The more I watch the Heat-OKC finals I have concluded

[BballTim]

Seems that way in retrospect, but I always felt like LeBron was coasting a bit until he needed to win.  I think you play that Heat/Celtic series 10 times, they probably win it 9.  And I think it's absolutely fair to point out the Heat with Bosh is a superior team to the Heat without Bosh (as evidence by the fact we couldn't beat them once Bosh started getting minutes).  Real shocker there... a 7 foot big man allstar makes a difference on a team lacking depth?  Really?  Wow.  SHOCKING!  


Thrilled for LeBron and the Heat right now.  I can't root for an OKC victory until Seattle gets a team.  Those THunder fans need to suffer a bit.  It's LeBron's time.  He's due.  Hope he closes it out the next game and reaches his destiny finally.  It's been a long time coming.

The Celtics are also a superior team with Avery Bradley

I don't really buy that.   Everyone else on this forum is far more hyped up on Bradley than I am.  Yeah I get that everyone is convinced he's an otherworldy defender, because he was putting aggressive pressure on players in the regular season.  I still say he's very undersized... and Wade was pretty subpar in the series regardless (mostly due to his injury, I'm guessing).  Not like Bradley was going to guard King James.

  Put Bradley on Wade instead of Ray and he doesn't need help, that frees players to help on LeBron. Not to mention how much he adds to the one man fast break we normally run.

Lol "King James" how cute

Lol... if King James closes out the Zombie Sonics tomorrow, I'm going to start referring to him as "His Royal James of Championshipville"  

Tim/C18/etc:  I get it.  Bradley displayed some tough defense.  I'm just a slow learner when it comes to "the next stah of Boston".  Right now I have him somewhere between Marcus Banks and Gary Payton on the "defense" chart.  He simply hasn't played enough games for me to be convinced yet.  It's the same with his offense... between shooting 34% last season and 36% in the playoffs, he managed to put together a good three weeks of solid shooting while a starter at the tail end of the season.

  So you're expecting him to shoot around 35% from the field next year?

Still... I have a certain codes I try to live by as a sports fan ... Stuff like never blaming the refs and trying to avoid blaming injuries.

  Thanks for clearing that up. This explains why so many of your Dwayne Wade posts attribute his poor play to possible injuries he's playing through.

If watching the Heat-OKC Finals somehow convinced you that the Celtics could have "easily" beat the Thunder and were "this close" to winning a title... then watching the Heat-Celtics ECF should have convinced every 76ers fan that they could have "easily" beat the Heat and they were "this close" to making the finals.  Think about it.  10 points is less than 13.

  Sigh. People are saying that because we almost beat the Heat, and the Heat are "easily" beating the Thunder. You know, the way you predicted they were going to quickly dispatch the Celts?

  If the Celts took 7 games to get by Philly and then blew out Miami then Philly fans would be right in considering how they might have fared against the Heat. 

Can we get a clean-up crew in here?... someone needs to mop up all of these virtual brain fragments from all the minds that just got blown.

  If you're posting to impress yourself, mission accomplished. If you're trying to blow everyone else's mind...

[Adelaide Celt]

Seems that way in retrospect, but I always felt like LeBron was coasting a bit until he needed to win.  I think you play that Heat/Celtic series 10 times, they probably win it 9.  And I think it's absolutely fair to point out the Heat with Bosh is a superior team to the Heat without Bosh (as evidence by the fact we couldn't beat them once Bosh started getting minutes).  Real shocker there... a 7 foot big man allstar makes a difference on a team lacking depth?  Really?  Wow.  SHOCKING!  


Thrilled for LeBron and the Heat right now.  I can't root for an OKC victory until Seattle gets a team.  Those THunder fans need to suffer a bit.  It's LeBron's time.  He's due.  Hope he closes it out the next game and reaches his destiny finally.  It's been a long time coming.

The Celtics are also a superior team with Avery Bradley

I don't really buy that.   Everyone else on this forum is far more hyped up on Bradley than I am.  Yeah I get that everyone is convinced he's an otherworldy defender, because he was putting aggressive pressure on players in the regular season.  I still say he's very undersized... and Wade was pretty subpar in the series regardless (mostly due to his injury, I'm guessing).  Not like Bradley was going to guard King James.

  Put Bradley on Wade instead of Ray and he doesn't need help, that frees players to help on LeBron. Not to mention how much he adds to the one man fast break we normally run.

Lol "King James" how cute

Apparently it's normal for Celtics fans to refer to him as that

[ScoobyDoo]

I agree that injuries are part of the game and it is what it is. But they play a factor in how good a team can be at any given point.

I think Bosh was/is critical to Miami's improved play and was a big reason they eventually beat us.

I think Bradley's D on Wade, which we already saw in a few games during the regular season would have been "huge" in this series as well and AI do believe it would have been a series changer, IMHO. It just would have allowed us to focus more on LeBron and given us depth.

Overall, I'm proud of the Celtics for their run. They lost:

Jermaine O'neal
Chris Wilcox
Jeff Green
Avery Bradley

Ray, Pierce and Pietrus were banged up - Pietrus and Ray having surgeries a couple days after the playoffs ended.

One has to wonder how the series may have turned out if Miami had the following injuries.

Lose:
Joel Anthony
Udonis Haslem
Shane Battier
James Jones

Mike Miller and Mario Chalmers needing surgery after the series.

Celts have just had terrible luck with injuries the last five years - and often times to younger players.

We gave it a good shot, Heat were stronger this year.

I think we would have had a much more difficult time with OKC than Miami is currently having because of match up issues.
 

[Celtics18]

Every Celtics fan knows that we wouldn't have "easily" beaten anyone.  That's not how this squad does things.

 Would we have ground it out and made it a battle like we did against the Heat?  Probably. 

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Every Celtics fan knows........

Ahhh yes, and these are the key words folks that pretty much sum it up after the "other" posters comments.

[CantBeRight]

RIP Lebron James jokes....

[gar]

No Doubt. The C's over performed given the injuries; but underperformed in terms of their potential w/ a healthy Jeff Green and Chris Wilcox. A lot depends on who we are able to keep and build around. KG is key; but you can see how San Antonio struggled with no one to pair with Duncan. Challange is you cannot just prepare for the lakers (Gasol, Bynum). You have to also prepare for athletic teams like Miami and OKC that can go small.

[Mr October]

The Thunder play ugly team ball. They have nice individual talent, but they rely way too much on 1 on 1 ball and jump shots. I still don't understand how San Antonio crumbled so quickly in 4 straight games against OKC.

As far as how the Celtics would have fared, my guess is that the series would go 7 and have been another grinder.

[BC1996]

The Thunder play ugly team ball. They have nice individual talent, but they rely way too much on 1 on 1 ball and jump shots. I still don't understand how San Antonio crumbled so quickly in 4 straight games against OKC.

As far as how the Celtics would have fared, my guess is that the series would go 7 and have been another grinder.

Watching this right now just makes game 7 sting again.  I was starting to get past it but I have no doubt that we could have turned a series with OKC into a 7 game grinder.