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The game on Thursday will prove everyone either wrong or right.
If Spurs lose they cannot be called the best team over the Celtics.
Blogtable: NBA’s best team?
Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.
Quit beating around the bush: Best team in the league? And is that your fave to win the le in June?
David Aldridge: The Spurs. Right now? Absolutely. But in June, the Lakers are still my favorite. I haven’t learned much over the years, but one thing I have learned is that you dismiss defending champions at your peril. L.A. is struggling to find its A game during the regular season, but when the playoffs start, and it’s just one opponent, and Phil Jackson and Jim Cleamons and Frank Hamblen and Brian Shaw can zero in and take away what you want, and Kobe is Kobe, and the Lakers’ 21 feet of big men are healthy and engaged, I’ll take L.A. until further notice.
Steve Aschburner: So this is trick juxtaposition, eh? The best team in the league, in my opinion, is the San Antonio Spurs. Their record, their maturity, their knack for taking care of business in all cir stances are unsurpassed. But they aren’t my favorites to win The Finals – that would be the Boston Celtics. Boston is a little shaggier in the regular season, with injuries making for some funky lineups and rotations. But these guys know the window is closing on them in a way even the Spurs don’t face, and they won’t be forgetting how close they came last June.
Fran Blinebury: Celtics. They have defense, shooting, clutch performers, awesome size, a healthy Kevin Garnett and after Sunday’s showing on the Golden Coast, probably enough at ude to become even Katy Perry‘s favorite team: Undeniable. Fine, fresh, fierce, they have it on lock.
Art Garcia: Doesn’t 40-8 mean anything to you people? I realize it’s been trendy to say for a decade or so that the Spurs don’t get enough respect. That they fly under the radar. They’re boring. But would this question even be asked if the Lakers or Heat or Celtics had that same record? Of course not. We’ve always got to rationalize someone else being better than four-time champ San Antonio. That being said, I’m picking Boston.
Scott Howard-Cooper: The Spurs are the best team in the league, and that’s coming from someone who just watched the Celtics run a clinic on the Lakers. San Antonio has been more consistent lately, even with the Tuesday loss at Portland. Boston lost to the Wizards and Suns within the last six games and, just as bad, got all of 71 points against a poor Phoenix defense. Still, I will stick with the Lakers as my pick to win the le because that was my preseason prediction and there’s no point in making a new call with every wind change of the long season. But let’s just say the Spurs would be a very good pick.
Shaun Powell: The Celtics are benefiting not only from a veteran nucleus that’s been together for four productive years, they’re finally getting healthy. Of course, that leads directly to the next question, about who’ll win in June. As KG’s knees go, so go the Celtics.
John Schuhmann: The standings say it’s San Antonio and the statistics (point differential) say it’s Miami, but I say it’s Boston. The Celtics have the second-best record, the third-best point differential, and they’re 4-0 against the Heat, Lakers and Spurs. And yes, they’re my favorite (right now) to win the le. When healthy, they’re the deepest team in the league, and they’ve played pretty well having not been all that healthy. Defensively, they obviously have what it takes. And offensively, they’ve got a ton of weapons and they move the ball as well as any team in the league.
Sekou Smith: I know the Spurs have the best record, the Lakers are the two-time and defending champs and the Heat have the best 1-2 punch, but the Celtics have the best team. The Spurs have the best argument of the other three contenders. Having the best record in the regular season is often a mirage — ask the folks in Cleveland — come playoff time. Boston has four All-Stars playing at a high level, no one else has more than three. The Lakers were my pick to win the le in June, but that was last June (and maybe even October). I figured they’d edge the Celtics because Andrew Bynum would be back and from his knee surgery before Kendrick Perkins. Now Perkins is back and Bynum is nursing a bone bruise. Did I say Celtics already?
The game on Thursday will prove everyone either wrong or right.
If Spurs lose they cannot be called the best team over the Celtics.
I feel like if the Spurs were to get held to under 44% shooting in a series they'd lose. They always struggle against strong defensive teams. I'd take Celtics in 6.
Like Jurgen (alamo50), I'm sticking with the Spurs as the best team and championship favorite. To Alamo50's credit, he called the Spurs winning the championship this season before the start of last season, so good forecasting! There will be more bumps in the road like last night, but in the end, I'm gonna lean on San Antonio's home court advantage. If they lose home court to Boston, then I'm not so sure.
