sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS
RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver
NFL---THE National Conference West’s Seattle Seahawks and the NC West’s
Arizona Cardinals, the NC East’s Dallas Cowboys, also the NC North’s Detroit
Lions and NC North’s Green Bay Packers---each has won 11 games, lost four and
will compete on Sunday for a 12th victory and a playoff slot to their liking. It
will be the NC West’s Seahawks against the NC West’s last place team, the 6-9
St. Louis Rams, the NC West’s Cardinals versus the NC West’s fourth position
franchise, the 7-8 S.F. 49ers, the NC
East’s Cowboys vs. the NC East’s last place team, the 4-11 Washington Redskins,
while NC North supremacy will be battled for by the Lions and the Packers.
Also on Sunday, the NC South’s 5-8 Carolina
Panthers will challenge the NC South’s second place team, the 5-9 Atlanta
Falcons, for division leadership.
At the very bottom of the NC are the 2-13
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, scheduled to on Sunday meet the NC South’s third position
team, the 5-9 N.O. Saints.
Within the American conference, and at the very top and also best in the
NFL as the end of 2014 regulation approaches, are the AC East’s leading
franchise, the 12-3 N.E. Patriots, close behind them the AC West’s number one
team, the 11-4 Denver Broncos, playoff-billeted in spite of the Broncos 37-28
loss last night to the AC North’s leading franchise, the now 10-4 Cincinnati
Bengals.
Atop the AC South are the 10-5 Indianapolis
Colts, two wins ahead of second place team, the 8-7 Houston Texans.
Sunday will see the Patriots against the AC
East’s third place 8-7 Buffalo Bills, also the Broncos versus the AC West’s last
place team, the 3-12 Oakland Raiders, while the Bengals will face the AC North’s
second place 10-5 Pittsburgh Steelers, same day the Colts meeting the AC’s and
AC South’s last position team, the 2-13 Tennessee
Titans.
The current best edge among division leading teams over a second place
franchise belongs to the AC East’s Patriots, three wins atop the 8-7 Miami
Dolphins. On Sunday, the Dolphins will face the AC East’s last place team, the
3-12 N.Y. Jets.
Of the remaining seven division leading
teams, four have the same number of wins as the team directly behind them, the
Seahawks (Cardinals), the Lions (Packers), the Panthers (Falcons) and the
Bengals (Steelers), which from losses on Sunday could finish the regular season
tied with number two teams re. number of season victories.
The three other division leading franchises
(Cowboys, Broncos, the Colts) are two wins atop their respective second position
franchises, therefore guaranteed division leading status at season’s end even if
they lose their Sunday matches.
So, for three of the eight divisions on Sunday, contention at the top
will be tight, in that the AC North’s 10-4 Bengals and 10-5 Steelers will face
one another for division leadership, so, too, the NC North’s 11-4 Lions versus
the 11-4 Packers and the NC South 6-8 Panthers vs. the 6-9
Falcons.
NBA---SEVEN of the 30 NBA franchises have won 20 or more of the NBA-2014/15
games that each has been scheduled to finish by mid-April 2015, when playoffs
commence. That’s roughly one fourth of the 82 games that every NBA team
encounters during regulation. This rate of wins over losses---and not one of the
seven has lost more than seven games to date---, can surely carry each into
playoff opportunities. Best among the seven are the Eastern Conference Atlantic
Division’s 22-7 Toronto Raptors and their nine game edge over second place team,
the 11-15 Brooklyn Nets, also the Western Conference Pacific’s 22-3 Golden State
Warriors being four wins above the 19-9 L.A. Clippers, and the WC Northwest’s
22-7 Portland Trail Blazers, eight wins atop the 13-15 Oklahoma City Thunder.
Presently, 15 of the 30 NBA franchises are below .500, 11 of which are
under .400. Of the 15 below .500 teams, nine are from the EC, six from the WC,
and within a single EC Division, the EC Atlantic, all but the leading team, the
.759 Raptors, are below .500, and within a single WC division, the WC’s
Northwest, all but the leading team, the .759 Trail Blazers, are below .500,
last the 5-9/.192 Minnesota Timberwolves.
Only one division, the WC’s Southwest, can
say that all five teams are above .500. Lowest team in the NBA right now, that’s
the EC Atlantic’s 3-23/.115 Philadelphia
Struggling at or barely above .500 today are three teams, the EC
Central’s 14-14/.500 Milwaukee Bucks, the WC Southwest’s 14-13/.519 Phoenix
Suns, and the WC Pacific’s 15-14/.517 Phoenix
Suns.
It makes sense that of the 30
franchises, half would be at the losing end, which doesn’t mean that the wide
inequality among teams within the losing side must be as it is. The league’s
losing teams aren’t just losing, they are losing BIG, and they are drifting
“widely apart.” Ugh, nine of
the 15 below .500 teams are below .400, of that there are four that are below
.200!
END/ml
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