Mock Playoffs: Dec. 11-Jan. 11

SameOldNudityDrew · Post by **SameOldNudityDrew** » Mon Dec 11, 2023 4:06 pm

Have you guys checked out our schedule for the next month?

It looks brutal.

https://www.espn.co.uk/nba/team/schedul ... mberwolves

16 games, 11 on the road, and not one team currently has a sub .500 record.

The average win percentage of those opponents is probably closer to .600.

This is going to be a real test. We will definitely lose some games coming up here. The question is how we respond. I don't want to see this team's energy broken, especially on defense. It's gonna be a bit of a mental test for our guys, and that's probably good practice.

I'm sorry we didn't make the knockout round of the tournament because I think it would have been good for us to get a little taste of playoff basketball. But I think if we mentally treat this next month a bit like playoff basketball, it could be good for us.

We'll lose games, but hopefully not too many, and hopefully we'll go down fighting and bounce back in the following games. If we lose because of a bad shooting night, or because the opponent is just a really good team having a really good night, so be it. I just don't want to lose because of poor decision making in crunch time, poor chemistry when we fall behind, or poor effort against quality opponents.

Might be interesting to play the mental game of seeing if we can win 4 before we lose 4, then reset the clock whenever either we or our opponents hits 4 wins, kind of to simulate the playoffs. The next 7 teams are N.O., Dallas, Indy, Miami, Philly, Lakers, Sac. Let's get to 4 wins before the end of that Sacramento game on Christmas Eve!

Q-is-here · Post by **Q-is-here** » Mon Dec 11, 2023 6:28 pm

Yes, it's a tough stretch, which is why winning all of those games against inferior opponents mattered so much. Now we actually have a little buffer to go through a rough patch without it severely impacting our playoff seeding (I assume the goal at this point should be at least in the top 4 in the West).

We may get a little injury luck against Dallas if Kyrie is still out, but yeah, most of the teams we are playing during this rough stretch are pretty healthy and playing well.

SameOldNudityDrew · Post by **SameOldNudityDrew** » Fri Dec 15, 2023 12:26 pm

Ok, if you follow my logic of treating this month of games against +.500 teams like the playoffs, we are currently:

1-1 in the mock playoffs. (which is how I'm renaming this thread)

The goal is to get to 4 wins before we get to four losses, and then reset the count to 0-0, and keep on winning until we get to Jan. 11, when the schedule should ease up.

So what do you guys think?

What is the chance we get knocked out (lose 4 games before winning 4)?

How many "series" of 4 games do you think we can win? The max at this point would be 3, for which we'd need to win 12 games total.

TAFKASP · Post by **TAFKASP** » Fri Dec 15, 2023 12:55 pm

They're finally getting back to full strength so hopefully the domination continues. Of course now I've jinxed them...

FNG · Post by **FNG** » Fri Dec 15, 2023 1:36 pm

Drew, I like it that Indy and Sac-town will both have played the night before...there's a pretty good chance we'll have at least our 4th win on the 23rd in Sacramento. And then we meet three opponents on back ends of BTBs in the next 9 games...Dallas twice and Houston. So as difficult as this stretch looks, 5 of the 16 opponents will have played the night before, whereas our only BTB is the first Laker game. That's a huge scheduling advantage for us.

Q-is-here · Post by **Q-is-here** » Fri Dec 15, 2023 1:56 pm

Hard to say....That Dallas road win was really impressive to me because the Mavs had won 4 straight and got off to such a great start with the home crowd into it. And Reid's shooting luck was canceled out by Ant's horrific shooting, so it wasn't just one of those nights where everyone's shot was falling. We legit imposed our will in the second half and just over-powered them.

I think we can win two series and may be come out of this stretch a game or two over .500 (meaning Dec 11-Jan11) and still in one of the top two or three slots in the West. After that, the schedule gets MUCH easier.

Carlos Danger · Post by **Carlos Danger** » Fri Dec 15, 2023 3:22 pm

Bring it on!

60WinTim · Post by **60WinTim** » Fri Dec 15, 2023 11:31 pm

Haliburton banged his knee tonight in the 2nd half and did not return. He may not play against the Wolves.

We will take the breaks wherever we can get them!

SameOldNudityDrew · Post by **SameOldNudityDrew** » Sat Dec 16, 2023 12:27 am

60WinTim wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 11:31 pm Haliburton banged his knee tonight in the 2nd half and did not return. He may not play against the Wolves.

We will take the breaks wherever we can get them!

Man, we have had some real luck this year with opponents missing great players.

kekgeek · Post by **kekgeek** » Sat Dec 16, 2023 10:04 am

SameOldNudityDrew wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 12:27 am
60WinTim wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 11:31 pm Haliburton banged his knee tonight in the 2nd half and did not return. He may not play against the Wolves.

We will take the breaks wherever we can get them!
Man, we have had some real luck this year with opponents missing great players.

I know what you are saying but our most common starting lineup has started under 50% of the games

Minnesota Sports Forum