ESPN is pro big market and northeast teams. Headquaters are in Connecticut.
I don't think the Celtics have that much more room to improve, whereas the Spurs have quite a bit more to go.
ESPN is pro big market and northeast teams. Headquaters are in Connecticut.
Who cares
i think we match up better with Boston then we do with the Lakers.
But as of now, the Celtics are a better team than the spurs mostly due to their superior defense but a lot can change from now to june.
Meh, Boston played 4 games in 6 days prior to the Spurs.
Boston is the #1 FG% shooting team in the League. What do you expect when you leave shooters wide open all night. This shouldn't really be news anymore.
Good point.
Bahstan was a bit foggy with his details. Amongst SA's 18 wins, many of them were with the opposition's best player(s) sidelined.
Boston has been in the finals two of the past three seasons. The Spurs haven't sniffed the Finals since 2007. Boston tops the league in defense while the Spurs are middle of the pack defensively and since defense wins championships, I have no problem with one person in the media claiming that Boston is "far and away" the best team in basketball.
In response to HoopsCzar above:
Spurs are not middle of the pack defensively:http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/tea...ff/order/false
Furthermore since the end of December Spurs defense has been an upswing despite Spurs playing a rough and tougher schedule than Boston (and much tougher overall for the year)
They are 7th in the league on defense by these metrics and while tied for 2nd on offense with the Lakers while Boston IS MORE MIDDLE OF THE PACK offiensively at 10th and while they are 2nd in defense the gap in the metrics is not as much as they trail the Spurs in offense from what the Spurs trail Boston in defensively = all with Duncan our best interior defender playing limited minutes.
http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats/_/order/true
Spurs are the top team in Hollingers ratings that use SOS and point differential and the overly IMO vaunted Celtics sit at 5:
http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/powerrankings
LAL is a much tougher matchup for the Spurs and still the team to fear IMO and not the Celtics - who by the time they have to get by Chicago/Heat/Orlando and possibly the Hawks may either not reach the finals or will be worn out by tough compe ive series in the East. If Spurs get past the LAL they can win the whole thing Boston or anyone else over there bring it on!
Sure Boston has made the finals the last two years but they did so going through the East that until this year 2-4 had flaws (stop one player you beat those teams) and unlike the Spurs never swept the Cavs with James. Boston had some tough series and are not an unbeatable team; and Perkins for one is very over-rated.
Last edited by Rummpd; 02-01-2011 at 01:21 PM.
....even better when the spurs kick their asses in the finals
@Rummpd
giving up .452% (12th) and .392% (29th) is too much.
Boston .438% (3rd) .343% (6th)
Thus, Boston is the better team.
Last edited by Hoops Czar; 02-01-2011 at 04:39 PM.
A tough stretch of Western opponents in the playoffs could help prepare the Spurs for the Celtics. We have youth on our side (that's strange to say) compared to the Celts. We might run them out of the building. Ray Allen can't perform consistently but is good for a monster game here and there. The key to stopping them is bottling up Rondo.
Do you think anyone give a what a cleveland fan thinks? Go jerkoff in a tube sock to old videos of lebron.
Hey, horsefly, does anyone give a what a 33 year old transves e living in his parents basement thinks. Say, isn't Tuesday's family F@#K fest at the horse household followed by old reruns of Mr. Rogers neighborhood and Teletubbies?
Last edited by Hoops Czar; 02-01-2011 at 02:03 PM.
Havent checked, but you sure about this?
If we can crank up our defense it won't even be close.
Meh. Boston is one of the top teams and the very fact that they are located on the East Coast and have a long rich history in the NBA, of course they are gonna be overhyped a bit.
1) If this were 2008-2010, Boston's more recent Finals appearances would be important. But this is now, and both of these teams have Championship experience, so I don't see how the last 3 years (player in the much weaker conference) skew to Boston's favor much. There resume is pretty strong for this year alone, let's stick to that.
2) Actually Chicago has the best defense in the league...so if defense wins championships - let's crown the Bulls. Last year Charlotte had the league's best D, didn't get them out of the top 4. FWIW, Spurs are #7, not "middle of the pack."
Defense AND offense win championships.
Duncan>Garnett
-By a hair. You really cant go wrong with either player right now in this stage of thier career but Id go with Timmy strictly cause his style of play is closer to the basket than KG.
Pierce=Ginobili
Both are the closers to thier team with the ball in thier hand to make plays and have both proved to be the best clutch players on thier teams so its hard to say who would be better in a 7 game series. If Manu can not get turnover prone due to the Boston defense than Manu could win this matchup.
Rondo>Parker
Rondo is more vital to the Boston offense than Parker to the Spurs offense. Plus Rondo is a better defender than Parker. Capable of rebounding and blocking shots better than Parker, I can see Rondo having a better impact on the game than Parker.
The key guy in a 7 game series would have to be George Hill. The Celtics have a deep guard rotation as well as a deep frontcourt rotation. Rondo,Robinson,Allen and West could prove to be deeper than our guard rotation. But if George Hill can work better on guarding around screens and develop his playmaking that would be huge for the Spurs
Offense wins games.... Defense wins championships. Who's ruling out the Bulls? The Bulls are every bit as good as the Celtics, they just lack that Championship pedigree. If it weren't for that, the Bulls would get my vote.
BTW, as I stated earlier, giving up .452% (12th) and .392% (29th) is a far cry from Boston .438% (3rd) .343% (6th).
Now go back in the NBA archives and let me know the last team to win an NBA championship ranked 12th in fg% and/or 7th in defensively efficiency other than possibly the Lakers last year. This actually isn't a trick question. I seriously have no idea.
Last edited by Hoops Czar; 02-01-2011 at 04:36 PM.
Could be true. We shall see.
The March home game will be an interesting gauge for the Spurs to see where they are championship contender wise.
Championship pedigree and no one outside of Kyle Korver can make a jump shot.
Well DPG is right in that the Spurs just seem to have really bad losses for a team that is supposed to be a Championship contender.
Boston are definitely better than us right now.
This was a terrible performance, but I don't classify this as one of the terrible losses.
Fair enough and looking back it's not one of those games. Having said that I still thought it was a horrible game and is a good example to point out that Boston don't usually cave like this. Boston may have a bad game, but they don't usually cave in like this if they got a good lead on the other teams home court.
Spurs got lots of work to do.
Typical Spurs fans. I don't even need to (nor did I) bother reading a single response because I already know what it will be. "Actually, I agree with the writer", "the Celtics are definitely better because they play defense", etc.
Only the Spurs could have by far the best record in the league (in the tougher conference, no less), not be playing a single player even 33 mpg and not be widely considered the best team in the league. Could you imagine if the Spurs were the Celtics and the Celtics were the Spurs? You think anyone would consider them the best team in the league then? Not a chance.
ESPN is a joke. Filled with blatant homers left and right. These guys don't even attempt to conceal their biases anymore. In fact, they practically flaunt them. It's pathetic.
Boston is better at the moment.
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