Cavs or Magic?

[DavorCroatiaFan]

Celtics.
Until someone beat Big 4 in 7 games serier C's are team to beat. I believe they'll be much better in playoffs. And vs Magic, they arent better then last year...and we now have Nate, Rasheed, Marquis and Finley...better then Marbury, Moore, Scalabrine and Walker...
C's-Raptors 4-1
C's-Magic 4-2
C's-Cavs 4-2
C's-Lakers 4-1

[Onslaught]

Celtics.
Until someone beat Big 4 in 7 games serier C's are team to beat. I believe they'll be much better in playoffs. And vs Magic, they arent better then last year...and we now have Nate, Rasheed, Marquis and Finley...better then Marbury, Moore, Scalabrine and Walker...
C's-Raptors 4-1
C's-Magic 4-2
C's-Cavs 4-2
C's-Lakers 4-1

I'll give you thins much. You're a fan. But they've not shown that AT ALL this year. And don't tell me regular season games aren't important.

And with Marbury,Moore and Scal we didn't even make it to the Eastern finals. We should ask if Sheed, Marquis and Fin are better than the bench that won it all. Haven't seen that to this point.

[liam]

Atlanta might have the talent to beat every team in the east but I really do not seem them beating these teams in a 7 games series.

Not Orlando. Orlando has the Hawks number. I think the Cavs can also beat the Hawks. Unless the Hawks beat one of these teams we will not see them. I think we can beat the Cavs or Orlando. I think the Hawks would give us more trouble than Orlando or the Cavs.

[rav123]

I still don't understand all of the Lebron hate. Sure he is self centered but he just so happens to be the best player on the planet. A player of his caliber doesnt come along too often and if he manages to keep improving and win a few titles he may well go down as one of the top 5 players ever! Obviously if we dont compete I would rather see the Cavs then the Magic.

1) the ego
2) the unmitigated love-fest from the media even though he has yet to win anything of significance other than MVP
3) blatant favoritism from the refs; all he has to do is barrel into somebody in the lane after taking 3 steps and he gets to the foul line automatically.  there's a different rulebook for LeBron
4) his team is boring to watch because they are always LeBron-centric.  4th quarter is guaranteed to be a ton of LeBron isos (this is why the Lakers and the Heat are also boring to watch)
5) he's such a demonstrative player, and he encourages his teammates to be ridiculously demonstrative.  all of the dancing, the yelling, the grinning, the fooling around, and the whining to the refs, and stomping off the court with a pout whenever he loses.  you could say KG is demonstrative, too, but he's in green now so that means I like him

1) MJ, Kobe, Bird... every superstar has an ego, most of them were royal ****bags.
2) That's not his fault, you can't hate him for that.
3) See above.
4) That stuff works. Your point is fair, except that most games slow down in the fourth quarter if they are close, with teams doing more isos and less ball movement.
5) I agree with you on this one.

re: 1 - yes, and that's why im entitled to dislike him.  if he had been drafted by the Celtics, i'm sure i'd absolutely love him.  but he wasn't, so it is how it is.
re: 2 - i can certainly hate him for that; hate does not have to be rational or fair
re: 3 - see above

note that there are superstars that i don't hate; i don't particularly dislike dwyane wade, and i actually quite like carmelo and kevin durant. 

i just can't stand lebron - the way he acts, the way he plays, the way he's treated, etc.  maybe it's because he's totally freakish and it's like he's playing with a stacked deck.  i think the game is less interesting when he's playing it.  he just dominates a game either through getting lots of calls, making shots he has no business making, or being ridiculously strong, quick, and athletic (and it doesn't help that i suspect he didn't get this way entirely naturally). 

he's not a smooth, elegant player like melo or durant and he's not undersized like chris paul or wade or deron williams.  he doesn't have a sense of humor or sportsmanship like steve nash.  honestly, there's just nothing about him that i particularly like.

in any case, i'd much rather see Dwight Howard succeed than LeBron.  Dwight is always smiling and good natured without ever seeming bad mannered or rude.  he accepts a loss humbly, and gets excited when he wins, but not too excited.  he just seems like a genuinely really great guy.  he does some funny impressions of stan van gundy and charles barkley, too.  he's also a great true center in a time when true centers are a rare breed in the league.  i wouldn't mind seeing Dwight win it all.  my favorite moment from last year's playoffs was when they released the commercial with Dwight parodying those stupid Vitamin Water "kobe vs lebron" commercials.

I guess you're right, he has pretty much no faults whatsoever (as a basketball player) - he's so superhuman you can't relate to him. About the steroids thing: he can't be using them now (maybe he used pre-NBA, dunno), because he has been NBA-tested, as well as Olympic-tested.

[Witch-King]

Atlanta might have the talent to beat every team in the east but I really do not seem them beating these teams in a 7 games series.

Not Orlando. Orlando has the Hawks number. I think the Cavs can also beat the Hawks. Unless the Hawks beat one of these teams we will not see them. I think we can beat the Cavs or Orlando. I think the Hawks would give us more trouble than Orlando or the Cavs.

the Atlanta Hawks 2009 playoff run, in a nutshell:

http://insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130451

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moDtBwdXAuw

^LeBron trying his hand at 'The big 3'...

(still can't believe he pulled that in a playoff game, I've seen T-Mac make shots from that far out, but that was for a charity benefit for the victims of Hurricane Katrina)   

[GreenFaith1819]

CLE and ORL are both Great Teams, but....


Wait for it........



I'll Take The Boston Celtics, behind door number 18, please.
No disrespect to either team, but once Boston gets it going again, no one can beat us.

We are 2-2 against the top two teams in the NBA.

We were one Marquis Daniels away from forcing Kobe to miss two or more shots to beat LA in Boston. We were one Paul Pierce away from forcing Lebron to play some defense in their win in Boston.

The Green Train Rolls on!

[PosImpos]

I appreciate the sentiment but the people who are answering 'Celtics' are kind of missing the point of the thread

[el.celta]

Orlando insurance is better than Cleveland Cavaliers.
good players like Vince Carter and Matt Barnes.
Celtics can beat both teams.
the celtics are always distinguished by his good defense.
should be given the opportunity to Wallace, Finley and Nate to see that show.