Won 4 of our last 5 and no idea if we're getting any better. Next six crucial.

[horatio81 [enjin:7751176]]

Wins over Utah and Chicago are nothing to write home about given their injury issues and/or lack of talent. The win over Golden State was nice but shaky and could have easily gone the other way. The loss to Portland was bad but predictable/understandable given the schedule.

I don't feel like I know anything about this team that I didn't know (or not know) before the home-and-home with the Jazz. We can crush bad teams - especially if they lack perimeter scoring to punish our nonexistent paint defense. We can't defend good teams with perimeter scorers *at all*. We don't have the grit (or athleticism) to compete on consecutive nights.

Assuming it takes ~48 wins to grab the eighth seed in the West, we need to win about two thirds of our games the rest of the way. Unlike the last five games, the next six represent a very telling stretch for this team.

If we bring standard play, we'll go 3-3 with losses at Atlanta and at OKC (both on the second nights of back-to-backs) plus a loss to either Memphis or at New Orleans. If we're making progress, we'll win four of six (losses to ATL and OKC) . If we want to make a legit statement and throw our hat squarely back into the playoff ring, we'll find a way to beat ATL or OKC.

Honestly, I think we'll know a lot about this team's prospects heading into the home game versus Portland on 2/8. Hopefully we'll have blown out NO the night before and garnered plenty of rest for the starters.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

In my opinion, any road win is a good win. It's tough to win on the road. Hell, Miami is 13-9 on the road this year. So I'm impressed with the wins @Utah, @Golden State, and @Chicago. You take road wins anyway you can get 'em.

The thing that has absolutely killed us are the home losses to OKC, Dallas, Phoenix, and Sacramento during that 13-game stretch. Losing one of those would have been OK. But losing all 4 was totally unacceptable and essentially set us back far enough that making the playoffs at this point will be very difficult (don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that we tank or anything, but I'm just not optimistic about our chances).

So I feel like I know what our teams' prospects are: Not good! But they need to keep on fighting....