daily dallas - April 8 2009

Race to west (8th) mountain


with just 5 games remaining in the 2008-2009 NBA regular season for both Dallas and Phoenix, Dallas (46-31) is now 4 games ahead of Phoenix (42-35) and owns the tiebreak advantage for the 8th playoff spot in the Western Conference, after winning their latest match up last April 6 in Dallas (Dallas won 140-116)

So for Dallas to advance to this year's NBA Playoffs, they just need to win 1 of their remaining 5 games or wait for Phoenix to lose 1 of its remaining 5 games. Any Dallas win or Phoenix loss from tomorrow will guarantee Dallas a playoff spot. Phoenix on the other hand needs to go 5-0 from here onwards and hope that Dallas goes 0-5.

good points for Dallas

• Dallas plays 4 home games and 1 road game while Phoenix plays 2 home games and 3 road games.
• Dallas is 9-1 on its last 10 home games (with 4 remaining home games) while Phoenix is 1-9 on its last 10 road games (with 3 remaining road games)
• Dallas may not need to win any game provided Phoenix loses at least a game, Phoenix visits New Orleans tomorrow which have beaten Phoenix on 2 occasions this season by a margin of 13 points on both games, 1 game was played on
• Phoenix has played 3 or more consecutive road games 5 times this season, and they have yet to win 3 in a row, Phoenix played this pattern twice last month and lost all 7 games (4 straight road games - March 4 to March 9 and 3 straight road games - March 27 to March 30)
  

good points for Phoenix

• Phoenix only plays 1 game against a playoff contending team (next game against New Orleans) and the other remaining 4 are against playoff eliminated teams
• Phoenix has season series advantages on 3 of the 4 teams that they are left to play against (4 of the 5 remaining games), while Dallas has only 1 season series advantage out of the 4 teams that they are set to play with (1 of the 5 remaining games). If Phoenix can win their next game tomorrow against New Orleans, the rest of the way proves to be easier
• Phoenix was able to win 6 games in a row last month (5 home and 1 road game) and Dallas also experienced a 5 game losing streak this season (November 2008 - 2 home and 3 road games)
• Dallas experienced losing 4 straight home games (not consecutive games [vs Houston, Cleveland, LA Lakers and Orlando] - 6 straight if preseason is counted [vs Chicago and Indiana]) this season some time last year
  

key events

• Phoenix @ New Orleans, last game of Phoenix against a playoff contending team. Winning this game will be a big boost because the remaining 4 games will be against teams which they have beaten before. After New Orleans, Phoenix is 5-2 against teams which they are set to face (4-0 if next playing courts are considered)
  
• Minnesota @ Dallas, if Phoenix goes 3-0 and Dallas falls to 0-3 when this match up arrives, this will be a must win for Dallas because their next game after this (last regular season game) will be against Houston. Dallas is 2-6 against teams which they are set to face (1-3 if next playing courts are considered) excluding Minnesota

Remaining games

April 9 - Thursday
Utah @ Dallas (Utah leads season series 2-1, Dallas won 1 series home game)
Phoenix @ New Orleans (New Orleans leads season series 2-0)

April 11 - Saturday
New Orleans @ Dallas (New Orleans leads season series 2-0)
Phoenix @ Memphis (Phoenix leads season series 2-0)

April 12 - Sunday
Phoenix @ Minnesota (season series tied 1-1, Phoenix won 1 series road game)

April 13 - Sunday
Dallas @ New Orleans (New Orleans leads season series 2-0)

April 14 - Tuesday
Minnesota @ Dallas (Dallas leads season series 3-0)
Memphis @ Phoenix (Phoenix leads season series 2-0)

April 16 - Thursday
Houston @ Dallas (Houston leads season series 2-1, Dallas lost 1 series home game)
Golden State @ Phoenix (Phoenix leads season series 2-1, Phoenix won 1 series home game)