Who cares? This is the 3rd straight year of "we should have a better record right now"...
"solid" game? So what? There's a lot of "solid" games this year that haven't resulted in at least a point, it's completely meaningless. I'm not ready to assess this team until closer to the 24-25 games mark but we are a .500 team regardless of what the underlying stats say. And the 2 previous years we've been a non-playoff team despite what the underlying stats or vibes say. I'm not rooting for vibes anymore, I'm rooting for a team that gets real results, not just moral victories.
Do you want garbage wins that get exposed in the playoffs or do you want solid play that trends in the right direction with the reasonable expectation that they will be our ticket to the playoffs?
The Vegas game is a great example. That was a heartbreaking loss but we outplayed one of the best teams in the league in the hardest barn in the league to play in. There was a moral victory there that gives me confidence it can beat good teams in tough playoff scenarios. That showed me a lot more than, say, the LA game which was a garbage win that only exposed how much work we have to do.
I know you'll say that if we don't win we won't make the playoffs and yeah, thats obvious but you said it yourself that the 25 game mark is when we know what this team is made of. Until then I want to see good signs that we can build from assuming we scrape together an ok record in the time being. Garbage teams get exposed in the long run regardless of their record, teams that play the right way are left standing at the end.