Quote: but if the cavs play to their potential, it's over before 7.
really going out on a limb there, huh?
lolz, i coulda said between 4-7 games
but honestly, i just wonder what the cavs just went through, was it bad competition, a detroit team that quit way before the post-season started, and a still-young hawks team that was hobbling by the time the series was over..
or did the cavs just make them look bad?
although i love how the cavs have beaten up on a hurt atlanta team, but the lakers "responded" by beating a houston team without 2 key players. kinda funny how that works...
i wouldn't doubt that orlando pushes a game 7, and i wouldn't doubt if houston does the same, but the outcome will still be the celtics and the lakers out of those respective series'
i'd love to see boston close it out so we can get game 1 underway this weekend.
cavs/celts with a possible hawks/wings, man i'm gonna blue glued to the tv for the next few weeks.
Quote: NIce! And you live in Chicago? I like where your head's at.
Haha. Yeah, on a sliding scale of practicality, it's about a 2 but I've told myself (for a LONG time) that if Cleveland had a legitimate shot at a title I would be there. Playoff priority for this season sucked me in to the vortex.
Most of the tickets for next season will go to friends, family or acquaintances, so I'm sure it will be well worth it in the long run. I would guess I'll get back for 10-15 games next season and sell or give away the rest.
Quote: but honestly, i just wonder what the cavs just went through, was it bad competition, a detroit team that quit way before the post-season started, and a still-young hawks team that was hobbling by the time the series was over..
or did the cavs just make them look bad?
The answer is obvious but I will help you with it.
Detroit with a losing record, was a team that had they played in the Western Conference would not have made the playoffs. In fact Phoenix which had a better record than Detroit did not make the playoffs even with a winning regular season record.
Now on to Atlanta, also a team that would not have been in the playoffs had they played in the Western Conference. In fact only 5 teams in the Eastern Conference finished above .500 while 9 teams in the Western Conference finished above .500 for the regular season.
So considering these facts the Cavs have not played a real playoff team as of yet and will have their first real playoff competition in the conference finals.
Then if they get by that competition the west will be the test!
Just wait till next season, I have heard that for over 40 years!
Allow me to help you, since you seem to be leaning towards the left coast.
First, the regular season means nothing in the playoffs. If the Pistons had played ANYONE else besides the Cavs, they would made a lot more noise. They were beat when the got the 8 seed. They didn't want to play us because they already knew there was no way for them to win. I believe the Pistons would have beaten Phoenix in a 7 game series.
Atlanta, got snakebit by injuries at the wrong time. However, they still came to play, and would have snatched a game or two from teams like New Orleans, Portland, Dallas, and even Houston. They might have even beaten NO and/or Portland.
So all in all, the Cavs haven't played the elite teams in the first two rounds....but that's the advantage of winning the top seed. It's not all about Detroit and Atlanta being terrible opponents, and it's not all about the Cavs being truly superior. It's a combination of both. But when your competition isn't up to par, you put them away quickly, and prepare for the next opponent.
"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good" Thomas Paine
So all in all, the Cavs haven't played the elite teams in the first two rounds....but that's the advantage of winning the top seed.
Quote:
Exactly right, Ndutyme.. This ATL series really showed us why we worked so hard to get the one seed.. I am sick of hearing people talk about us beating a "terrible" ATL team.. That same "terrible" ATL team took the World Champs to 7 games last season...
The playoffs are the playoffs... there is a reason that NO TEAM in the HISTORY of this league has won their first 8 playoff games by double digits...
Exactly! It's an overused argument that has no merit this season.
Same conference teams play each other 3-4 times a season, while cross-conference opponents only play each other twice a season. That means EC teams had to play three elite teams 3-4 times each, while WC teams only had to play the Lakers 3-4 times. That in itself can be a five-game swing in records.
But what everyone really ignores is the bottom of the standings. While the West's 4-9 spots are better than the East's 4-9, the West's bottom 7 are truly pathetic. So while teams like Atlanta and Miami are playing twice as many games against teams that can actually win 30 games a season ... teams in the West are padding their win totals against the likes of OK City, Memphis, Sacramento and the Clippers.
My Laker fan cousin texted me after the Clippers choked away their 19-point lead against us in March, saying: "The Clippers shouldn't even be in the NBA!" ... and I responded back, "Why are you complaining? You get two more free wins a year off of them than we do!"
Quote: That still has not changed the FACT that the Cavs have played no competitive teams thus far in the playoffs.
Neither have the Lakers ... excuse the Cavs for being focused.
Houston looks like more of a competitor than Atlanta or Detroit.
Without Yao? Without McGrady? Without Mutumbo?
That's 37 PPG, 18 RPG, and 6 APG gone .......
Do the Rockets even have a Center right now?
If the Rockets look "more competitive" righ now, it's because the Lakers are making them appear more competitive.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
First of all the word is "basis". A Bassist is a musician....
Secondly you completely ignored the point made about how those records came about. A lower win/loss ratio from a STRONG conference does not mean the team is worse than a team with a higher win/loss ratio from a weak conference.
It has been shown in the regular season that in East vs West Games that the East was stronger. Throughout the season the rankings consistantly had 3-4 East teams in the top 4-5 Teams in the League. The lone exception being the Lakers. None of the other teams were consitently there. So if the Lakers opponenet racked up easy wins against weak opponents because they played them twice as often as the East Teams...Then their numbers are inflated and carry little weight. I think YOUR argument has no "bassist" for validity.
