Dick Motta’s 10 game set

[Reunion Mav]

A tough schedule is a given with so many relatively equal and good teams to go with about 6 bad teams. A 50 win team keeps very close to 60% win rate. Tough schedules and bad performances get held to 40%. That would be 9-6 over the next 15 to the All Star break. This team has played great after bad losses this year which helps. We have beaten the majority of teams we should beat and we do have some good wins. What I’m watching for is Luka, Kyrie, Derrick and Tim all playing together and getting some good rhythm together. I’m watching Kleber and hoping for Dante and some others to integrate well into team rhythm. If we get more of that going, 9-6 is very doable. That might get us up to a 5 seed.

We will see and enjoy watching. We have a chance.

[SleepingHero]

If we could ever get healthy we could actually know how good this team is.

[Reunion Mav]

If we could ever get healthy we could actually know how good this team is.

That is so true yet we are in a tight battle with Sacramento and New Orleans for seeds 5-7. We have hung in there with room for improvement for sure. 

Looking at the standings after our 41 game halfway point, our home record kind of weighs us down but our road record has been good. We are currently tied for 10th best record in the league. 

Nine teams are above 60% while 10 teams look hopelessly below 500 for the year not counting Houston and Golden State. Just watching games the league looks pretty top heavy in the top 12 teams with no clear favorites in my eyes. I watched LAC out muscle an also skilled OKC team last night so strength seems even more important this year. We are not the only team getting physically punked. 

Our East and West records are about the same reflecting similar levels of play between the conferences. 

We do need some improvement to be able to win two rounds in the playoffs. We do have the star players to do that if we somehow cover our glaring weaknesses. Certain of our guys could fill those roles or a successful trade may happen by February 8th I think. Again I look forward to watching. We have a lot to watch for. What an improvement from last year!

[Reunion Mav]

From 23-17 we are now 27-23. We were 4-6 the last 10 and are now 3 wins behind the 60% pace. To get to 46 wins we need to resume our 6-4 pace and go 19-13 which we did for almost 40 games.

This past 10 games honestly seemed worse. Our team just cannot catch a break and several guys have joined what seemed like a team wide downturn. But we did hang in there for some needed wins like the one tonight. Kleber and Kyrie are back. Green is showing up. Lively may miss only one more game. Even Grant Williams played better tonight and had a 27. Of course Luka had the 73 and also got the win unlike Booker and others.
Who knows maybe our best pickups for the trade deadline is our own guys. Maybe when they finally stay healthy they play much better and we do go 18-12 to the 80 game mark. I watched the past 10 and was pretty disappointed but hope is not lost.

[MFFL]

7-3 in the last 10 games. Could have easily been 8-2 but still a very nice 10 game stretch.

[Reunion Mav]

Wow it was only 10 games ago that we had no idea what our team would look like now. The 7 game win streak including the first 6 games of this set was nice. The 4 game road trip was tough with a brutal loss. Overall though we did good. We are now on pace for 47 wins. I have noticed several positive developments though we have also gotten a couple of hard lessons on how far we have to go. I’m glad Boston is in the East.

[Reunion Mav]

At 39-29 we need to win these next 2 to give us back to back 7-3 sets. We might just get to 49 wins. I have no idea what seed that would earn but it would mean a very solid finish to the last 22 games. We also get a 3 day off day break over the next weekend with 12 games to go. I guess that is because of the NCAA first round.

[MFFL]

Another 7-3 stretch of 10 games. The team is starting to gell a little.

[Reunion Mav]

We finish the set in 6th place and only needing 5 wins to get to my prediction of 46 wins. Several others went with 46 as well. I guess we should be happy. Now we really need a strong final 12 to earn the 6 seed and even challenge for the 5 seed. Another 7-3 plus 1&1 gets 49 wins and a finish to feel good about.

There is currently a 3 way tie for the Southwest Division lead. It means little but bragging rights are fun.

[Reunion Mav]

80 games in the books. What a finish. At 50 games we were 3 games behind pace. We finish plus 2 and already at 50 wins. A major reason for Dick Motta’s measure of consistency was to get to 50 wins. In the 80s 50 wins was harder to do because tanking was not yet a thing. Bad teams upsetting people more often was a thing.

50 wins is still very good. We had the least consistent 50 win season I have ever seen. It may be one of the strongest finishes we’ve ever had as well. We’ve been consistently top notch these last 10. Best of all here comes playoff basketball after a nice rest.