this
who cares if the #5-7 seeds win 50+ games, none of them will win the championship, because one of the top contenders always has and always will. i can't remember there ever being 8 legit le contenders in a single season.
since 1980, only once did a team that wasnt a top 3 seed win a championship, which was the rockets. anyone with a brain knew 1) they coasted and 2) were bit by injury bug in the season
and of the few #3 seeds that did win, most of them had a top 2 record, but were #3 because of the division winner technicality, or were tied with the #2 seed record wise but bumped down by tie breaker
87% of the winners were #1 or #2 seeds
Last edited by Neo.; 05-08-2018 at 05:27 PM.
It didn't seem to bother the Show Time Lakers when they were playing 42-win teams in every round out West while Boston was fighting tooth and nail with Philadelphia and Detroit.I don't know about the 80s or early 90s, but in my lifetime, I've literally never seen a championship team affected by its road to the Finals
This is another one of those basic sports fan beliefs..
BTW people saying the East has been the weaker conference since 1999... the East was the weaker conference before 1999, definitely during MJ's 2nd three-peat and probably during his 1st as well.
All I know is that when I think of an unforgiving gauntlet of endless compe ion, I think of the expansion era 90's NBA eastern conference.
LOL, the Nets. They wouldn't have made the playoffs the years they made the Finals had they been in the West (based on more tough games, not their actual record). The Pistons took advantage of a Lakers implosion. They were good but wouldn't have come out the West either year either (again, the Lakers imploded). Even the Heat's Finals win was a controversial upset. They were good for what, three years?
Keyword I said battling it out which I meant series like Pistons vs Nets in '04 was pretty entertaining. When I said from '03-06 I was implying the start of the '03-'04 season. TBH Lakers shouldn't have beaten the Spurs in '04 they got lucky with .4 and the Spurs inability to hit open jump shots. So I give the Pistons credit for winning that series. I also felt Pistons should have beaten the Spurs in '05 and were unlucky that Horry hit that 3 in game 5. Pistons were legit in my eyes them and the Spurs are the reasons why the NBA change the defensive rules and completely outlawed hand checking. Heat won in '06 on controversy but then again the Mavs won a few games against the Spurs that year in the playoffs on some bs calls so I felt it evened out. Even with the bad calls in that series Mavs had their chances to win but couldn't they just choked.
The Rockets did not coast. They had chemistry issues early on, maybe a little arrogance, a target on their back and honestly, they weren't that good early on. It was still Hakeem and a bunch of role players. Their run shouldn't be diminished. They were better than 47-35 but not too much better.
It was the weaker conference when Jordan played in the 90's too.
The main thing I miss from yesterday's NBA is true rivalries tbh
The whole league was weak in the '90s, tbh. It was the Plumber Era.
who diminished their run? if anything, it was exalted, because they clearly were better than your typical #6 seed
lol sensitive rocketfan
Who said I was being sensitive? I'm saying their run was legit as a lower seeded team. They had championship level experience but weren't for sure better than any team above them. In other words, they didn't just flip a switch, they were extraordinarily lucky that year to get by Utah and Phoenix. They eventually came on but that's different than flipping a switch. If they lose Game 1 in Orlando, they likely lose that series.
you don't win a championship unless you are legitimately a top 2 or 3 team in the league. its pretty simple. you honestly think that the rockets were the 11th best team in the NBA that year, since they had the 11th best record?
i'd love to see some other instances where an NBA team won a championship that wasnt very obviously one of the best 2 or 3 teams in the league
Acquiring Clyde Drexler in a mid-season trade certainly didn't hurtI'm really surprised no one mentioned it. That trade saved their season since it gave Hakeem a second all-star player to take the pressure off. If that trade doesn't happen I don't think the Rockets win a le that year.
Just to show how bad the EC is, Boston lost their 2 best players and still made the finals, any west playoff team would've beat them...
Last year the Warriors went 12-0 against the Western Conference, and are currently 8-2 (including not having their best player for 5 of those games). Western Conference is garbage as well, people just need to accept there's only 1-2 contenders a year.
Brad Stevens would find a way to beat any Western playoff team other than the Warriors and maybe the Rockets with that roster, let's be real now. He's one of the all-time greatest coaches already.
Neo
The Rockets were conclusively the fifth best team in the West that year before the playoffs (they had injuries and only finished a game behind the Lakers) and won each of their Western Conference playoff series by a combined 4 games, having to come back twice. They were clutch but any team could have won it that year.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
