What's up, Hollinger?

It's no secret...I'm no math guy.

When God was allocating learning skills to the writers of GrizzLife, he gave me words and he gave Montague the numbers.

But today, I went to Physics lab, did a little algebra, and got in the math mood.

So I decided to go all John Hollinger on the blogosphere for the day and do some calculations.

First, I divided the NBA into contenders and non-contenders, Eastern Conference and Western Conference. In the East, I deemed the top 9 teams contenders (sorry, Knicks...) and in the West, I included the top 10 teams in front of the Grizz (sorry, Clip Show...get a healthy Griff and we'll talk)

Here is a breakdown of the Grizzlies 26-25 record through 51 games, and of their 31 remaining games:

Against East non-contenders:
5-1, with 6 games remaining

Against East contenders:
5-5, with 8 games remaining

Against West non-contenders:
7-5, with 3 games remaining

Against West contenders:
10-13, with 14 games remaining.

Taking the winning percentage from these categories, here are mathematical predictions (not factoring in home/ away) for the remaining 31 games:

East non-contenders:
5-1

East contenders:
4-4

West non-contenders:
2-1

West contenders:
6-8

Total record for remaining 31 games:
17-14

This would put the Grizz at 43-39 for the year, probably a few games shy of the playoffs, considering a team with this record would have made the playoffs only 2 of the last 8 years.

If you take the Grizzlies home (18-8) and away (7-18) records thus far this season, and predict the rest of the year based on these winning percentages, than the Grizzlies would go 15-16 or 16-15, depending on rounding and percent errors that would have been a waste of my time.

So, if you're a Grizz fan, here's what you can take from these layman's calculations:

First of all, it hurts the Grizz that they've already played alot of their Western Conference cupcake games. There aren't many Minnesotas or Golden States or Clip Shows left on the schedule.

Second, the Grizzlies have to sneak a few road games out against Eastern conference teams. In the month of February, Memphis goes on the road against a team from the east 4 times (Toronto, Washing-gun, Nets, Knicks). Winning 3 of these would be big.

Finally, the Grizzlies just have to beat the best. Memphis' record against West contenders was severely wounded by their slow start. It picked up midway through the season, especially with 2 huge road wins at Portland, but has suffered over the last few weeks. When you're chasing contenders, you have to beat them.

Can't wait to live the Grizz Life over the next few months.

I hope you will live it with me.