To determine the Outsports favorite to win the NBA's Western Conference.

Just thought I'd keep this active for those who haven't voted yet and still wanted to. So far, 5 teams have received votes-DAL 4 votes, SAC 3, LAL 2, SA and HOU 1 each.

You forgot to include the Sonics! :mad: :mad:

Dont count em out yet with the 16 assist man and Ray Allen, they are only 5 back in the loss column!

I would love to see the MAVs win, but I truthfully think the Spurs are going to win.

Once again, the Western Conference finals will essentially be the NBA championship. I don't see anyone in the East taking anyone in the West to 7 games.

I think Sactown is coming out of the West and the East is not that easy. The Pacers can beat anyone in the league in a 7 game series. The Nets match up well with the Mavs too. And let's not forget Shaq, K40 and the Lakers.

Nah, the Nets are no match for the Mavs. Dallas has won at least the last 4 that I can remember.

Theo,
The playoffs are a different beast and to tell you the truth the Mavs are fun but soft. Very soft.

Z

I think the Spurs or the Kings will win the West.. Dallas is too soft defensively to win and I am not sure that the Lakers will even make the playoffs.Kobe is carrying that team right now.

If the playoffs began today, SAC and LAL would meet in round 1 which is now a best of 7. Interesting....

For the record, I've not said the Mavs would win the West. I do think however, if they were fortunate enough to do so, they could beat any Eastern conference team in a best of 7 series. The Mavs are 21-3 vs East teams. The next best record is Portland which is 16-6. Dallas swept Detroit which leads the league with only 85.8 PA, 114-75 and 102-82.

[ February 24, 2003, 01:05 PM: Message edited by: Theo ]

ROTF!..Z-man and Theo! Knowing both of you guys, it would be great entertainment being in the same bar watching the two of you "debate" basketball!
Two more passionate hoop fans would be tough to find... wink

I see Utah and Pheonix as being very catchable for the Sonics if they keep playing like they have since the trade.

So far we are split between the Mavericks and Kings. Spurs are next followed by the Lakers.

If the playoffs started today, the Lakers are now the #6 seed which would mean they and the Spurs would have to beat the crap out of each other to advance to the semi's. Portland is not peaking right now and Minnesota is which would probably have the T'Wolves move on to the 2nd round for a change. Sacramento would easily handle the Jazz and Dallas can take care of Phoenix.

In the 2nd round, I could see DAL vs MIN and SAC vs SA, resulting in an all Texas Western Confernce Championship matchup.

As much as I love my Mavs, this is scenario is probably the only way they'll make it to the conference championship.

Theo your sadly mistaken if you think the Mavs have even a slight chance of getting past your Seattle Suuuuuuuuuuuuper SONICS in the first round of the playoffs.

GP43, uhh, I mean 34RA, who said anything about the Seattle SuperSonics? I sure didn't!

Break up the Bulls! They clobbered the Lakers last night 116-99, dropping LA to 7th in the West. A Kings-Lakers first rounder anyone? Shaq was held to 13 points. Remember, the Bulls swept the Lakers last season. Thats one problem the Lakers have is taking the lesser teams too lightly. But you wanna bet the Spurs, Kings, Mavs are all trying to secure copies of that game!

As for the not-so-Super Sonics, they are in 11th place 4 1/2 games out of the last playoff spot. Not really sure the Mavs need to worry about going to Seattle for a couple of days. Going to be tough to vault over Phoenix, Houston AND Golden State.

COME ON GUYS!!! MY NAME SAYS IT ALL!!! LAKERS 4X in a row! AII YI YII!!!

George, you must have been listening to Dallas sports talk radio today because Don Nelson said he didn't know the Bulls handily beat the Lakers and held Shaq in check until this morning when he was reading the paper but would be watching the film the first chance he had.

Hey T...hope he checks the hilights from the Lakers/Pistons meltdown tonight at the Palace....Pistons opened an "ultra"-sized can of woop-azz on 'em..
Can the Pistons highlights NOW play earlier than 45 minutes into SportsCenter?!...how 'bout a little respect...

George, George, George, it is very obvious that you are hoping the Sonics dont make the playoffs because you know how vulnerable your Spurs are. The Spurs were very very lucky to get a couple of unfair calls and squeak by the Sonics in the playoffs last year. The Spurs need to just pay attention to what their doing and quit worrying about the Sonics. It is only 4 games in the loss column and 2 of them are head to head and Phoenix is only 3-7 in their last 10 with 20 games remaining.

