lessthanjake wrote:Mr Loggins wrote:lessthanjake wrote:
I’ll give you that on the 2015 Cavs. But those Warriors also won 67 games and won the tougher conference. They were the best team in the league all season, so them winning the title really wasn’t some fluke. Meanwhile, I’d say the 2022 Celtics were much more than “meh” finals opponents. They had been extremely good since January, and I cannot find a single team in the play-by-play era (from 1996-1997 onwards) that has a most-played lineup that outscored opponents by as much per 100 possessions as the Celtics most-played lineup outscored opponents this year. Not even the 2017 Warriors, 1997 Bulls, 2008 Celtics, 2013 Heat, etc. Even the 2017 Warriors death lineup didn’t dominate teams as much as the 2022 Celtics’ starting lineup. Of course, that’s at least in part a function of a low sample size, but I find it difficult to call a team a “meh” opponent when their starting lineup had the most dominant regular season of any starting lineup in the last 25 years and then made the finals against a tough run of teams.
regular season and post season are different animals (Phoenix Suns?)
Boston caught teams dealing with pretty major injuries and squeaked through the eastern semi finals and finals….if Middletown played pretty good chance they take care of the Celts in the eastern semi’sz
Maybe not “meh” like the 2015 cavs, but certainly not one of the better finals teams in recent history
Yes, regular season and postseason are different animals, but the Celtics also beat three major title contenders to get to the finals. Would the Bucks have won if Middleton wasn’t injured? Maybe. But the Celtics were also missing Robert Williams for most of the series against the Bucks (and he was clearly less healthy in the games he played in that series than he was even in the Finals). So if we assume Middleton isn’t injured, are we also assuming that Robert Williams is healthy too (or at least as healthy as he was in the finals)? If so, it seems pretty hard to assume the Bucks would win, since Robert Williams is a massive impact player for them. And if not, then it’s just an obviously unfair hypothetical.
a) I don’t think anyone considered brooklyn a major title content
b) getting by hobbled Milwaukee and Miami is good for the celts, but not overly impressive IMO
c) i think most people would take the bucks over the celts at full strength, given how the series went down between the two. This include one of the biggest homers of them all in Bill Simmons
i still see Boston as one of the weaker finals teams in the last decade, maybe two
