Doc Rivers: Magic Are Best Team In NBA Right Now

[Devin 1L]

The NBA's best team? Celtic coach Doc Rivers believes it is the Orlando Magic.

"They're winning games, they're winning them on the road," Rivers said before the Celtics met the New Jersey Nets in East Rutherford Saturday. "I think the national public is finally waking up to them. Last year they had the second- or third-best road record in the NBA, as well.

"Right now, there's nobody in the NBA playing better than Orlando."

Boston Globe

By the way, we we're tied with the Lakers for the 2nd best road record last season. (Celtics were first.)

[NEM]

maybe his vote for the back up pg can go to jameer since he can't vote for his own players

in all honesty, this is a no brainer. the cavs lost to the bulls, the c's are just picking it back up, and we beat the lakers, so why not?

we've been consistent all year, and hopefully we dont ease up. we have to have HC throughout the playoffs. oh and if we tie with LAL, we get HC in the finals should we meet. thats why yesterdays game was so big, at least IMO

[ClashCityRocker]

yeah just because we aren't the most proven team doesn't mean we aren't playing the best basketball. There's almost no denying it. However it is regular season and until we get past the pistons i'll still be a little skeptical.

But yeah we're kickin arse right now

[Devin 1L]

yeah just because we aren't the most proven team doesn't mean we aren't playing the best basketball. There's almost no denying it. However it is regular season and until we get past the pistons i'll still be a little skeptical.

But yeah we're kickin arse right now

Word.

It's funny...I think that the four best teams in the NBA right now are the Magic, Celtics, Cavs and Lakers. But, the Pistons still scare me the most.

[Dome]

yeah just because we aren't the most proven team doesn't mean we aren't playing the best basketball. There's almost no denying it. However it is regular season and until we get past the pistons i'll still be a little skeptical.

But yeah we're kickin arse right now

Word.

It's funny...I think that the four best teams in the NBA right now are the Magic, Celtics, Cavs and Lakers. But, the Pistons still scare me the most.

Ditto. Without Chauncey and with Iverson, they scare me a little bit less though. Then again, Stuckey is turning into a Chauncey-lite a bit, so...

Well, the Magic did beat Chauncey last night, so I don't see why they can't beat the Pistons next.

[Idunkonyou2]

I don't know why people are still considering the Pistons a threat? The Magic IMO won't even see the Pistons in the playoffs this season because the Pistons will lose to the Hawks or Heat in the 1st round. They just aren't that good of a team any more, while the Magic have moved into elite status.

[drsd]

"Nobody playing better" and "the best" are not the same thing.

[Dome]

"Nobody playing better" and "the best" are not the same thing.

Context is the Magic word here, IMO.

Nobody seems to be playing better than the Magic right now, but the playoffs are an entirely different context. No doubt the progress the Magic are showing right now is an indication things are changing, but until we see what they do in the actual playoffs, we don't know if they can indeed win it all.

I don't want to downtalk the current streak too much though, I'm absolutely loving it right now. It's good to see things from a different perspective too, though. IMO it makes me appreciate things even more.

[tigerman]

A sweep of a 4-game road trip is nothing new but to do it at the expense of 3 divisional leaders in the western conference is something to marvel at.

[magicfan4life05]

Call me a pessimist but..


IMO...I think this is more of a "get your team pumped" and "rile up his team" type of thing for next Thursday.

He just wants to make sure his team is ready and is really motivated to come out and beat the Magic on the road.


No doubt it's nice praise, but I think it has more to do with the mindset he wants with the Celtics rather than truly complimenting the Magic.

[lapassione]

This road trip reminded me of last year Boston's Texas Triangle road trip. They went 3-0 in that one and swept three contending texas teams last season and impressed.
Magic had a better one.

[AdamTheGreek]

Clever bastard, Doc's trying to put all the pressure on us and trying to pump up his team.

[Fan from day 1]

Clever bastard, Doc's trying to put all the pressure on us and trying to pump up his team.

i agree

[Magic.City.23.]

Well its a good thing this team thrives under pressure...... Especially Jameer.

[SOUL]

What a bastard Doc, you're going to pump our heads up now!

Lol jk, but its nice to hear. Doc wasn't a bad guy.

[Force9024]

We are playing our best basketball, even when we were winning games, this was around the times with losses to Houston and Portland.. We were keeping up in the 1st half and losing the game in the 2nd half.. Now we are shutting them down in the 2nd half and winning. IMO, this Boston game will be different than the 1st game. Just like the Hawks thought they were gonna slaughter us, and we saw what happened twice. Noone thought we would sweep the Lakers, Noone thought we'd sweep the Spurs.. Point being is Doc is right, we are playing the best basketball of everyone because we got that winning hunger now, and the game against the Celtics will be different than the last one..

[The Laker Kid]

I predict that Magic will win the title this year. Jameer Nelson is probably the best player in the league right now, and that Howard kid has potential too.

[SportsInfoBar]

I don't see the C's beating you in that game next week, you guys get to rest up till then, while they play the Heat the night before. I don't think the C's can beat the Magic in the playoffs this year. It is going to be us(Cavs) against you guys in the ECF (one of us will be the #1 seed, I am thinking you guys since are so banged up at the moment).

As a Cavs fan of all the teams Orlando scares me the most in the playoffs. That was a very impressive trip. The Denver game impresses me the most though. That would have been an easy spot for a let down game, last game of the trip, just beating the Lakers..and to come out and stomp the Nuggets like that was impressive.

I want to comment on the Bulls loss for us. You have to take into consideration the circumstances just a bit. We were without our starting Center, Power Forward and our starting 2 guard played one quarter, Lebron was sick (and you could see how poorly he played). And in spite of all that we were a missed Lebron jumper at the buzzer from winning on the road in that game.

[Fan from day 1]

why are you backtracking about the bulls loss? nobody cut us slack for losing to boston without 2/5 of our starting 5 and bogans off the bench

[J_Magic]

I agree with guy that said Doc is a clever bastard.

He's just trying to psych our team out. Hopefully...the players can read between the lines here.