This weekend was pretty much the best outcome for reaching 6. Or solidifying a spot in the play in.
Especially by the time they play Minnesota you'd think Zion is back.
Now watch they crap the bed against a tanking team tomorrow.
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This weekend was pretty much the best outcome for reaching 6. Or solidifying a spot in the play in.
Especially by the time they play Minnesota you'd think Zion is back.
Now watch they crap the bed against a tanking team tomorrow.
https://twitter.com/TrailBlazersPR/s...005767680?s=20
We have to win this...schedule after this is thoughest in NBA
We control our own destiny up to the 5th seed. Will we get there? Unlikely, but I dont think 6th is out of reach. Win tonight and .500 the rest of the way basically guarantees a play in spot.
Huge game tonight, its the last tanking team that we play before closing out the season with 8 difficult matchups. Reaaaaaally want a win here.
That makes for a 5th consecutive blow out win for the Pels. They are rolling. So if the Pels can beat GSW tomorrow does that move the team into 6th place?
Let’s go Pels!
A Kings comeback in the last few minutes over the T-Wolves sure would be nice
End of easy schedule(outside of Clippers) is there. Today we have Warriors on back to back, it will be very hard i give us 30% chance and that is only because our guys didnt play a lot last night and Warriors suck in away games. Then @ Denver which is probably a loss. Then Clippers, Sacramento, Memphis and Knicks at home. I really want to hope that by then Sac and Memphis fight for 3rd is settled and that Knicks will also rest the guys because they have nothing to play for. 2-2 in that stretch and then comes probably most important game of the season @ Minnesota...I predict 2-4 before Wolves and then last game will decide.
OKC schedule is easy, probably 5-2.
Lakers schedule is easier then ours, i predict 4-3.
Minnesota 3-2 + game against us.
Dallas 3-3.
Golden State 4-2.
That means
6. Gsw 43:39
OKC 42:40
Wolves 42:39 + game agains Pels
Lakers 41:41
Mavs 40:42
Pelicans 40:41 plus game against wolves.
Call me pesimistic but i dont see us reaching above 9, and 9 will also be hard considering schedule.
Unless we play this stretch like we did last season, it will be hard to get into playoffs. Also if we are 9 or 10th seed i dont see Zion comming back.
Tonight's game will say a lot. Of all the games we have left, this one is the one I consider the hardest. Golden State is playing to stay out of the Play In Tournament and is 30 - 8 at home. I think their advantage is their guard play...we have the advantage underneath.
- JV has to stay out of foul trouble and come up big on the boards against Looney (limit GS in second chance point opportunities).
- 3M3 has to win his personal battle against whomever (DiVincenzo / Kuminga / Wiggins)
- BI can't let Draymond get in his head (it would be a plus if the referees played it straight)
CJ scares me big-time in this game against 6'6'' Clay Thompson and could never guard Steph. Might be a game where DD and JRich might be the better call, but will Willie make it.
Here you go for all the number geeks out there.
Attachment 6651
http://www.playoffstatus.com/nba/pelicanswhatif.html
Winning 2 of the next 7 gives a 41% chance of 10th seed but we could still be left out.
Win 4 out the the last 7 gives 35% at both 6th and 7th seeds.
Win out and there's an 88% chance at the 4th seed.
All these also depend on what other teams do. We actually still control our own destiny up to the 5th seed. Win out and we are guaranteed at least 5th and more likely 4th.
Optimism rocks!
BI has been spectacular and it is keeping us in the race that is for sure. What it boils down to is can we keep up the 3 pt shooting and the defense? We have held 3 of our last 4 opponents under 100. That just isn’t characteristic of this team. If both of those are here to stay for the remainder then we could come very close to winning out. I don’t think we will but it’s a promising stretch.
Wow, Charlotte did us a huge one again... OKC missed some FT's at the end to tie the game...
On nights when Ingram is on I dont know how you stop the mid range fade away. Im not sure it can be stopped.
OKC last second tip-in:bah:
Bad night, Lakers won, Utah won, at least Dalls lost. Lets see what happens to Wolves.
Wolves lost.
Huge win against the Clippers puts the Pels half a game back from taking the 6th spot. 4 games left to play. All of them are tough games but at least we have 3 at home and word is that Z could be making his return this home stand. We need to keep winning because other teams have some easy games on their schedule and we cant count on them to lose.
So anyone going to talk about how BI is torching the league right now?
— Josh Hart (@joshhart) April 2, 2023
Portland and Minnesota going at it right no, 6 point game with 5 and a half min to go in the 4th. Would be a big win for us if Blazers can hold on.
Besides that we want the Suns to beat the Thunder, Rockets to beat Lakers, and Denver to beat Golden State tonight.
Holy crap Portland pulled it off. :hihi:
Did you happen to see Portland's starting lineup? Not a single starter, a couple of undrafted free agents, a 10 day contract player, Matisse "no Offense" Thybulle, and Shaeden Sharpe. I put the game on expecting a first quarter blowout and ended up watching the whole thing.
Now if the Rockets can pull off the impossible tonight!!
