What's a matter with your Raptors, Shack? They're dropping like a stone and Bosh publicly said he doesn't trust his teammates. Sounds like there are a lot of issues there. I'm kind of hoping the Pistons land them in the 1st round at the moment.

On another note, I'm hoping Golden State wins tonight and gets into the playoffs over Denver. The playoffs will be missing something if we don't have GS there.

So if the following scenario happens:

Hornets (NO): W vs. LAC; L vs. @LAL, @SAC, and @DAL
Spurs (SA): W vs. SEA, @LAL, and @SAC; L vs. UTA
Lakers (LAL): W vs. @LAC, NO, and SAC; L vs. SA
Jazz (UTA): W vs. @DAL, DEN, HOU, and @SA
Rockets (HOU): W vs. PHO, @DEN, LAC; L vs. @UTA
Suns (PHO): W vs. GS and POR; L vs. @HOU

then the first 5 teams will all finish with 56-26, while Suns will be 55-27 (doesn't have a combination where all 6 will finish with the same record).

RIP Warriors

Hornets vs Nuggets should be fun though.

Dammit... it's going to take a miracle for the Warriors to get in now.

It really does seem unfair the Warriors will be sitting at home with about 50 wins, and Atlanta will be in the playoffs and may not even make 40 wins. I vote we move GS to the Eastern Conference into the 8 spot and let them play Boston in the first round!

Well when Ford came back, being a back-up pretty much turned him into a selfish baby, so for the next couple weeks every 4th quarter he'd try to do everything himself and shoot us out of every game (the worst being in Orlando where no-one else touched the ball for 6 minutes straight!). At the same time Bosh was injured and we played a hard schedule, so we lost 11 of 14. That losing streak pretty much fucked up our chemistry and it hasn't been the same since. We tried switching things around by making Ford the starter again (which is a move I HATE, even if he's playing better... We should be sitting his ass down and giving him punishment, not bowing to his ego), but it hasn't worked that well. They seem to be competitive for the first 3 and then lie down every 4th quarter now, they just die. We still play Ford in the 4th, and even though he is doing better, he still can't close games worth a damn. The game we won against Milwaukee we played Calderon the whole time and ran them over in the 4th, I hope to see that more from now.

At this point we'll need to win out to avoid Detroit (and hope Philly loses at least one more game), really it's just 3 games because Miami is a gimme, but we'll see. I don't think we'll be touching Orlando even if we play them anyways with this level of play.

Finally, we play like we give a fuck, thanks for the honesty Bosh. And Philly loses to Indiana... most excellent

Sunday in Detroit is definitley the year's biggest game now, and we're finally on ABC for it too. It'll also be fun because there's always lots of Toronto fans from across the border whenever we play in Detroit.

On a side note, Atlanta stealing that game has a huge effect on that 8th seed now. Indiana would be 1 game back at this point instead of 2, a huge huge huge difference. If I was a Pacers fan I'd be pretty pissed.

Very nice win by the Rockets, without Battier and also Alston not doing much. Division is still in play (but they don't own tiebreaker over either Hornets or Spurs), and the home court is almost secured.

Can someone tell me why is the East and West standing so different????

Damn, if the playoffs started today, it's be San Antonio vs Phoenix and LA vs Dallas in the 1st round. Oh man.

Thanks Washington. Now all we have to do is beat Miami and Chicago and we get the 6th seed and Orlando. Though I'd still like to win out for the momentum and confidence.

The sad thing is, those would've been good matchups a month or two ago. Now I don't think it'd take either the Spurs or Lakers more than five games a series.

The Suns would whoop up the Spurs! Have you not watched basketball lately?

You're insane.

Well Phoenix has owned San Antonio since they got Shaq. I might favor them to be honest.

And Dallas has looked a little better lately, winning 3 games against good teams (Utah, Phoenix, Golden State) after losing like their first ten since the trade. For some reason I get the feeling that the Dirk shows up for these playoffs, the pressure isn't nearly as bad this time. I still don't think they'd beat LA, but it'd be interesting.

I'd take the Spurs over the Suns anyday in the playoffs. Do you really think Shaq is going to be able to keep up for an entire series?

And who cares if the Suns have beaten the Spurs recently? Do the Suns have another gear to shift into (Hi Shaq) when the playoffs begin? Unless the Spurs have aged dramatically since last year, they should still have another gear to shift into.



How many years in a row has Dallas been expected to win? Yeah, they would be in as a seventh seed, but how is the pressure not there?

Now Rockets actually control their own destiny of getting the No. 1 seed, but I'll be happy with a 2-1 finish.

Denver pretty much put the Warriors to bed tonight, huge win over the Rockets.

And just when you think the Mavs are figuring it out... the Blazers and Sonics? Really?

Oh and the first playoff matchup was confirmed today (amazing it took so long), Cleveland vs Washington for the 3rd straight year. I like the Wizards to finally get their revenge. Cleveland's trade looks bad and Lebron has back problems. They had a competitive game with Miami today (!!!).

It's likely to happen. LeBron can't be explosive with a bad back, and Mike Brown isn't likely to think up a non one man show offensive plan.

Sucks that the Hornets aren't gonna get the #1 seed. They sure choked in Sacramento.

The East is now set

1 Boston vs 8 Atlanta
2 Detroit vs 7 Philly
3 Orlando vs 6 Toronto
4 Cleveland vs 5 Washington

We got the matchup we wanted, Orlando. Philly really cooled off the last 10 games, so it was kind of handed over a silver platter (to be honest I think Atlanta is a better team than them, the 76ers just had that hot streak), but I'll take it anyways. I'll be happily surprised if we beat the Magic, but at least we don't have much to lose. If we can get a split in the first 2 games, it'll be interesting.

What the, check out Ramon Sessions' line tonight, a Bucks scrub who got called up from the D-League a couple weeks ago

20 points (7-12), 8 rebounds, 24 assists.

The game score was Chicago 151 to Milwaukee's 135 in regulation. I'd love to see what kind of defense they were playing.

Golden State is ELIMINATED.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/players/gamelog?playerId=3231

It was actually his 5th 10+ assist game in the last 6.

Now that the East is set... here's my predictions:

Boston over Atlanta in 4 - Not a chance in hell Atlanta even wins a game. Unless all the Celts spontaneously combust and die.

Detroit over Philly in 5 - Philly won't beat Detroit, but I think they're good enough to win 1 in Philly.

Orlando over Toronto in 5 - I'm not sold on Orlando, but Toronto is a mess right now.

Cleveland over Wizards in 6 - I want to pick the Wiz as the Cavs are not a well oiled machine righ now. But, the Wiz really aren't that great either, and you just know that Lebron will find a way to win - with or without a supporting cast. Should be the funnest matchup in the East, though. We've already got a ton of trash talking between them.

You guys are all sleeping on the Sixers, and I don't know why.

I think the series is dead even, comes down to the final game, which I think Detroit wins 6 outa 10 times ... but they only play it once, so anything's possible.

It's not gonna happen. As much as I would love to see the 76ers get through the Pistons or even drag it out to seven games, I just don't see them beating them in the playoffs. It goes six at the most since Detroit is the more talented and experienced team.

It's kind of like the Wizards/Celtics matchup this season and a possible round two matchup. Even though the Wizards have beaten the Celtics three out of four times this year, doesn't make them the more talented team. They might win a couple against them, but they won't beat them.

My predicts for the East.

Celtics vs. Hawks - Boston in 4
Pistons vs. 76ers - Pistons in 6
Magic vs. Raptors - Magic in 4
Cavaliers vs. Wizards - Cavaliers in 7