Denver throwing a game away to Portland on purpose in hope of Houston falling to #4 seed!

Did you watch the Lakers game? They did not lose on purpose, the Lakers beat them. The Lakers also just beat the Clippers, they are throwing a monkey wrench in the playoff race. The good news is Portland plays at the Lakers on Tuesday. So if the Rockets lose to OKC, there is a chance of Portland losing to a hot Lakers team.

Utah might try to lose now, but there is also a chance they move down to the 6th seed and still face Houston in the first round. They don't control their destiny like you think they do.

 

Not true. OKC wins out. Portland loses one. Jazz lose two. Rockets 3, Portland 4, OKC 5, Jazz 6. Jazz play Rockets in the first round anyway.

 

I watched that game, maybe i am overthinking, what I observed is that when the Denver-Portland game was close, they were fighting tightly too, but after Denver gave way their lead in two minutes, Jazz started playing terribly and lost. The chance that they move to 6th while Rockets is 3rd is very low. It only happens when Rockets lost to Thunder and Portland lose at least one more game, and even in that case, Jazz have the control, they just need to beat the Clippers. Clippers won't have much motivation to win by then, because if Thunder and Spurs wins out, they will clinch a 8th seed whether they beat Utah or not.

 

Yes, correct, like, to the Rockets.. However the whole point is this: if we beat OKC we may overtake Denver for 2nd, but they'll pretty much be assured of getting the Spurs in Round 1. OTOH, if we lose to OKC, Denver gets the best of both worlds: they keep the 2nd seed, but will likely still face San Antonio, since OKC will have a good chance of staying 6th (provided that they beat the Bucks, however).

All in all, by losing to Utah, Denver would maximize its chances of getting the Spurs in the 1st round.

 

...or maybe we shouldn't have snoozed through the first 25 games of the season. At this point Houston's seeding is a result of their own failures to start the season ready to play. I know there were a lot of reasons for that - losing Ariza/Luc and not acquiring a suitable replacement, Bezdelik leaving a week before training camp opened, the failed Melo experiment, etc...but these were mostly self-inflicted issues resulting from a lack of contingency planning on all levels. Morey didn't have an answer to fill the void of defensive accountability that Ariza brought to the team, the coaches didn't have an answer to Coach B leaving, and the players were guilty of waiting for someone else to bring defensive focus to the team rather than owning they would have hold each other accountable. Harden had to play out of his mind this year to cover for the defensive mess we were the first half of the season.

When we were 11-14 back in mid December if you had told me we would be entering the last few days of the season battling for position to be anything from the 2nd to 4th seed I would have told you that you were totally crazy yet here we are lamenting Houston no-showing against easy opponents late in the season after exhausting themselves in the previous 4 months just to get back into playoff contention.

 

I've always felt that if you throw games just to avoid certain opponents, you are a loser already. It doesn't matter who you face in the playoffs.

 

Portland losing one is extremely unlikely if OKC wins out.

 

we are not getting OKC.. if we beat OKC, then we can get up 2nd seed, and OKC has a 90% chance of getting 8th seed, even if they win against the bucks.. If we lose we end up as likely 4th seed and play Utah.. any scenario can pan out, so best thing you can do is just win out.. if Houston gets second seed it does increases Hardens MVP chances that much more, so we can thanks nuggets for that.

 

I get not playing against OKC or even Utah, however, this is relatively a new group of players which hasn’t been tested or when they have it’s been lack of effort. Recently it seems the team has been on fire but against mostly non playoff team. They need a quality test and hopefully no one is injured before facing the Warriors. I don’t want this team to be ramping up while playing the Warriors, they need to be 100% 1st second of game 1, and end the series quickly with adjustments.

 

Why do you think this team needs to be further tested when the top 5 players on the roster played together last year? Whether or not the role players hit the shots they are given in the playoffs isn't dependent on being tested or specific to team chemistry.

 

Just win baby.

 

Unless the Jazz have openingly said they are going to rest starters against Denver this would just seem very foolish.

 

Honestly you can take it back even further. The 11-14 is the common starting point people like to use as our turnaround point, but if you just look at the entire season since the 1-5 start we are the 2nd best team by record and net rating.

 

I thought it was funny that Denver was winning in the 4th quarter despite the fact that they rested their top players. I was thinking, "Man, full strength Portland is losing to a depleted Denver team in their own backyard!"

 

Given Portland’s luck in games they ain’t losing

 

Playoffs are about matchups.

If a team is a bad matchup (e.g. 2011 Spurs v Grizzlies), you are better off avoiding them and progressing deeper. Its when you dont avoid, and lose the series to a lower seed, that you are a true loser.

 

If there are teams you think you have difficulty beating, that means you have a glaring weakness. It is very unlikely that you can win a championship like that. Even if you do, you will always be remembered to be "that lucky team that happened to get to the championship through an easy path."

Think about how LeBron's achievement in the East has always been somewhat dismissed as getting to the Finals via a soft competition. Think about how even the first Warriors' championship were dismissed as being unusually healthy while all their opponents had key injuries?

If you want to avoid a bad match up, you might as well hope injuries on your opponents. To me, that's just a loser mentality.

That said, I do hope DMo's butt sweat will work again on Curry this time.

 

How much butt sweat can one produce in 2-5 minutes per game?

 

Everyone who does not win a ECF or WCF trophy, Larry O'Brien trophy could be seen as a non winner -
loser.

Finalists are two teams, and the loser of the Finals does not feel like a Winner.

The others are like 90+% of teams every year, dun be so harsh! There are always Champions of the hearts.