calls. play desperate. cover for eachother on D. take care of the ball and value each posession. get dwight involved. play hard.

Ariza3 wrote:energy better be there for every game. theyre gunna have plenty of rest so they better bring it for 48 mins and play desperate. bc were facing falling too far to come back. nash comes back and we've been playing well..had a 5 game win streak and lost on a b2b in denver so ill take that but now we gotta start another streak.

play together. play with intensity. knock down shots. hopefully well get the calls. play desperate. cover for eachother on D. take care of the ball and value each posession. get dwight involved. play hard.

I completely agree with everything you said. The next two games are at home against Portland and Philly which should both be Ws. The tough one will be against the Clippers who have been red hot winning 15 straight. However, if we can somehow end that streak that may be the thing we all need to jump start this team.

I still think we get 50 wins & finish at least 4-5th seed, 5th if I'm being realistic.

We are almost a certain early exit from the playoffs...

chances of a team winning 4 rounds without HCA is about zero...

^ So you're saying there's a chance.... YES!

I have decided to stop worrying about this thread until further notice because its still a little too early in the season for me to get all up tight about big games in the standings when January is right around the corner.

GREAT, clippers losing to UTAH of all teams, who's a spot above us. If they lose, and we win, we will be in a 3 way tie for 8th with portland and minnesota.

not related to our standing but heat lost to the pistons.

Ariza3 wrote:not related to our standing but heat lost to the pistons.

lol yeah that has nothing to do with us. They did give up a 40+ point quarter . I was surprised. Will bynum hit big shot after big shot, and lebron wasn't even trying. lol I don't get it, he took 1 shot down in the last few mins, and missed it. And he was dominating earlier in the game. They definitely could've won if he only TRIED to help the team. I don't get why he checks out in 4th quarters. I thought he was past that.

.500 = #8.

karacha wrote:.500 = #8.

THIS!!! And next game on tueday, then friday against clips which we'll be well rested to play. Also means only 2 games in the next 7 days. THINGS LOOKING GOOD!!!

I may be jinxing it but I *think* we may have seen the last of the sub .500 Lakers. I knew we were going to lose to Denver, but with the 5 game winning streak and having Nash back we're building a rhythm.

Things are looking better, perhaps not as quickly as we could hope, but they are looking better. I think Nash, Pau and Dwight have an enormous amount of potential with a three-man passing game(where Nash and Pau facilitate and Dwight finishes) At this point, if the Lakers can maintain what they are doing and not commit dumb mistakes every game I like their chances against just about any team.

15-15 ... should be 21-9.

January is going to be a very important month ... lots of games against quality opponents , 3 b2b .. we better be ready

Denver is playing a tough b2b at Memphis tomorrow then 12 of the next 15 at home ... I'm afraid we may be a 7th seed at best at the end of next month

I also had us losing to Denver on Wednesday...but thing is we can't keep assuming we're going to lose on these back to backs....we have to start winning those if we wanna be an elite team. I think that as long as we're limiting TURNOVERS and getting back on defense, we won't get 126 pts scored on us like we did against Denver. Now if we come out and blow out the 76ers, I will start to believe that this team may be on its way up. But the real test will come next Friday against the Clippers, who could bring a 19 game winning streak into the game....what better way to stick it to our cross town foes by snapping their big winning streak and getting ourselves back on track in the process? We have a very tough stretch coming up...I think if we're able to come out of this 16 game stretch like 12-4, that'll be really good for our team. We need the starters to build chemistry and hopefully this stretch lets them do that. No nights off.....