KingSpeed

Since the Warriors squeaked into the 8th seed last season, I thought I'd look up last year' record and compare their season to ours. After 52 games, they were 24-28. We're 4 games better than they were. In any other year, we would probably be in the 7th spot and we'd be thrilled to be 28-24. What makes the recent losing hard is watching the Warriors and Rockets winning. It is CRAZY. Last year, GS made the playoffs with a 42-40 record. That kind of record is absolutely acheivable for us this season. But unfortunately it looks like you might have to win FIFTY two games this season to make the playoffs. The current 8th place team, Golden State, is on pace to win 50 games. And the current 9th place team, Houston, is also on pace to win 50 games. How crazy is that?

We can absolutely get back into the mix, but we also have to pat ourselves on the back and realize that the record we have is usually a solid playoff record. From 32-50 last season to 28-24 so far this season is a MAJOR improvement. And we can't get down because we lose to a Dallas team that is now 23-3 at home.

Go Blazers

P.S. We're only 8.5 games behind the #1 seed. By comparison, 3rd place Orlando Magic are 10 games behind the East #1 seed.

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<-=*PdX*=->

you really do have too much free time on your hands.

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Oregon State Beavers

Freshtown

don't listen to the haters, you're my boy zack

CharcoalF

Not making the playoffs in a stacked West will not kill me, but I still want to see improvement with our young guys. Putting together another streak of six or more would make me alot happier with the outlook of this team.

Nate Dogg

Wins against Sacramento (2/19) and Seattle (2/21) will be good confidence builders before they handle the Celtics (2/24). Playoffs will be hard at this point with Utah and Denver playing consistently right now so i am thinking that Portland will end up 9th or 10th in the West. Blazers will still have to take on the Suns and the Lakers in the next month. The 5 game road trip for the Blazers from Mar 7-13 will be a real test to see if they can pull off a 3-2 roadtrip on that one. Right now morale is low for this team and if this keeps up they will be out of the playoffs.

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2006 OSU Beaver Football finished w/ #22 BCS ranking.
Highlights: defeated #3 USC & UH #24
2006 Sunbowl Champs 39-38 vs Missouri (comeback)

craigehlo

Don't forget that the Warriors didn't make their push until they made a blockbuster deal for Jackson and Harrington. They unloaded their overrated young guys (Dunleavy, Murphy) and it transformed the team for the better.

We've got a void of talent on this team and it's not going to be filled until we make some moves. Having to rely heavily on Martell, Jack, Frye, Sergio, Joel and Blake isn't close to getting it done in the West. Teams have stepped up their play going into the AS break and the Blazers are reeling.

TLo

I'd just like us to finish above .500. It's looking less and less likely though.

nikolokolus

For me I think the playoffs are probably completely out of the question for this team; the rest of the 8-9 teams above us in the west seem to be separating themselves from the pack and mnost of them have already gone through their "lulls" and skids ... I'm not sure we get out of this funk until maybe after the month of February.

What do I want to see? In a word: consistency from LMA. Sure I think everyone else on the team needs to make strides too, and I understand that LaMarcus has effectively hit the rookie wall this year vs. last year (due to him being out for so long last year), and that he's been battling plantar fasciitis for a couple of months at least, but after the break I'd really like to see him play with confidence and some authority out on the court.

At this point our final record isn't so important to me as what kind of progress we see in the second half of the season from one of our cornerstone guys.

And for the record I'm not in the LMA hate club; he seems like a good guy, who works his butt off in practices and the weight-room trying to improve his game and is arguably ahead of his projected development curve based on draft day projections, but I think the next 30 games and how he responds will tell us a lot about the kind of player he's going to be for this blazer team -- a merely good contributor, or a "glue" guy that you count on when the stakes are high and the pressure is on.

KingSpeed

Nevertheless, they got into the playoffs with a 42-40 record. We only need to go 14-16 to achieve that record. I think that's realistic to us but it won't get us into the playoffs. So my initial point stands. Our record this year is a playoff record in other seasons.

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Resume

I'm happy if we make top 10 in the west.
Even more happy if we somehow get Harris.

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KingSpeed

All we have to do is hold off Sacramento.

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