This year the west is even more wild than usual. After last nights game the Blazers sit at 7th in the west with just 4.5 seperating them from being 14th in the West. Everyone is competing this year excepted for the lowly Suns.

However starting in January i believe everything is going to seperate. Teams that want to win are going to start winning and teams that dont show up every night are going to fall. That team could very well be the Blazers who cant just seem to start a consistent win streak. The schedule has been tough, back to back games against the Warriors and now the 76ers come into town and will tip off in about an hour. If Portland does not step up until the all star break, it could be very tough to get back in the race post all star break as we usually do. This is not a year where we can start playing our best ball in March. We have got to start now. And this is why now is a good opportunity to start.

The Lakers in particular have Lebron out for four weeks and Rondo out for a while as well. I dont see the Lakers being where they are right now by the end of January. I believe they will fall out of the top 8 in the west and when Lebron returns they will spend the rest of the year trying to get back into the race.

The Blazers schedule also regresses in January besides games @Denver and @Oklahoma city, the schedule is particularly light with a lot of winnable games. January is going to be the month where teams start to seperate. Luckily with our schedule i believe we stay on the positive side.