well, i've had enough with guys saying we'd still be a crappy team without the injuries. So, here is a break down of the season, game by game.
(preseason)
1. Al Jefferson comes of ankle surgery, comes off the bench, plays less then 20 mpg.
(regular Season).
1. Hornets L -Al comes off the bench for 22 mins. Pierce starts at pf. Lose by 4.
2. Pistons L- Al comes off the bench for 28 mins. Get crushed in the 4th by best in the east.
3. Wizards L-Al off the bench for 30 mins. Get crushed in the 3rd by 3rd best in the east.
4. Cats W- Al's first game missed with apendix, theo plays, we win in OT.
5. Jazz L- No al, 4th best team in the smoking hot west, we lose by 7.
6. Cavs L- No al, get crushed in the 4th, lose by 1 to 2nd best team in east.
(as you can see the trend, to 4 teams in conferences, no Al at all.)
7. Magic L- No Al, lose close 3 pt game. First loss to a non-playoff team.
8. Pacers W- No al, crushed the pacers. Pierce went off.
9. Blazers W- Poor team, No al. Another easy win. Pierce goes off again.
(at the start of the year, even without Al playing big mins, or at all, we beat all the non-playoff teams)
10. Knicks W- No Al, Pierce and wally go off. Win by 4.
(see the trend? even without Al, wally/pierce combo killing teams for wins)
11. Cats L- Al back first game 19mins. Wally struggles, we lose on the road.
12. Knicks L-Al with 4 shots in 18 mins. Wally and pierce off (infamous zone game).
13. Bucks W- Al has 10pts in 16 mins off bench, wally/pierce go off.
14. Nets L-al with 19 min off bench, pierce/wally own, but we lose 11 in the 4th to lose.(nets 100% healthy)
15. Raps L-Al with 27 mins off bench, wally/pierce own, yet we lose. (first real headscratcher game) wally goes down for first time.
16. Bulls L-Al off the bench, still. No wally. get smoked.
17. Grizz L-Al getst first start, no wally. allen plays horrible. Lose a close game. No perk.
18. Suns L-No wally, only lose by 5. No perk.
19. Nets W-NO wally, no perk. al breaks out, win by 2.
20. Knicks W-No wally, no perk. Al/Pierce kills um.
21. Sixers W- no perk. Wally's first game back from first, comes off bench.
22. Nuggets W- No gomes, no perk. Allen breaks out, pierce/al owns. Wally off bench.
23. Cats W- No gomes, no perk, wally goes down in 3rd with the worst ankle of year.
24. Warriors L- No perk, no wally. Imfamous 1 on 5 end of game loss.
25. Sixers L-No perk, wally, pierce. First game of the bad days.
26. Nuggets L- No wally/pierce/perk, no chance.
27 Through 49
Well, making this short. No pierce, wally comes back next game, as does perk. C's manage to win 2 games with only missing pierce. Then wally goes down again, next game allen. Wally tries coming back, only to keep getting injured as we miss allen/pierce/wally and don't win a game.
50. Nets L-Pierce comes back out of shape, and no wally. We lose.
51. Wolves L- No wally, pierce plays heck of a game, ricky wins it at end.
52. Bucks W- wally comes back, we crush the bucks.
53. Kings L-Wally out again, lose a close one on the road.
54. Suns L- No wally, lose a close game.
55. Lakers L- no wally, lose badly.
56 Utah L-no wally, lose badly.
57. Rockets W-no wally, but no tmac or yao, win badly.
58 through 68
Pierce is back, Jefferson is getting big mins, Perk is starting, foot is better, wally done, allen done, yet we are 6-4 with wins against the spurs and some assorted below .500 clubs.
Now, look at those games, and those losses. At the start of the season, Al was coming off the bench because of slowed preseason ankle surgery, or not playing at all due to apendix. We also lost alot of games to teams in the top of there conferences. When AL was getting big mins, wally healthy, and pierce 100%, we won 5 in a row and almost 6. Then down goes pierce, down goes perk, down goes wally off and on (never the same after the 2nd ankle) and down goes allen for major losses. You can't tell me that if wally/perk/pierce/allen played all the season that we wouldn't win 11 games out of
Sixers
Nuggets
Clippers
Warriors
Sonics
Cavs
Magic
Pacers
Raptors
Pistons
Hawks
Kings
Wizards
Spurs
Hawks
Raptors
Wizards
Pacers
Lakers
Clippers
Pistons
Heat
Nets
That would put us at 31 wins, or the 8th seed in the east, on pace for a 39-42 win season.
So, basically, very long post that i would love some of those (yeah, if we were healthy we'd win maybe 5 more games) guys to come in here and prove that we'd still win only 25 games instead of 20 if we were all healthy ALL year.
Games missed out of 66 due to injury.
Pierce - 24
Wally- 34
Jefferson-7
Gomes- 8
West-8
Allen- 33
Perk-10
That's alot of games missed by the top players on the team.
