Well it looked for a little while like the East had finally caught up to the West. We were stinking it up, New Orleans was struggling, Dallas and San Antonio looked old and the Jazz were dealing with nagging injuries. Looked like the East had finally caught up to the West. And now? West has 9 teams with a winning record. The East? 6. Teams at percentages of over .600? West has 6, East has 4. And this all the while the Jazz and Mavericks struggling. This will change when they hit their stride as we appear to be doing. The Celtics are on an 18 game winning streak, which no one seems to question quite like our 22 game winning streak was questioned to death by talking heads clamoring about our easy schedule, other teams injured players, and pretty much everything you could possibly use to downplay it. There's only two teams in the East that can take on the Celts, and thats Atlanta and the Lebrons. The West has at least 6 teams that I believe can firmly take on and beat the Celtics. The Celtics last loss? At home to the Nuggets. Quality wins during their streak? New Orleans, Jazz, and the Atlanta game. Their next real challenges? Lakers on the 25th, Blazers on the 30th, and us on the 7th. But such is the NBA. And has been for quite some time.
I'll play along: Which 6 teams in the West supposedly "can firmly take on and beat the Celtics" in a 7 game playoff series? Do you base this on the season so far or on what you guess will happen over the next 55 or so games?
Also, I'd like to say that the 3rd Best team in the East would see considerable drop-off, if they were in the Southwest or Pacific division. Could Orlando really win 50 games playing in the Western Conference? I think Boston could definitely do it, while Cleveland could sneak past the lower seeded playoff teams. But, Orlando wouldn't crack the top 8, this year or last year.
This dead horse has been beaten mercilessly by equine necrophiles over the years. While the Celtics have beaten terrible teams during the streak, they've also beaten some good ones, and rarely play down to their competition. They had the league's best record against the West last year. Cleveland smoked the Nuggets at Denver the other night, and the vaunted Lakers have two (nearly three) straight losses to middle-of-the-road Eastern conference teams. While there are a couple of more quality teams in the West and the East, the difference isn't staggering, especially considering the fact that the worst of the worst are out West (OKC, the Timberwolves, the Warriors). And Orlando's style will limit their postseason success but they are on par with several of the West's top teams--I would take them over Dallas and Phoenix, for instance.
Who cares. I would love for the Rockets to be in the East since it means we don't have to deal with all the tough teams in the West, but that's not going to happen. And 6 teams from the West that could beat the Celtics? They went 25-5 last year.
If we were in the East, we would've had 60+ wins the last 4 or 5 years. Could you imagine us playing teams, like Toronto, Atlanta, Indiana, and New Jersey in the 1st Round. It would be squash match...the toughest team we'd play in the 2nd Round are Cleveland, Miami (in odd years), and Orlando...no troubles there. But, I do think we'd get exposed against Detroit or Boston caliber teams. Yao, T-Mac, and the role players would look like a dynasty against the other teams and shut down by the defenses of C's and pistons.
Nuggets, Rockets, Lakers, Spurs, Blazers, Jazz I wouldn't doubt Suns or Mavericks ability to do so either. I base this on what I see now. A few weeks ago? Not so much. But it seems like a few teams in the West are turning the corner.
The Nuggets and Blazers would have about a 1% chance of winning a series against them and would likely get swept. The Blazers are the 2nd youngest team in the NBA and they are better than the defending champions? OOOKAAAY. The Spurs and Jazz haven't shown anything this season and would get pounded. The Lakers are softer than Charmin tissue. The Rockets are still finding their way and would be decided underdogs. At the moment, we don't even know which of the Suns and Mavericks (or even Blazers) will make the playoffs. I'll say this again for about the 15th time: The Celtics were 25-5 last season against the West. To say there are 6 teams in the West that could be them in a series is crazy. This whole "West is so much better than East" nonsense is out of control.
I'd take last years Kings, healthy, with Theus coaching, to finish top 3 in the east. With Bibby of course. Just sayin.
I feel that they would have needed a better 5/4 with the injuries to Shareef, aging KT and with Brad Miller declining to a certain extent in addition to Bibby to reach the top 3 in the east,because I think Boston,the Cavs and Detroit would have better.
To people who say that there are six western teams that can beat celtics in a series clearly haven't seen enough or any of their play. As of right now, the Lakers is the only team that has a chance of beating them in a series. Even at the end of regular season, I don't see suns/blazers/jazz caliber teams have a chance unless some major injuries happen in boston
I'm not sure if you're just tired of people arguing this or if you're saying that the West is not better than the East. Of course, if you want to argue that the West has the better teams from top to bottom then you definitely have a valid argument. It really has looked pretty even this far through the season however. If you want to argue that the West's top teams are better than the East's, then you a much less valid argument. It doesn't matter in the end blah, blah, blah...
The West clearly has more very good teams. The two best teams in the league are in the East, then 9 out of the next 11 or 12 are in the West. The West also has 5 of the 6 worst teams in the whole league. Would those be the same Blazers that were blown out by Boston on national TV just a couple of weeks ago? And the same Nuggets who were blown out at home by Cleveland just a few days ago? The Rockets who have lost already to the Grizzlies and the Clippers?
that pretty much sums it up. pretty even right now. only took the east about a decade to finally not suck.
The Celtics would have probably been 60 - 22 last year if they were in the west...still the best team in the league. Lakers, Rockets have the best shot at beating Boston, than may be hornets.