Is it fact that the records are what they are...Yes...the records are what they are....But those records are not saying what you are trying to make them imply.
I thought I was wrong once....but I was mistaken...
What's the use of wearing your lucky rocketship underpants if nobody wants to see them????
The East had a winning record against the West this year, not to mention 621 total wins for the East this year as compared to 609 for the West. East had one team with less than 30 wins this season; the West had six, including the Kings with an NBA-worst 17 wins. That's 20+ games a season against certifiably awful teams.
Then don't forget that a perennial East powerhouse in Detroit simultaneously pulled the plug on its season while giving an above-average West team one of its top players when they traded Billups to Denver in exchange for the CAnswer.
Let me ask you this. Who would you have preferred to play 12 times this year...the Clippers, Kings and Warriors, or the Pistons, Pacers and Bucks?
Saying that such-and-such team from the East wouldn't make the playoffs if they were in the West based solely on their record is old, tired and, most importantly, simply untrue.
Quote: One more Fact for you the Lakers swept the Celtics and the Cavs during the regular season.
The Cavs swept the Spurs two seasons ago in the regular season.
That didn't help us much in the Finals, just like the Lakers 2 wins over the Cavs won't help them much (didn't even get them home-court....with a 2 game cushion to begin with)
Quote: So considering these facts the Cavs have not played a real playoff team as of yet and will have their first real playoff competition in the conference finals.
Then if they get by that competition the west will be the test!
The only way the Finals is a bigger test than the conference championship is if it's the Lakers.
I'd take the Cavs in 5 against any of the other teams still alive in the west.... however the Magic or the Celtics could both give the Lakers a run for their money...
As was stated, the east is better at the top and much better at the bottom, the west is a little better in the middle...
Kinda weird how that same logic applies to Big Ten & SEC football (all other conferences as a matter of fact,...) and ACC, Big Ten basketball,...etc. etc.
I mean, does the STRENGTH of the conference really have something to do with who wins it all ?? Sometimes yes, some no,...
In any case. whoever comes out of the East probably does not want to have to play LA. And IF it's NOT the Cavs, then LA has the homecourt too !!
I see the Lakers (or Denver) pulling this whole thing out of the hat,....(with my Rockets now being toast,...the Nuggets are really scary,....)
strength of schedule means nothing in the world of pro sports. these teams aren't that far apart from each other. it's not like a florida and a florida atlantic in football...
as far as me asking the question about our opponents... i wasn't trying to get into an east/west debate. because it's a dumb debate. if you ask me the west is still better but that gap has closed significantly. the east is top heavy with at least 2-3 legitimate contenders. where the west is pretty much the lakers and everyone else, i know san antonio is usually a contender, but they could never get set all year, injuries, bad play, just not their year...
i think detroit is a good team, you look at that roster, and its top 15-20.
however, they quit this year. and i think they saw what they were going up against in a juggernaut with the cavs. and that's being objective. i have heard from non cavs fans that this team is frightening...
i think they realized they didn't have any chance and lost their edge, their fire...
as far as atlanta goes, they are a talented young team that took boston to 7 games. yes, they were hobbled, but even healthy this one is over in 4, 5 at the most.
what happens during the year, what happens with your conference will have zero bearing on what happens in the nba finals.
the west has been better than the east, but that didn't help the lakers much when they got pasted in the clincher last year. pasted.
Here's a fun fact that I had all but forgotten .......
Kobe Bryant was the 13th pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, He was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets and then traded to the Lakers.
The Cavaliers picked 12th in that draft. Their pick? Vitaly Potapenko. Z came out of the same draft.
Who did the Hornets wind up with in return for Bryant? The immortal Vlade Divac.
In 2002, the Hornets packed up and moved to New Orleans.
What's weird is that we "could have" wound up with Bryant and Z out of that draft ... and as a result, might have never been in a position to draft Lebron James.
Funny how things work out sometimes.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
I wouldn't change one thing that ever happened in the Cavaliers history that could possibly end up with us not getting LeBron (see: Ray Bradbury's Butterfly Effect)....nothing could be as fun as cheering for LeBron's team.
Also, Chauncey Billups will now be competing in his 7th straight Conference Finals.
A big thanks to Joe Dumars for deciding that he was toast and Stuckey was ready to take over. Hope signing Josh Childress and M. Gortat this offseason makes it all worth it.
pluto and windy's book shows how every move the cavs made in the years leading up to lebron were all beneficial. like the pieces fell into place, even the shawn kemp fiasco.
it's a great book, although they probably should have waited 2 years because of what has transpired over the last 15 months...
it is amazing when you look at how this team has come to where they are.....
i mean, really, think about it...
lebron is lebron, and how we got him is amazing, but some of these other guys...
mo williams comes over because we make some boneheaded choices with laura hughes and marshall and d jones... it allows us to trade for guys who were not available when we spent all that money...
how about andy? we got him because we panicked when boozer split cleveland.. he was a throw in too. that move was to get tony battie who could just temporarily fill the gap...
boobie gibson in the second round? d block in the second round?
being able to get joe smith back after dealing him?
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But that is soon to change. 
