That's what I was saying right after the trade deadline when we picked up Serge and PJ. I figure what? A first round series against the Hawks/ Pacees, then a date with the Cavs? That ain't bad. One of the problems we had last year in the conference finals was just running out of energy, so if we stay in the 4th seed then this would have been the optimal path for me. Course they would be fresh as well, but at least it's an even playing field. Instead of it taking us 14 games to play them in comparison to their 8, it'll be 4-7.

BUT, then Lowry got injured. He is the core of the team, and with his injury being too his shooting hand it's going to take some time before he gets back to normal. And that's not going to be week, he's going to need more than one series, perhaps more than two get comfortable once again. So with that said, I now thoroughly believe we need Lowry at as close to 100% as possible come a conference finals matchup. We are not favorites, we literally need to still play a perfect series, and we need our best players to play at their very best. Lowry especially as Derozan will probbaly either be too tired or not as much of a factor against Shump, Smith, LBJ and what not.