Dark Times Ahead

This could get ugly. As if losing a game in The Garden to the freaking Atlanta Hawks isn't bad enough, it completed a stellar 0-4 homestand, 3 of them blow outs, and as an added bonus they just played 6 out of 7 at home and went 1-6. Ouch. As a reward for such a tremendous amount of suckage, they now get to go on their longest trip of the year. It's a six game vagabonder that goes from Detroit to Milwaukee to Indianapolis to Toronto to Philly to Memphis, all in 9 days, then they come home to play the Clips next Friday night. Holy crap.

I'm looking for some sort of silver lining, but frankly it's quite difficult. There's one team in the NBA with more losses, the comedy gold mine that is the New York Knickerbockers. I suppose if there was a glimmer of hope it would be that it's all against the Eastern Conference, except for Memphis and they might as well be in the East. Obviously the worst case scenario would be to come home 6-18, let's look at the best case scenario just for fun.

Pistons, 11-6, Lost to the Hawks this year: No. Um...we'll call this one a loss.

Bucks, 6-10, Lost to the Hawks: Yes. Averaging a smooth 104.4 points against. Yes, that's worse than the Blazers. This is one they could win. It should be entertaining at least since the Blazers have no 2 guard so Redd might score 60.

Pacers, 9-9, Lost to the Hawks: Incomplete. They have lost a couple in a row to fall back to .500 but I don't really see how the Blazers get out of there with a win.

Raptors, 7-10, Lost to the Hawks: Yes, twice. They pretty much suck too. They've won 2 in a row to get to 7-10 and their points against are worse than Portland's as well. Possible win.

76ers, 5-11, Lost to the Hawks: No. This is a dreadful team that's lost 4 in a row. Possible win.

Griz, 4-12, Lost to the Hawks: Incomplete. The one team in the West that's legitimately worse than the Blazers. Possible win but it is the end of that jaunt all over the heartland and Canada (someone tell them Canadians don't like it when you bring your glock in the pillowcase on the plane this time). Still, possible win.

So where does that leave them? They could win 4 out of 6, and I'd pretty much be popping some bubbly if that happened. Let's hope for a treading water 3-3 trip and then Brandon Roy would come back to help lead this team out of the ashes.