Art Garcia wrote much of what I've been thinking and just about how I would have said it.
The Celtics are just such a complete playoff team if they've got their health. There's probably 3-4 teams that could win the championship this year and health will probably decide who hoists the Larry O'Brien. But I'd say it's Celtics (best team all things being equal), Lakers (defending champion) and Spurs (proof is in the playoffs), in that order.
celtics are good, but only if ray allen doesn't choke in the finals like he did last year. the only way we lose this year is if one of the big three go down, or we just stop playing. we're good enough defensively to get it done, and this offense is probably the best we've ever had.
Everyone on that Celtics team is shooting at career-levels in FG%, which will inevitably drop. They've been lucky to avoid any serious injuries considering the minutes their big 3 play at their age. I also believe our defense will be better in the playoffs because our best players will be playing more minutes, including our defensive anchor who's playing below 30 minutes a game right now.
If anyone can give us a run for our money it's definitely Boston, but I don't see the Lakers beating us, especially knowing that Bynum will not be 100%.
I too think the Celtics will be the greatest challenge to the Spurs this year, and if it's true that defense wins championships, then the Celtics win it all unless there is a dramatic consistent improvement in the Spurs defensively.
Yeah i agree completely with this one. If we can turn up the defense a few notches and keep it there consistently (which I think will happen, c'mon have all ya'l forgot who coaches this team?) I think we can challenge the Celtics in 7 and win it. I just can't see Manu letting a game 7 on our floor slip away especially now how his role has changed this year. Hopefully we keep HCA and our big 3 healthy, if so i think we will definately be up there and surprise many critics...
Because of the format, home court probably decides a Spurs/Celtics Finals, considering how evenly matched they are. If the Celtics don't have it, they'd have to win either two on the road or sweep the middle three. The odds of either happening aren't good.
As for the question, it's the Spurs, but barely. Because of how few minutes the Spurs' best players are playing, their capacity to improve is greater than any other team. The Celtics are already playing their best players heavy minutes and their best players have played a ton since '08. The odds are greater that their best players wear down.
For now most of these idiots are right and you have to go with the Celtics. But, you can't count the Lakers out no matter how bad they have looked this season. Kobe and his mates have to be considered as one of the favorites. The Spurs and Heat would be next in line followed by the Magic, the Bulls and possibly as a long shot the Mavettes (I know that is a definite LOLOLOLOL). Pop has got to get our guys into a defensive frame of mind between now and the playoffs.
It's not about a "frame of mind" defensively. The Spurs best interior defender plays less than 30 mpg. Their second best interior defender plays less than 20 mpg. Their third best interior defender isn't in the rotation. Anderson, who's almost certainly a defensive upgrade over Neal, has barely played due to injury. On top of all that, Duncan and Ginobili in particular are taking it easy somewhat and pacing themselves.
Given all that and the fact that they don't have great defensive personnel to begin with, it's a minor miracle that they're 7th in defensive efficiency. Just by increasing certain players minutes and everyone going all out in the playoffs, they should be slightly better defensively. If Pop ever inserted Splitter and Anderson into the rotation at the expense of Blair and Neal (which I don't expect to happen), they'd be even better.
They need to be better defensively, but not by as much as people think. Balance wins championships. Because they're so much more explosive offensively than they've been, they don't need to be as stingy defensively. They needed to play historically great defense in the past to win because of how limited they were offensively. Due to that, a lot of Spurs fans have been trained to believe that you need to play defense at or near that level to win a championship, but it's not true. Very good (as opposed to great or historically great) defense can be enough.
Celtics are the favorite to win the finals, let's face it they're the standard for defense right now, and their size laughs at the thought of Blair and Bonner. Which is why I want homecourt so bad. It'll even the odds.
The people should realize that Spurs can crank up their defense whenever it counts. They proved it in several games this season. In some games they seem careless on defense but when play-off comes they will show how they can defend.
This
I'm surprised that no one is giving this a mention. Things will even out eventually. For their sake, Boston had better hope that it's not in the playoffs.
Let's not forget how concerned doc rivers sounded in his press conference and this is after we lost to his team.
wow, cuz its the spurs, theyre not the favorite... oh well they were never the favorite when they won their other championships
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