Sansterre's Top 100 Teams, #44-47, 2020 BOS, 1981 BOS, 1970 NYK, 1965 BOS

[70sFan]

3) The '70 Lakers are remembered as Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain, which is to say, as containing two of the top four players of their time. Which means we implicitly think of them as being a great team. By every objective standard, they really weren't. For all of the Lakers teams that were good in the shot clock era, only '72 and '73 made the list. They routinely had only decent SRSs and their playoff performances were generally not dominant.

To be fair, Wilt missed most of the regular season which likely made them look worse than they were. Same applies to 1971 Lakers and West injury.

[sansterre]

3) The '70 Lakers are remembered as Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain, which is to say, as containing two of the top four players of their time. Which means we implicitly think of them as being a great team. By every objective standard, they really weren't. For all of the Lakers teams that were good in the shot clock era, only '72 and '73 made the list. They routinely had only decent SRSs and their playoff performances were generally not dominant.

To be fair, Wilt missed most of the regular season which likely made them look worse than they were. Same applies to 1971 Lakers and West injury.

Good point.

A major element of the 2.0 discussion will need to revolve around:

1) How to accurately adjust team SRS estimates based on injury (for opponent ratings) and
2) Whether or not to compensate teams for their own injuries

[70sFan]

3) The '70 Lakers are remembered as Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain, which is to say, as containing two of the top four players of their time. Which means we implicitly think of them as being a great team. By every objective standard, they really weren't. For all of the Lakers teams that were good in the shot clock era, only '72 and '73 made the list. They routinely had only decent SRSs and their playoff performances were generally not dominant.

To be fair, Wilt missed most of the regular season which likely made them look worse than they were. Same applies to 1971 Lakers and West injury.

Good point.

A major element of the 2.0 discussion will need to revolve around:

1) How to accurately adjust team SRS estimates based on injury (for opponent ratings) and
2) Whether or not to compensate teams for their own injuries

Sure, that's always tough part of this discussion. I prefer not to make artifical adjustments for injuries in this case and after running formula making an adnotation that it's possible that Knicks playoffs performance might be undersold due to Lakers injuries.

[MyUniBroDavis]

I will say the lakers would have had more trouble vs rhe celtics than miami although i think miami was a better team (i value coaching alot though, stevens is good but hes not as good as spoelstra and def not as good as nurse, more of a matchup thing)

Stevens is obv an elite coach but i remember something he did during their last series was wonky, dont remember what it was specifically tho

[sansterre]

Bump for Team #44, the 1965 Boston Celtics!

[homecourtloss]

Bump for Team #44, the 1965 Boston Celtics!

Excellent write up as per usual. For those not really familiar towards statistical measurement numbers such as standard deviation, the stem-leaf plot puts into perspective how much of a gap there was between the Celtics and everyone else and how the other teams for the most part were bunched together. When I see that the StdDev is 2+, I’m impressed, but for many others, the Stem-Leaf might put it into better perspective.

It’s interesting to note how many of those great Russell Celtic teams played 7 game series, often with the home team winning every game (i.e., the Celtics and Russell not winning a single game on the road but never losing at home).

1959 vs. Syracuse, 4-3, no road games won, Celtics won game 7 at home by 5 points
1960 vs. St. Louis, 4-3, each team won one road game
1962 vs. Philadelphia, 4-3, no road games won
1962 vs. Los Angeles, 4-3, 4 road games won, Celtics won game 7 at home by 3 points
1963 vs. Cincinnati, 4-3, 4 road games won
1965 vs. Philadelphia, 4-3, no road games won, won game 7 by 1
1966 vs. Los Angeles, 4-3, 4 road games won, won game 7 by 2
1968 vs. Philadelphia, 4-3, 5 road games won, won game 7 by 4 on the road
1969 vs. Los Angeles, 4-3, 1 road game won, won game 7 by 2 on the road

In any case, these close series seem like what would be the case for a bunched league though one would think the Celtics would win “easier” given how much better they were than the competition in some of these years, like 1965.

[sansterre]

Bump for Team #44, the 1965 Boston Celtics!

Excellent write up as per usual. For those not really familiar towards statistical measurement numbers such as standard deviation, the stem-leaf plot puts into perspective how much of a gap there was between the Celtics and everyone else and how the other teams for the most part were bunched together. When I see that the StdDev is 2+, I’m impressed, but for many others, the Stem-Leaf might put it into better perspective.

It’s interesting to note how many of those great Russell Celtic teams played 7 game series, often with the home team winning every game (i.e., the Celtics and Russell not winning a single game on the road but never losing at home).

1959 vs. Syracuse, 4-3, no road games won, Celtics won game 7 at home by 5 points
1960 vs. St. Louis, 4-3, each team won one road game
1962 vs. Philadelphia, 4-3, no road games won
1962 vs. Los Angeles, 4-3, 4 road games won, Celtics won game 7 at home by 3 points
1963 vs. Cincinnati, 4-3, 4 road games won
1965 vs. Philadelphia, 4-3, no road games won, won game 7 by 1
1966 vs. Los Angeles, 4-3, 4 road games won, won game 7 by 2
1968 vs. Philadelphia, 4-3, 5 road games won, won game 7 by 4 on the road
1969 vs. Los Angeles, 4-3, 1 road game won, won game 7 by 2 on the road

In any case, these close series seem like what would be the case for a bunched league though one would think the Celtics would win “easier” given how much better they were than the competition in some of these years, like 1965.

I agree that I think that the Stem plot is a very easy visual way to depict the competition level for each year. I think I'll start making them standard.