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I expect the Celtics to win it all but I think the Spurs can get to the Finals. Lakers will be tough but I think Duncan can manhandle Gasol or Odom.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...042001894.html
In NBA, Boring Might Strike Again
Last week we asked which team would win the Stanley Cup. This week, we wanted to ask a completely different kind of question, and we found one, a query as different from last week's as a basketball is from a hockey puck. Our question this week is -- drumroll, please -- which team is most likely to win the NBA le?
1. San Antonio Spurs
What's not to like about the Spurs? Oh, right, they're boring. Good lord, they're boring. Stop boring us! But they do have the requisite experience, with four championships in nine years. They have the requisite trio of elite talent, with Tim Duncan, Manu Ginóbili and Tony Parker. And they have the requisite celebrity fan in lovely Eva Longoria Parker, who somehow still can't keep her squad from being boring. Even though San Antonio was just another team, record-wise, in the ridiculously tightly packed Western Conference, you have to like its chances of drawing on all its experience and turning things up a notch in the playoffs. The team already gave signs of being able to do so in the regular season: after a 1-6 slump in mid-March, the Spurs geared up for the postseason by finishing 12-3 and cementing home-court advantage in the first round. In other news, Ginóbili not only maintained his status as the league's best sixth man, he proved that he can grow things other than his bald spot, notching career highs in three-point percentage, assists and points, leading the Spurs in the latter category. So what's not to like? Well, there is that one thing that's just too boring to mention yet again. Then there's the fact that San Antonio has a Mic e Kwan-like record of success in Olympic years. Also discouraging is the flip side of tremendous experience -- tremendous age. Only four Spurs are under 30, and just one of those whippersnappers, Parker, 25, is a major contributor. And with age comes injuries. Ginóbili is coming off a strained groin (ouch), Brent Barry recently played for the first time in 80 days and serial championship-winner Robert Horry has fallen and may not be able to get up. In fact, this whole lousy squad . . . wait a sec, aren't we here to praise the Spurs, rather than bury them? Let's end on this note: Can't spell "boring without "ring." Or "B.O." Because the Spurs can certainly win it all, but no one's saying they won't have a sweat a little.
2. Boston Celtics
Sure, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen haven't experienced a tremendous amount of playoff success. So? Neither have you. But maybe if you had had two of those NBA megastars as teammates, things would have been different. Okay, maybe not. But things might really be different for the Celtics' Big Three, who joined forces this season and have played as if they don't intend to waste the opportunity, sprinting to 66 wins (45 by 10 points or more) and a 25-5 record against the West. Just like you would have done.
3. Los Angeles Lakers
They got MVP-quality play from Kobe Bryant, finished atop the West and, along the way, snared all-star forward Pau Gasol from the Grizzlies for little more than a pair of "Hannah Montana" tickets. And if they get anything from center Andrew Bynum, who has been out since Game 35, we could well see Lamar Odom smooching Larry O'Brien (or his eponymous trophy, at least).
4. Detroit Pistons
Yes, the Eastern Conference was vastly inferior this year, but its top two teams have nothing for which to apologize, as Boston and Detroit finished with the two best records in the league. However, the Pistons may want to make amends for having gone to five straight conference finals with only one NBA le to show for it. Or they could just help any disgruntled fans keep things in perspective by telling the ingrates to repeat after them: "Buffalo Bills."
5. Phoenix Suns
When the Suns and Spurs met in last year's conference semifinals, many said the series was effectively for the NBA championship, and, indeed, San Antonio went on to win it all. This year, the teams are meeting in the first round, but plenty of folks are saying the same thing. Great! Instead of sitting through two-plus months of playoff games, we'll just watch this series and then get back to what's really important: Obsessing over our fantasy football drafts.
I expect the Celtics to win it all but I think the Spurs can get to the Finals. Lakers will be tough but I think Duncan can manhandle Gasol or Odom.
Spurs are old so they may not win.
ROFL.Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are full of youthful vigor
I hate the Spurs and the "Spurs are boring" meme pisses even me off.
