bondom34 wrote:Doctor MJ wrote:bondom34 wrote:I'm going to be brutally honest. Part of why I'm convinced of them winning is because they're the team I'm wanting to win least (sorry Nets fans), and they're running through good competition pretty easily so far. They haven't really hit any road blocks at all so far, which is pretty odd.
lol, well I understand that feeling of bracing for the worst, and I'll also say that I'll be cheering against the Nets at every step along the way despite the fact that my guy Nash is the coach and the fact that prior to this year, I was someone cheering for Harden his whole career.
What do you mean by "running through good competition"?
The play in the East.
They beat Milwaukee by a bucket in the only game they played against Milwaukee.
They lost to Philly in their most recent game against them.
Everybody else in the East is effectively G-league.
So just from a "Can they get to the Finals?" perspective, it doesn't seem like we've seen them actually "run through good competition" at all. What we've seen them do is enough that everyone should take them seriously as a threat, but that's it.
Just using Cleaning the Glass, since the trade (1/15), they've got the 4th best point differential vs top 10 teams, behind Utah, Phoenix, and Denver. And if nobody but those 2 teams in the East really matter, there's a pretty distinct chance they only need to beat 1 of the 2 then get to the finals. The Lakers have had some health issues (though I favored them when healthy), the Clippers they did also beat.
The defense is a legitimate concern, but I'm having a tougher time really poking holes in their resume than pretty much anyone else other than maybe the Sixers in just regular season basketball games.
So they have a worse point differential against Top 10 teams than Phoenix.
And what would you say the odds are that Phoenix wins the title?
Re: Good chance only have to beat one of Phi/Mil to get to the finals. Yes, but they're going to have to beat one of them, and there's not really any reason to this point to think they've proven themselves more than those other two teams.
I'll put it this way: If the question is "Which is more likely Brooklyn makes the finals, or one of Philadelphia or Milwaukee makes the finals?", I'd have to side with the Phi/Mil combo.