Thought this was interesting....getting some contender recognition from Marc Stein of ESPN.
Must say I can't argue at all with his list. He has OKC, MIA, MEM, CHI, Lakers, Spurs...and BOS listed as contenders.
Our writeup:
Boston Celtics (34-24)
Show me a team with more key players playing well. Show me a team playing more suffocating team D than Boston is at the moment. Show me a team in the East with more championship know-how. Or more last-hurrah hunger.
Right.
You can't.
The Celts might have been teetering toward extinction as recently as the All-Star break, when they were 15-17, but huge second-half spikes in performance from Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce -- along with the surges-from-nowhere-to-prominence for Avery Bradley and Greg Stiemsma -- have completely changed the way we look at these guys.
Just like San Antonio, Boston is ripe to be overwhelmed by size, perhaps even more so than the Spurs because the Celts' return to championship-level D doesn't change the fact that they're near the bottom of the league in rebounding. The big difference between the Celts and Spurs, though, is where they play. The Cs won't see the teams that can hurt them the most (Lakers and Grizzlies) unless they get all the way to the Finals.
Which is something that, yes, is indeed possible because of the current state of the East.
The issues that the Bulls and Heat are facing have opened the door. It also doesn't hurt that Boston boasts the East's most plugged-in point guard on top of that suffocating D and a coach in Doc Rivers who is uniquely qualified to sell Ray Allen on coming off the bench for the first time in his career to let Bradley flourish.
Are we getting carried away Bill Simmons-style? Perhaps. The Celts' collective age makes them vulnerable to be struck down by ill health at any time. Yet so many good things are happening for them right now that it really makes you ask yourself if Boston simply forgot that it's supposed to be too old and creaky for any of this.[/size]
Full link to Marc Stein's article:
http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-120413-14/weekend-dime-title-contenders-flaws-showIt would be SO SWEET for this team to go out with a Championship in June....even sweeter if it's against the Lakers.
Good writeup by Stein....not only for our team, but I couldn't really argue about the others he listed.
Topic: Contender Recognition from ESPN? (Read 688 times)