Just looking back on our 4 losses vs the Heat, Hawks, Bucks, and Clippers, I noticed that their combined record is 32-20 (if my math serves me right). That ain't nothin to cry over. The only losing team is the Clippers and that game was tough one because we had no business losing on that much rest if we're on a championship run, regardless of if it was on their court or not. But the other 3? I consider these to be pretty defensible. Basically the 3 other losses were in the midst of the road trip and to teams with winning records on their courts. On top of Wade always giving the Heat a chance on any given night, we lost at the currently #2 in ESPN Power Rankings Atlanta Hawks, and the surprising Bucks with some little guy doing things that haven't been done since a guy named Jordan.

It certainly sucks to have lost to these teams because I think we're better than all of them, but I really liked the Hawks unit coming into this season for some reason and I've always known playing on their home court to be a tough scenario even when they were "down" in years past. I also have an unabashed man crush on B-Jennings and they simply caught us by surprise (I'm going to flat out say we probably underestimated them, but to be fair, who wouldn't underestimate that team that early in the season?) and they caught us in a vulnerable state after the emotional Bulls win. But we beat all these teams in a playoff series without a doubt, and I think we can beat all of the West in a series with the exception of the "prove it before I buy-in" series vs. the hated Lakers. I like our shots vs. PHX, SA, DAL, HOU... pretty much everyone but that Laker hump we need to get over.

So while we may have had a few bumps in the road thus far and are only #5 in ESPN's estimate, I'm not going to sweat it. Our losses in retrospect don't look all that bad. I do hope we've been using this incredibly boring lull in the schedule to keep guys fresh though. Still lots of back to backs to go and only one (vs. the Clippers but in our house) against one of the teams that beat us thus far.

Just trying to keep the chatter up in this terrible schedule we've been given early in the season with so many days off. Boooooring!