The Tankathon Thread (since that's apparently what this is now)
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
Does it really matter what anyone else says? They all think we've had the same GM and probably haven't paid attention to the shift in focus on hustle and energy and how a coaching change and a draft pick could swing things pretty hard. Also they think Bagley is breaking out in Detroit so yeah. They never watch us, who cares?
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
Ooohhhhhh
Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
It was getting dicey there for a second LMAO
Huge!
The Spurs also somehow have 3 games left against the Blazers and a game against the Rockets. Very likely they 3-1 those 4 games. And then the rest of their schedule is rather tough (GSW, Nuggets, Mavs, Twolves, Grizz, NOP), but I think you can at least put them down for 1 or 2 wins in that stretch.
So say 4 wins left on their schedule? Would require us to go 7-2 down the stretch to match. Can't rule out total KANGZ, but seems pretty unlikely we catch them, assuming they just don't tank their face off and lose out the rest of the way. I'm tentatively thinking 7 is the furthest we fall at this point.
Kings starting a 5 game road trip here:
@Indy
@Magic
@Heat
@Rockets
@Rockets (2nd night B-B)
Warriors
Pelicans
@Clippers
@Suns
Heat should still have motivation to hold onto their 1 seed by the time we play them. They won't shut down yet. The Warriors are 1 behind the Grizz and 2 1/2 up on the Jazz. So likely have some playoff seeding down the wire there. The Suns absolutely will have everyone shut down with a massive lead holding first. The Clippers likely will be shut down with a 5 game lead on 9th and 6.5 behind 7th. The Pelicans will have plenty of motivation to keep fighting to host the 9-10 play in game.
I think those last 2 games are where the season is gonna be won or lost for us. If we don't shut everyone down, could easily snake 2 worthless wins vs teams resting all the regulars and move from 5th to 7th. It does work in our favor with 7 of 9 road games. That's a tough stretch for any team, even if the teams are bad/resting guys.
The Spurs also somehow have 3 games left against the Blazers and a game against the Rockets. Very likely they 3-1 those 4 games. And then the rest of their schedule is rather tough (GSW, Nuggets, Mavs, Twolves, Grizz, NOP), but I think you can at least put them down for 1 or 2 wins in that stretch.
So say 4 wins left on their schedule? Would require us to go 7-2 down the stretch to match. Can't rule out total KANGZ, but seems pretty unlikely we catch them, assuming they just don't tank their face off and lose out the rest of the way. I'm tentatively thinking 7 is the furthest we fall at this point.
Kings starting a 5 game road trip here:
@Indy
@Magic
@Heat
@Rockets
@Rockets (2nd night B-B)
Warriors
Pelicans
@Clippers
@Suns
Heat should still have motivation to hold onto their 1 seed by the time we play them. They won't shut down yet. The Warriors are 1 behind the Grizz and 2 1/2 up on the Jazz. So likely have some playoff seeding down the wire there. The Suns absolutely will have everyone shut down with a massive lead holding first. The Clippers likely will be shut down with a 5 game lead on 9th and 6.5 behind 7th. The Pelicans will have plenty of motivation to keep fighting to host the 9-10 play in game.
I think those last 2 games are where the season is gonna be won or lost for us. If we don't shut everyone down, could easily snake 2 worthless wins vs teams resting all the regulars and move from 5th to 7th. It does work in our favor with 7 of 9 road games. That's a tough stretch for any team, even if the teams are bad/resting guys.
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iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
I think Indiana is the one we have to compare ourselves to. Luckily they don’t tank either so it’s basically a coin flip. 6 or 7 for us
looking like they will have a revenge game vs. us while Kings rest injuries. should solidify our spot.
EIM86
Starter
this word needs to be banned from this forum lol
sactowndog
All-Star
I don’t think we catch Indiana regardless.
Pacers play:
Us
@Memphis
@Toronto
Atlanta
Denver
@Boston
Detroit
76ers
i only see at most 2 losses in that stretch
We play
@ Indiana
@ Orlando
@ Miami
@ Houston
@ Houston
Golden State
Pelicans
ideally we either win them all or lose them all but I expect us to win 4 at least which will put us 7th behind Indiana and Portland.
