you know what else is an asset? having a team that believes that losing is unacceptable, that you should try to win all the time, that making the playoffs is an important step in team development.
i really can't believe how quick people are to jump off the bandwagon based on one loss, especially since denver lost to a lottery team at the same time, keeping the door MORE than open. we're 1.5 games out, people! we already own the tiebreaker with denver, and we can clinch the tiebreaker with houston on wednesday. phoenix has basically no chance to make it, as they have a brutal schedule with nothing left but games against good-to-great western teams.
meanwhile:
* utah has gsw, @sas, sas, @hou, @noh, @mem, dal, @por, orl, phx, por
* denver has phx, @gsw, gsw, min, @lal, hou, @hou, lac, @phx, orl, @okc, @min (harder sked than the jazz, with one more road game)
* houston has @lal, @sac, @por, uta, phx, @den, den, @dal, @noh, gsw, @mia, noh (easiest in terms of OWP, more road games than anyone)
i think we control our own destiny still -- if we win out at home AND beat houston, then we'll have 35 wins and both tiebreakers we'll need. i think that gets us in.
i can't understand why we wouldn't want to do that. maybe it's because i still believe that GSW will wind up handing their pick over so we won't be empty-handed in june.