NFLJockGuy, I figured all you media types were just trying to keep us tuned in for the $$$. I was watching NBATV last night and they kept claiming the Piston/Lakers highlights were "coming up" but I got tired of waiting and went to bed.

Good for you guys beating the Lakers. They've now slipped to 7th and the Rockets are back in it at #8.

I saw some of that Lakers/Pistons game on "bonus coverage" last night and --Yikers-- the Lakers suck! (Why do I have Shaq, Kobe and Phil Jackson on my VGM team... no wonder my stock is falling).

You have to hand it to Detroit, they don't look so good on paper (no "superstar" players) but they hustle and play well as a team.

Okay I'm just about ready to concede that the Sonics wont win the finals this year, it was just a little to late to get their act together, I just hope they can still keep their string of 15 consecutive seasons above .500 alive. This season still will be marked down as real success, Rashard is showing what he can do now, Ray Allen is super, Vin is gone, and I think that all the young players might have been afraid of GP and he may have unknowingly had a negative effect on the team with the "it's all about me" attitude. I'm gonna go for the Warriors if the Sonics cant get in. They are a fun and exciting team to watch. Sonics can help them out by beating Yo, No, Yao on Tuesday. This was actually the first Warrior win ever in Keyarena.

[ March 16, 2003, 03:26 AM: Message edited by: 34ra ]

Things got a bit tighter at the top after last night's results. The Spurs beat the Mavs in Dallas in OT to move to with 2 1/2 games of first. Meanwhile the Kings took care of the Lakers and are 3 1/2 behind Dallas.

Remaining games for the leaders:

MAVERICKS
14 games remaining 6 home, 8 away

Phoenix
at Denver
at LA Clippers
at Portland
at Minnesota
New Orleans
LA Lakers
Orlando
at LA Lakers
at Phoenix
at Utah
Golden State
Seattle
at San Antonio

SPURS
15 games remaining 9 home, 6 away

Minnesota
LA Lakers
Milwaukee
Houston
Utah
at New Orleans
Orlando
at Memphis
at Toronto
at Detroit
Portland
Seattle
at Phoenix
at Utah
Dallas

KINGS
13 games remaining 5 home, 8 away

at Portland
Houston
LA Clippers
at Chicago
at Detroit
at Indiana
at Washington
at Boston
at Philadelphia
Seattle
at LA Lakers
Denver
Utah

The Mavs have a tough schedule and could be caught. They have to travel to Minnesota, Portland, Lakers, Phoenix, Utah and San Antonio! And they have to host the Lakers.

Spurs have tough games, but most of them are at home. Only road games vs. contenders are at New Orleans, Detroit, Phoenix and Utah. They get T Wolves, Lakers, Blazers and Mavs at home.

Kings have 7 of next 9 on the road, where they are only 18-15. They get mostly Eastern contenders like Pistons, Pacers, Celtics and Sixers plus a trip to Laker Land.

The schedule surely favors the Spurs. With mostly home games and tied for the fewest home losses in the league, they could snare the top seed. Season finale Mavs at Spurs could be fro all the marbles!

Okay George, you told me what I didn't really want to know. The Spurs have it easy and the Mavs got it tough. However, me being the eternal optimist, I'm going to remain confident that the Mavs will win the division and let you guys take on the Lakers in round 1, that is, if the Lakers can even maintain the 6th position. If they can't, I'd be more than happy to pass them off to the Kings who I hope keep the #2 position.

I still cannot see any team beating the Lakers in a 7 game series. Many have commented on the fact that the Mavs and Kings are a much deeper team. That is quite evident and obvious. However, the Lakers in the previous three seasons were never close to being the deepest team in the league and it did not stop the Shaq/Kobe duo from bringing home the championships. The superstars trump the deeper team theory. I think Phil Jackson and his coaching staff do an excellent job of making the necessary adjustments during a series; especially as it relates to what the role players need to do to counteract their opponent.

Watching the Lakers closely the past few years has made one learn that you discount heavily what goes on with the team November through March and watch them surge in April (last month of regular season) and through the playoffs.

George, maybe you didn't knock on wood when you posted the remaining schedules for the powerhouses in the West. San Antonio dropped one at home tonight against Minnesota and basically negated a lot of the effort expended last night in Dallas.

Hope springs eternal!

Doing my best Eric Cartman- I hate you Theo. I hate you so very, very much. wink

You do that so well! And I love you too, George.

