duncan228
12-07-2008, 01:49 AM
Blazers scorching, according to one test (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Blazers_scorching_according_to_one_test.html)
Miike Monroe
Most coaches believe you can’t judge a team until it has played 20 games, but we’re going out on a limb and declaring the Lakers have established themselves as the class of the Western Conference in their first 18 games.
True, they avoided losing a second time in three games when Washington’s Caron Butler missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer Friday, but they have only two losses in 18 games and the pack of eight teams that trail them all have lost six, seven, eight or nine games.
It’s that pack that is going to jockey for position all season. Seeding is hardly going to matter, unless a team lands the eight spot and has to play the Lakers in the first round.
If you want to judge this group the way coaches often do through the first half of the season, look inside the standings. Look at a team’s record at home and on the road to get a more accurate depiction of relative performance. By season’s end, every team will have played 41 of each. Early in the season, some teams will have played many more road games than some other teams.
Here’s how the eight teams in the West’s two-through-nine spots ranked in this early-season indicator, as of Saturday morning. Subtract the number of home losses from road victories for the result. The Lakers, by the way, were plus-6:
2. Trail Blazers: plus-7
3. Rockets: plus-4
4. Nuggets: plus-3
5. Hornets: plus-2
6. Mavericks: plus-2
7. Suns: plus-2
8. Jazz: plus-1
9. Spurs: even
Miike Monroe
Most coaches believe you can’t judge a team until it has played 20 games, but we’re going out on a limb and declaring the Lakers have established themselves as the class of the Western Conference in their first 18 games.
True, they avoided losing a second time in three games when Washington’s Caron Butler missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer Friday, but they have only two losses in 18 games and the pack of eight teams that trail them all have lost six, seven, eight or nine games.
It’s that pack that is going to jockey for position all season. Seeding is hardly going to matter, unless a team lands the eight spot and has to play the Lakers in the first round.
If you want to judge this group the way coaches often do through the first half of the season, look inside the standings. Look at a team’s record at home and on the road to get a more accurate depiction of relative performance. By season’s end, every team will have played 41 of each. Early in the season, some teams will have played many more road games than some other teams.
Here’s how the eight teams in the West’s two-through-nine spots ranked in this early-season indicator, as of Saturday morning. Subtract the number of home losses from road victories for the result. The Lakers, by the way, were plus-6:
2. Trail Blazers: plus-7
3. Rockets: plus-4
4. Nuggets: plus-3
5. Hornets: plus-2
6. Mavericks: plus-2
7. Suns: plus-2
8. Jazz: plus-1
9. Spurs: even