ConSarnit wrote:CoP wrote:Celtics win 64 games in the regular season with one of the best net ratings of all time of +11.7
"Doesn't matter, all that matters is the playoffs."
Celtics start the playoffs 7-2 with a net rating of +12.3
"That doesn't count either."
They’ve truly faced a murderers row of opponents. By the (probable) end of this series: 10 playoff games where their opponents best player has missed 7 of those games.
I’m not saying the Celtics aren’t a very good team, I just don’t think we can take too much away from these games based on the quality (or lack thereof) of their opponents. That said, they’ve handled their business so far.
Yep, I agree for the most part. They haven't gone against the most difficult of opponents, but they've taken care of business. The +12.3 net rating shows that. The only team with a higher playoff net rating in the last 20 years was the 2017 Warriors (granted, past playoff net ratings account for playoff rounds that haven't happened yet this postseason, so take that for what it's worth).
My post was just meant to show that whatever the Celtics have done thus far, it doesn't seem to matter. Meanwhile, the Nuggets dropping the first two games at home and then coming back to take a 3-2 lead is somehow an indication that they're on a different, higher level than the Celtics. I'm not buying it. The Nuggets may be favored over the Celtics if they both make the Finals, and justifiably so seeing as they're the defending champs and have looked great the last few games. But sentiment on this board seems to be that a Finals series between those two wouldn't even be close, whereas a little more than a week ago, the sentiment on this board was that the Nuggets were dead in the water.