Spurs have crept to within a game of the Mavs for first place. Question about the playoffs though. Let's say the #2 and #3 seeds (currently Kings and Spurs) both win their first round matchups. If the Spurs have a better record (which they do right now), do the Kings still get home court advantage?

Make that 1/2 game after the Spurs trouning of the Raptors tonight!

The Kings would get the home field advantage in a Spurs/Kings matchup because the Kings would have won their division. The Spurs could only have the home field in that matchup if they win the Midwest Division. Currently the Mavs are on top of that division, but they only have a 1/2 game lead after tonight's games were completed. The Mavs have the #1 seed, the Kings #2, with the Spurs #3 with only about 2 weeks left in the regular season.

[ April 04, 2003, 08:57 PM: Message edited by: SmoothRon ]

Yes a Spurs vs. Sonics match up in the 1st round would be great!

Spurs have taken over the top seed after the Mavs lost to the Lakers last night. Though they are tied with identical 57-20 records, San Antonio holds a 2-1 head-to-head edge. Kings just a game back. Remaining schedules:


SPURS
Portland
Seattle
at Phoenix
at Utah
Dallas


MAVERICKS
at Phoenix
at Utah
Golden State
Seattle
at San Antonio

KINGS
at LA Lakers
Denver
Utah


Looks like it could come down to the season ender. Spurs also have better conference record than Mavs (33-14 vs 31-16).

And the Lakers are only 1 game behind Minnesota for the #5 seed and 1 1/2 behind Portland for #4.

The Jazz beat the Mavs last night, while the Spurs beat the Sonics. Kings also won, so Spurs now hold a 2 game lead over both Dallas and Sacramento.

Who is in charge of making the schedule though? The season doesn't end until Wednesday night. The Kings only have 1 game left, Wednesday against the Jazz. So they are off Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues. Meanwhile the Spurs and Mavs still have 3 games apiece. Nobody should ever have 4 days off at any point in the season, let alone the last week.

I agree about the schedule George. It gives the Kings an unfair advantage of "rest" going into the playoffs next week.

The T'Wolves, Lakers, and JailBlazers are playing fruit basket turnover with the numbers 4,5, and 6 seeds. It's hard to tell who the Mavs are going to draw.

George and Ron, the commentators here in the metroplex made mention of the fact that the Mavericks were still in a race with the Kings for the best record for home court in the event they meet in the 2nd round. So even if the Kings are #2 and the Mavs are #3, if the Mavs end up with the better regular season record, they'll get home court in the 2nd round. I never would have guessed that but apparently it's true.

Blazers beat the Lakers while TWolves dumped the Bulls. So right now, Minnesota is 4th with Portland 1/2 game back and the Lakers 1 behind Portland. Wonder if the Lakers went all out today? :confused: wink

Thanks for that information, Theo!! I didn't realize that a team's record was more important than finishing as division champs. I really hope the Mavs can win their last two games, and it would help if the Spurs could lose tonight in Utah.

Spurs have the Suns tonight and the Jazz tomorrow. The Suns are peaking at the right time so they could be dangerous now and in the playoffs.

Well, the Spurs lost to the Suns tonight, and play a pretty good Utah Jazz team tomorrow night. Dallas is now only a game out of first place. Dallas plays Seattle at home tomorrow and then the grand finale in San Antonio on Wednesday night!! The Mavs still have a slim chance of getting the number one overall seed.

[ April 13, 2003, 10:32 PM: Message edited by: SmoothRon ]

It still looks to me like the Sonics have the inside track on winning the Western Conference Finals, I dare anyone to give me a rational explanation why they wont!

We are eternal optimists Ron but nothing's wrong with that! The scenario that you present is very possible. The Spurs have a tough 2nd game of a back-to-back and after a loss with the Jazz and the Mavs have to homebound Sonics at the AAC. If the Spurs lose and the Mavs win, Wednesday night will be for all the marbles.

All you non-Lakers fans should be cheering for the Mavs to win the Midwest so you all can see the Spurs sweep them in the regular season and in the playoffs.

BTW, 34RA come into the light. frown

I like Billy McKinney's Sonics announcer on what the Sonics should do to that piece of Shit Bradley snap him in half. What a f**king piece of crap elbowing Lewis in the Face on purpose. Put Booth or someone in to kick his ass!

I see this post and I think of that horrible scene in "Good Will Hunting" where Robin Williams hugs a crying Matt Damon and tells him ... over and over ... "it's not your fault" ... "it's not your fault" ... "it's not your fault" ...