Lebron James has now missed 11 games with a groin injury. It looks like he’ll be returning to the Los Angeles Lakers line up very soon, but is it too late?
The Lakers are 4-7 without James and they’ve lost some games to some teams that they where expected to beat even with James out injured.
The Lakers beat a bad Chicago Bulls team 107-100 last night, but their schedule is going to get much more difficult. The Lakers have road games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets before heading home for three games against the Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns. While the Suns are at the Bottom of the Western Conference the Thunder, Rockets and Warriors are three of the top four teams in the Western Conference. The Timberwolves have a winning record since trading Jimmy Butler, but I’m not sold on them just yet.
If James has to sit out these five games; how many will the Lakers win? You’d have to think that they’d beat the 11-34 Suns without James, but would they win any of the other four games?
To wrap up January, the Lakers host the Philadelphia 76ers before being the road team against the Los Angeles Clippers. I’m not sure that counts as a road game, but it’s the Lakers turn to be the visitors in that series.
The Lakers are currently 24-21 and are tied with the Utah Jazz for the 8th and what would be the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. If they struggled through this next stretch of games or if James has to sit out there’s a chance that the Lakers could actually miss the playoffs this season.
The Western Conference is tough. While the Lakers and the Jazz are tied for that 8th spot the Sacramento Kings are just 1/2 game behind them. After the Kings the Timberwolves and the New Orleans Pelicans are 2 1/2games out of the 8th spot. The Dallas Mavericks roll in just 3 games out of the 8th spot and the Memphis Grizzlies are hanging around 4 games out of that final playoff spot. A losing streak of any length could easily drop one of these teams out of the playoff race.
How do you feel about the Lakers? Do you think they’ll end up hanging onto a playoff spot? Do you see them being on the outside looking in on the playoff this season?
Now I can’t be the only one who thought that the Divisional round of the NFL playoffs was hard to watch. Three of the four games where blowouts and it was difficult to stay interested in them. I was kind of surprised that those three games where so easily won.
The Indianapolis Colts where one of the hotter teams coming into the playoffs, but the Kansas City Chiefs made them look like they didn’t even belong in the playoffs. I know there are people out there who thought the Dallas Cowboys played a close game with the Los Angeles Rams and while the score might suggest that the outcome of the game was never in doubt. I understand that their where a lot of people hoping it might be the year for Phillip Rivers and the Los Angeles Chargers, but that ended quickly as the New England Patriots easily eliminated them from the playoffs.
To be fair I did have the Chiefs and the Patriots winning their games, but I thought that the Cowboys would be able to upset the Rams. When the Rams last faced a top defense in Week 14 they where manhandled by the Chicago Bears. Now the Cowboys have one of the best defenses in the NFL, but you wouldn’t have known that by the way they played. Both Todd Gurley (115) and C.J. Anderson (123) where the first set of teammates to rush for over 110 yards in a playoffs game which helped lead the Rams to a victory. It was a complete surprise to me that the Rams where able to just run the football pretty much at will against the Cowboys defense. You can tell me it was just an 8 point game, but honestly did you think the Cowboys had a chance to win that game?
Now it’s time to move on to the Conference finals and we have a set of rematch games.
In Week 9 the New Orleans Saints beat the Rams 45-35. This game just like the Conference final game will be in the Superdome. Now the Saints did lose two home games this season. Week 1 they got beat by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48-40 and then they dropped their Week 17 home game 33-14 against the Carolina Panthers, Now remember in that Wee17 game, the Saints sat most of their starters. Can the Rams go into New Orleans and get a win? Or will we get a repeat of Week 9?
Back in Week 6 of the NFL regular season the Patriots beat the Chiefs 43-40, but that game was played in Gillette Stadium while the Conference final the game will be played in Arrowhead Stadium as the Chiefs are the home team. It appears as though it’s going to be quite cold for this game and you have to wonder if this will affect either team. Do you think that the Patriots will be able to go on the road and repeat their Week 6 victory? Or do think the Chiefs get some revenge with a win at home?
As for our Divisional round picks. Schaumburg Stu went a perfect 4-0. Dan the Man and I both went 3-1 and believe it or not Mr. Fantasy picked every game wrong as he had another 0-4 week. Through the two playoff rounds Dan the Man is in the lead at 7-1. Schaumburg Stu and I are both sitting at 5-3. Now as hard as it might be to believe Mr. Fantasy is actually 0-8 through two weeks of playoff picks.
After making eight straight incorrect picks Mr. Fantasy went on vacation; so we won’t be broadcasting this Sunday. As for our Conference finals picks; I will post the ones I have in the Saturday blog. If you’d like to pick along with us feel free to leave your picks in the comment section.
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