Maybe it just me but I really thing the whole "West" is over rated. Yes all 8 teams are very good teams, but I think the East had some really good teams this year. Boston and Detroit could take any of the teams out west. Philly and Cleveland are really good teams as well and Atlanta would put up a fight in the west as well.
The West is not overrated, it is really good and really deep, but the real factor is the Celtics and Pistons were underrated simply because they played in the East. The Celtics and Pistons were the two best teams in the NBA over the course of the regular season. That the next best 9 teams were from the West does not make the Celtics any worse.
I'll admit, for the course of the Playoffs leading up to last night, the Lakers appeared to be playing the best overall ball in the NBA. I thought the Pistons were playing the next best ball until the Celtics series, followed by the Hornets, Spurs, Celtics and to a lesser extent (I thought they should have put the Rockets away much quicker, it's a shame people won't credit T-Mac for such a tough playoff performance on an extremely overmatched team), the Jazz. But appearances can be deceiving.
As much trouble as the Cs had against the Hawks and Cavs, I think they had a tougher road to the Finals than the Lakers, despite the regular season records of the teams, and had to do more to get here. Atlanta was a bad team, but they put up a hell of a lot more fight than the Nuggets did. When the Hawks got bombed twice in Boston, they took it as a challenge and played admirably. Clearly, the Celtics should have won that series in 5 games at most, but the Hawks tried. The Nuggets, after losing twice in LA, just gave up. The only guy on that team who really showed heart was AI. Carmelo did not rise to the occasion at all, while the entire Hawks team from star players to role players did. The Hawks prepared the Celtics for a tough playoff series much better than the Nuggets did for the Lakers. The Nuggets series may have made the Lakers look good (and yes, they played well), but Enver allowed the Lakers to just run a layup drill. That does not prepare a team for tough playoff defense.
In the second round, things were relatively even. The Cavs put up a hell of a fight, Lebron, despite his Celtics defense-inflicted shooting woes, was a beast, and Cleveland played outstanding defense, making the Celtics earn their advancement. The Jazz did that for the Lakers, too, and were a tougher team generally than the Cavs, but I think the Lakers would have been better prepared for the Finals if Boozer had brought something on a consistent basis. Overall, though, the Jazz played tough, physical basketball and similarly made the Lakers earn it. That was the series where the Lakers earned a lot of respect, at least from me, but the Cavs, despite an inferior regular-season record, made the Celtics play just as hard and just as well as the Lakers had to against Utah.
In the conference Finals, the Lakers may have made it look easier, but they also had it easier. Both the Lakers and Celtics played gutsy, veteran winning basketball teams that play tough D and have tremendous will. However, for San Antonio, Ginobli was hobbled and only showed up once; without Ginobli, they only had two offensive weapons period and were not terribly difficult to beat (which the Lakers admittedly did with ease). Once the Lakers rallied in Game 1 (a huge push by a great team), that series was done.
On the other hand, Billups was hobbled for the Pistons, but still showed up pretty much every night, and the Pistons made the Celtics earn it more than the Spurs did for the Lakers. For Detroit, even with Billups less than 100%, the Celtics still had 4 other starters to deal with who can contribute on the offensive end - Wallace, Rip, Prince and McDyess - and Billups still brought it on that end at least a few times. The Celtics shut down Prince and Wallace completely, and made the rest of the team earn it.
With Ginobli less than 100%, the Spurs only had two starters to deal with who can play offense - Parker and Duncan. Yet, the Lakers could not stop those two guys. Their defense looked pretty good because the Spurs have no other offensive weapons, but the defense did not stop or really even slow down the only guys who could contribute for the Spurs offense. While the Celtics aren't an outstanding offensive team, with Pierce, Allen, Garnett and Rondo all able to create offense, and a host of guys who can hit shots (Posey, Cassell, House, PJ) or clean up around the basket (PJ, Perk, Powe), they do have much better offense than the Spurs. The Lakers were not ready for it last night (even though the Cs helped them out by missing a TON of easy shots).
Bottom line, in the Conference Finals, the Spurs just looked old while the Pistons looked experienced. Again, I think the Pistons simply prepared us for a tough Finals far far far better than the Spurs prepared the Lakers.
In the regular season, the West as a whole was significantly better than the East, but as everybody knows, the playoffs are a whole other story. The Nuggets winning 15 more games than the Hawks in the regular season is meaningless - the Hawks played harder and better than the Nuggets did. The Jazz were a much better team than the Cavs all season, but without Boozer, they weren't, they were about the same as the Cavs, except the Cavs had one of the three best offensive players (Kobe, Lebron, Chris Paul) in basketball. And the Pistons were every bit the team the Spurs were in the regular season and probably better in the postseason. The Celtics were better prepared for this series and it showed.
I'm not trying to say this will hold true throughout the series. Phil is great at adjusting and the Lakers are really good. With their response to San Antonio's big run to start Game 1 of the WCF and outstanding comeback in that game, plus their response when Utah took 2 straight at home, the Lakers are clearly a great team that can respond quickly to playoff pressure. But our "weak" Eastern playoff opponents certainly seem to have toughened us up and readied us for another tough series more than the Lakers' "stronger" Western opponents.
The West isn't "overrated" at all, it's great, but the East, at least in the playoffs, was underrated. And don't forget, the Lakers didn't roll through 8 great teams to make the Finals, they rolled through a team that played horribly and two very tough teams that were not getting any contributions from primary offensive weapons. They never had to play the other teams that make the West great - the Suns and Hornets. They only had to play 3. And the draw worked out great for them. I give them tons of credit for winning that conference, but it's all even going into the Finals, and the Celtics showed that last night.
In the end, it's not a battle that proves which conference is better, it's a battle that proves which team is better. Should be a great series.
Topic: Just couldn't resist - some snippets from the Lakers blog (Read 6457 times)