Knowing where Portland has come from the past few seasons, I can’t believe the Blazers winning the Northwest Division remains a possibility. Figured they’d make the postseason. Just didn’t imagine they could beat out Utah and Denver in the process.
So late last about midnight – after spending about a good five hours painting the master bedroom in my house – I had some work to do. The task: trying to figure out how Portland can get this done – win the Northwest.
Think we all know what happened a couple weeks back.
With 18 games remaining (8 at home, 10 on the road), how will this race play out? Here’s the tale of the tape from here on out - with a little guessing game to boot:
Portland plays New Jersey, at Atlanta, at Memphis, at Indiana, at Cleveland, at Milwaukee, versus Philadelphia, Phoenix, Memphis, Utah, at Oklahoma City, at Houston, at Memphis, at San Antonio, versus the Lakers, at the Clippers, versus the Thunder and versus Denver.
Record: 10-8
The eight losses? I have Portland falling to Atlanta, Indiana, Cleveland, Phoenix, Utah, Oklahoma City, Houston, San Antonio.
That would give Portland a final record of 50-32. Is that enough to win the Northwest?
Discuss….
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The Latest: Know I am getting this update out late…..but it’s been one of those weeks. First, I think with Rudy Fernandez – who was pretty gimpy before the game - fully healthy, Portland would have beaten Dallas on Wednesday night. They missed his three-point shooting. I’m just saying.
But you still can’t argue with how the Mavericks always handle the Blazers. It’s pretty sick. Same goes with Dirk Nowitzki doing what Dirk Nowitzki does. Those two shots over LaMarcus Aldrige with a minute and under left in the game are as clutch as they come. You can’t stop that.
That seems like it might be good enough to win the division. The question is, what will the records be of Utah and Denver at that point?
I have Utah losing 6 more games this season and finishing 50-32, but I think Denver will only lose 5 more and end up 52-30. That will put us right in the middle, and a 5-8 seed in the playoffs.
That may even be an optimistic viewpoint considering the Blazers road woes. We may drop a couple more than you are suggesting because we have so many road games left.
thanks for the line mave….i think this current blazers road trip will be very telling – as will their four game trip in early april where they head to okie city, houston, memphis and san antonio.
got off on the wrong foot in atlanta….figured they would. had portland losing that one in my predictions.
as for utah and denver, the nuggets have the far easier schedule. out of their remaining 15 games, 9 are against non-playoff teams.
and to add to the jazz’s current struggles – losers of three-straight – they also have 15 games left on their schedule, but 9 of those are versus playoff bound teams.
by the looks of it, you have to give denver the edge to win the division. but again….it comes down to how portland handles their remaining 9 road games.
Maxey… you didn’t have the Atlanta loss in your predicitons. Did you include Indiana in error? Does this change your take?
solid catch schonz….and shame on me.
i had atlanta down as a loss….not sure why i didn’t include with the others. my bad.
nonetheless, that would give portland a 10-8 record down the stretch (from that post on saturday) and 50-32 on the season.