Assuming Portland loses 7 of 9 against
Detroit
San Antonio
Houston
Houston
OKC
San Antonio
San Antonio
OKC
New Orleans.
I don't see us winning 4 games. Even Houston because it is a B2B there's good odds of a split so my guess is 2-3. Indy should beat us if we sit everyone. You think Hali and Buddy aren't going to want to make statements? Portland probably wins up to 5 of those games.
sactowndog
All-Star
Yeah just hard to make an accurate prediction given the injury question marks. Portland is taking tanking to a whole new level though I could see OKC wanting to move up a couple spots so they can’t fall as far.
I don't really think Portland is doing anything remotely on the level that Houston, OKC, Detroit have done over the last two seasons. They've shut everything down but they were far too far ahead to pull off a serious drop and it's pretty hard not to believe we haven't done the same just far less blatantly. We blew double digit leads every night for a week and a half a streak that's probably longer save for a random win and a blowout it's hard to believe there isn't a "let's go all out in the first half and take the third quarter off and then play a close 4th quarter" directive that allows some real situational analysis on the players we have while still keeping our draft status intact and letting the fans see some entertaining even if losing basketball.
And if that's not the directive, hooo boy is Gentry a bad coach.
EIM86
Starter
The problem Portland has vs. the tanked the season teams is too many guys fighting for their NBA lives.
sactowndog
All-Star
Yeah and Houston beat Washington and has two against Portland coming up. Houston will not want to fall from 1 to 4 so it will be interesting what they do.
sactowndog
All-Star
last 2 game are TBA. They may not be played.
steelevt
All-Star
I wonder what happens if the tba games aren’t played and even tho the teams are tied, with less games there’s a slight % difference. Like will it cost someone the 9 vs 10 seed?
I'm pretty sure it's just the time that is TBA. I don't imagine the NBA is going to pull the rug on the season at 80 games all of a sudden.
hmm? Is this a new rule change?
Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
It’s just so they can get the best/most important matchups on national TV. The NFL’s done this last week time TBA thing for the last couple of years too
?? It is just TBA on tip time.
Oh man Rip City on reddit is apoplectic over the result tonight. Their schedule does them no favors, it's cute.
They really could walk into 3-5 more wins pretty easily. Houston twice, OKC twice, Pelicans twice, Spurs 3 times. And their only hard games at the end of the season vs the Mavs and Jazz could be them resting starters if playoff seeding is decided (although, unfortunately, the 4-7 seed in the West only has 3.5 total games separating everybody.) Hopefully things become settled by those end of the season games.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
Portland even sat Hart tonight hoping for a loss. It’s a reminder that we could just as easily win a bunch at the end since we will be the trap team every night
hopefully with Sabonis out 5 and Fox likely out for a spell and our coach seemingly trying to get fired we'll manage to stay in place. A loss to Indy will be huge. We know Haliburton will have a huge game so the million dollar question will be will Buddy go on fire or shoot the Pacers out of the gam?
sactowndog
All-Star
I think a number of games are make-up games that they won’t play to not extend the season if needed. But we shall see
All the makeup games have been rescheduled, and all have been played except one, which is scheduled for next week
https://dknation.draftkings.com/nba...s-makeup-dates-covid-19-protocols-news-update
Also, every game on the last two days is listed as TBD so that the league has flexibility for TV scheduling- here is the schedule, showing all games as TBD: https://www.espn.com/nba/scoreboard/_/date/20220410
Here is the Brooklyn schedule- it shows the games that were cancelled, and then if you look you can see that all of those games were made up (including a brutal back to back in Brooklyn and Portland in January). Their last game is listed as TBD not because it is a makeup game, but again to maximize TV viewing. https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/bkn/brooklyn-nets
Even a team like Orlando, with no real reason to play games, is playing all their games. They had one COVID postponement, and they had to make it up as part of a brutal three games in four night swing from Orlando to Toronto to Memphis https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/orl/orlando-magic
So everyone is playing 82 games