What trash. America's newspapers (and ABC) are falling apart.
anyone that watched the game on saturday and still says the Spurs are boring deserves to be shot. Seriously sign me up.
Underestimate the Celtics at your peril. Popovich won't, if your team is lucky to advance that far.
Do you have anything at all to bring in a comeback, other than the Mavs suck? I'm fully aware we're going out in the first round.
Actually, is not the Spurs' Big 3 younger than a few of the other playoff teams' top 3 players?
I love how you can go from having one of the greatest opening playoff games ever and still be called boring.
How brainwashed are the media and fans in general? Hilarious.
It's going to be tough for the Phoenix/San Antonio winner. If yesterday is any indication, they're going to beat the holy out of each other for seven games.
eh, shut the up I was just making fun of how the media likes to knock the Spurs for being old.
And yes, the Mavs suck and probably won't go out in the first round.
You know what is funny when people call the Spurs boring and you ask them why, they really don't have an answer. Who is exciting as all to watch compared to the Spurs?? I just watched the Celtics game, not one damn thing on that team that got me out of my seat. Not one player on that team that gets me excitted either. Spurs have the following
1-A dominant low post big MAN who can do it all
2-A fast breaking PG who can make amazing shots in the lane and has a jumpshot.
3-A player in Manu who can both drive the lane and hit outside shoots, who plays with reckless abandon, BUT
They are boring, uh yeah ok why is that and who is so much more fun to watch compared to them????
This take bores me. It's the easy go-to Spurs talking point for people who don't watch them but still have to get a column in by deadline or 30 seconds of analysis on a cable sports highlight show.
The boring argument is boring.
Yep, that double overtime game with constant lead changes and miracle tying shots was pretty boring stuff. That Boston/Atlanta game, now that was the epitome of exciting basketball.
And a cheapshot at the Celtics. Not a mistake I would make.
Teams with low post players are boring. Those are what most fans think of when they call the spurs boring. Low post/inside-out bore fest. Of course there is much more to the Spurs than that but that is the first complaint. Especially the Spurs of 1999.
Why not?
Because they are the greatest team ever assembled on the face of this planet.
Well than that is the problem because that is not who they are anymore. You want a team that has guys that play with flash, you got Manu and Tony doing that for you. Plus there is no way anybody watching that game on Sat thought Duncan was anything short of ing brilliant. Anyone who called what he did out there boring should have there TV's broke and banned from ever watching the NBA again.
Because they're for real. Don't take my word for it, just watch them advance to the Finals.
But the same exact mindset should be applied to the Mavs/Hornets series. From an outsider perspective, I believe both NO and DAL will be beating each other to death as well. It's pretty stupid to bring things up, and this is NOT to try to talk ... but what if Dallas doesn't advance out of the 1st round for the second year in a row? Do you not think the Mavs organization are taking this very personally? They haven't been ahead in a playoffs series since they were up 2-1 on the Heat, and that's taking into effect what remarkable they did i during the 06-07 season.
New Orleans is a very good team, but they haven't been tested like some WC teams, including Dallas. That's why I think they will advance, and hopefully go I35 south for a couple of days.
The 2000-2002 Lakers were boring?
Coming into the series, my gut told me Hornets in 7. But after last night, I have to amend that to Hornets in 5. So my gut is that the Hornets will get some time to rest, and whether it's San Antonio or Phoenix, they have the talent and personnel to advance. San Antonio would be tougher for them.
Dallas has the talent to beat any team in the league in a seven-game series, but...something is just wrong with this team. A large part of it is Avery Johnson, but some of it is on the players as well. The whole season has been marked by an inability to play up to their potential on a consistent basis. I'm also of the opinion that the chemistry in the locker room isn't great.
Chris Paul is going to do whatever he wants in this series, and that is ultimately going to be the difference. Thing is, the Hornets shoot a lot of jumpshots and don't get to the FT line as much as Dallas. If we had a real coach, we'd beat the Hornets.
It was a shot at the Celtics to point out the absurdity of the argument that the Spurs big three is old, but the Celtics big three is youthful, when the age averages out in favor of the Spurs?
Really?
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