The thunder lost tonight, which is super helpful for the pelicans, our odds of making the plan, or looking very, very promising. And amazingly, the kings lost to a tanking spurs team.
GS lost!! Half game out of fifth!!!
Would rather 6th than 5th.
Regardless. The path to no play-in is right there.
tonight was a pretty darned good "off night."
I wouldn’t mind the Lakers getting 5th and us getting 6th.
The best-case scenario is to get the 6th spot, play the inexperienced Kings in the first round, and have the Nuggets, Suns, and Warriors at the 1,4, and 5 spots on the other side of the playoff bracket.
5th seed means the suns and Kevin durant
This might be a week of chicken
Problem is if you play like that you could be in the play in lose and be out
Crazy
If Zion comes back. And better yet if Jose is back also, they can beat the suns. Would be a fantastic series and only the Lakers/Suns would be more anticipated in round 1.
But if it was me out there, I'd rather not have to walk on hot coals through rose bushes right off the bat.
Plus sacramento will be well motivated give nobody will give them a chance. And it's there first playoffs in 20 years. iPhones didn't even exist when they last made the playoffs. Thats a good enough test.
I truly believe the teams that would be the worst matchups for the Pels would be the Suns, Lakers, and GS in that order.
Suns: Are you going to put Herb on Booker or Durant? Who will guard the other. Then there's CP3, Does that mean CJ? YIKES!!! Ayton owned JV last year, could this be round 2?
Lakers: I can't see anybody on our roster slowing down AD with the way he's playing right now. Herb might be able to frustrate LeWhiner, but who would stop Russell. I think BI could negate Reaves, but do we think 3M3 (or # 1) could handle Vanderbilt or Hachimura? JV would have to play defense way above his head for our team to beat them in seven.
Warriors: These guys are the "referee darlings of the NBA". They get away with 'launching; more than anybody else in the NBA (other than LeBum, maybe). And, there is no way that our guard play can hang with theirs (Curry, Thompson, Poole, and DiVincenzo). Again, JV would be the key. (would love to see healthy #1 man up on Green. though).
Won't Bow Down!!! (But need to be realistic)
BTW: I would target Donte' DiVincenzo in the offseason. To date, he has not exercised his Player Option for next year.
The Story is still lining up for the Pels to have the season we thought. A lot of people thought 4-6 seed etc?.. 6 is still attainable. They need to get healthy and continue to use all of the pieces on offense. If they continue to do that and not revert to iso ball and CJ playing within the offense, I can see them doing some serious damage. Imagine if they had just used Jonas, Trey, and Herb this much all year. I love the plays they have set for Trey. You can really tell those are drawing adjustments from the defense which allows BI to wreak havoc on the midrange area. It?s amazing what forcing everyone to be guarded can do for an offense. Quite frankly, if it wasn?t for the refs, the Pels defense would be elite. Hopefully, they can finally break this damn disease of losing. The injuries will slow down too. The guys are very young and will only learn more on how to take care of their bodies. BI will for sure. Z will eventually learn to listen to his body as well.
As topsy turvy as this year has been, just want to point out the Pelicans will finish the year with a top 10 defense. Currently tied for 5th.
Last year of the top ten, 2 lost in the play-in and 2 lost in the 1st round. The other 6 made to at least the 2nd round.
Oh the defense has been so good for a while now but they just were bricking the hell out of the ball and teams were running them. If the Pels can get set, they are a ref foul away from being elite. CJ is the only issue but BI, Trey, and Herb have enough length to disrupt the guards. Sub Dyson in for Cj and running that same group is downright unfair, but they just struggle to score with Dyson. Dyson developing offense is a serious key going forward, in my opinion.
Think Dyson's poor offense pushed him out the lineup from mid Jan. (post injury) to mid March? We were losing anyway, I really wanted to see him get PT to develop for next year.
I just got back in from soccer. Im exhausted and my inhibitions are lowered....so I'm going to open up this can of bad joojoo and say openly that if we get Zion back before the postseason and Jose back somewhere in the postseason.....we will have finally shed off the injury bug and be the healthiest team in the playoffs.
Here we go. "Fixing" things already smdh
Utah sitting three starters against the Lakers tonight https://t.co/LBXH2lr0Bs
— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) April 4, 2023
If the Pels beat the Kings and the Grizz win tonight, that will almost guarantee the Grizz at least a top 2 seed.
Maybe the Pels get that laker treatment tomorrow. It is a road b2b for Memphis.
You make a good point. I think the Grizzlies would want to see the Pelicans to end up sixth; not seventh. If the Pelicans ended up in seventh, that's their potential first round match up with # 1 on the court. All this, of course, is conjecture; they may see the Pelicans as a preferable opponent in the playoffs.
Minny won tn, Lakers won tn, we lost. Mem tm... Oohwee
Lakers vs Clippers tonight. At least one will win, which makes getting the 6 tougher.
I despise the Lakers but could see wanting them to win, if only because I can't see the officials allowing the Lakers to lose a play-in game.
The most likely route to #6 now is, unfortunately, a Laker win. :sick::sick::whaa:
Those bastiges almost lost to Utah's B- team too.