It's odd, I have my site at bostoncelticsnews.com, and I have only posted one thing NBA related. Well, how about I make it two?
On MLK night, the Lakers took it the Cavs. If this game didn't showcase why the Lakers are the best team in the league right now, I don't know what does. For the average person who just looks at the NBA as a whole, the Lakers are the team right now. But, as Lee Corso would say, not so fast my friend. Breaking it down, here are my rankings for teams that I think have the best shot at winning the championship.
1. Boston Celtics.
Why? Well let's see, they have the experience, they have the fire power, they have the adage that Kevin Garnett won't let this team down, they have the inside precense to offset any of the teams that can opose them. Yeah, they went through a slump, but face it, there was no way that they were going to continue on the run that they were on. They came out hotter than anytime, and it was almost certain that they were going to hit a slide. If anyone wants to make the arguement that they could easily be upset in the playoffs because they went to all those game 7's last year, well that was last year. They had three guys who had never won anything, and why wouldn't they be a little shaky? Once it gets to that ever-so-glorious playoff time, the Celtics will be settled down, knowing that they have done it before, and that nobody really believes they can do it two years in a row.
2. San Antonio Spurs.
And no, not because it's an odd year, but because this is a team that can do it, and has shown that they are capable of beating anyone. What kind of season would it have been if Manu wasn't hurt for the start of the year, if Tony Parker didn't ge thurt midway through the first half? How about all the young guys they got that are gaining experience and gaining more and more confidence? Hey, they recently beat the Lakers at home not too long ago. They got the coach, and they got Duncan. I've said it time and time again, I will always believe in this team until Duncan is retired.
3. LA Lakers
On paper, this is the team that should have came firing out of the gates, and I have to say that Bynum has looked better than I thought he would. The only problem that I have with this team is that I just don't know if they can pull it off come playoff time. Will Kobe start doing Kobe things like firing up 30 shots when it comes down to it? I know they are firing on all cylinders right now, but this is the team that I think will be tight and that the pressure will get to them. Kobe and Phil haven't won anything since Shaq left. Kobe hasn't shown that he can win without Shaq. How many points were they up against the Celts in that one game in the Finals?
4. Cleveland Cavs
I've said since the start of the year, if LeBron is going to win a championship it will be this year. I think that they really missed Big Z in the Laker game because it's not a good thing if you have to go to war with Ben Wallace and Varejao trying to match up against Bynum and Pau. Anyway, Mo Williams has been great for them this year because he relieves some of the pressure off of LeBron. If I remember correctly his numbers are a little down from years past, but he's a tremendous upgrade over DeLonte West. They need to get over the Celtics though, and it's not like they haven't been there in the past.
5. New Orleans Hornets
This is the team that has been overlooked time and time again, and I don't know why. The start of the year has been very shaky, but I think after the all-star break they will kick it back into gear. From everything that you hear Byron Scott probably shouldn't be the one coaching this team because nobody likes him. This has been a team that is just Jekyll and Hyde. They can beat the Lakers in LA but then lose to the Knicks at home. They got the Nuggets and Spurs at the end of the month, so we'll see how it turns out. I still think that this team is better than they appear. Remember, the biggest thing is how they play at the end of the year, not in January.
Teams that I find overrated?
1. Orlando Magic.
I don't know why, but I just can't take this team seriously. They may be first in the East, heck, first in the league, but I just don't take them seriously. It's pointless in these days to fully believe in a team until they get over the hump and do something, seeing as how the Rays came out of nowhere this year, how the Cardinals came out of nowhere to go to the Super Bowl, but even then, until I see this team beat the Celtics and/or the Cavs in the playoffs, I can't take them seriously. I don't see why not, they've beaten the Lakers twice, beat the Spurs. We'll see, they got Boston tomorrow, then Cleveland a week after tomorrow.
2. Denver Nuggets
This goes along the same adage that they haven't done anything in the playoffs. Getting rid of Iverson was the best move they could have done, but they've lost to the Lakers twice, lost to Cleveland twice, split against the Spurs so far, lost to Phoenix twice, lost to Orlando. I don't think they are as good as they appear. Carmelo says he wants to return on the 30th, and I don't think that this team will be able to find a true identity in time for the playoffs. Once again, I recall back to my high school days of playing ball, my freshman and sophomore year teams found an identity quickly and we knew what time of team we were and how we wanted to play. My junior year was terrible, some games we would be a 3-point team, other games we would try to pound the ball inside, some games we played zone, some we played man, we had to deal with injuries, and didn't really know who we were. Our best player came back halfway through the season and really threw us off how we were playing. Who knows how the Nuggets will respond.
Other than those two teams, i don't see any other teams that really look like they can step up and challenge the top dogs. You got your top 5, the two overrated teams I listed that I don't want to try to bag on, because I think they are good, but just not as good as the top 5 that I listed. I hope that basketball proves that the top teams are the top teams for a reason, unlike the parity that has been shown in football and baseball over these last few years. I want to say there has only been eight teams to win the championship since 1980 with the 76ers and Heat to be the only teams to not win more than more. That tells me if history has anything to say for itself, the top teams are the top teams and will stay the top teams. The Lakers and Celtics in the 80's, the Bulls of the 90's, the Lakers and Spurs of this decade, then the Pistons of the late 80's and the Rockets in the mid 90's. There's the entire list of teams to have won championships in the past 28 years. Is it dumb to only earmark teams that have won championships? Yeah, but at the same time the Lakers and the Celtics are the two dominant teams of this year and last year, the Spurs have always been solid for the entire decade, and any these are the three teams that have the least amount of questions surrounding them.
