I simply don't understand...

[Induna]

The way most commentators are still writing the Celtics off. On form in this series apart from the abomination that was Game 3 The C's have kept the Cavs under control and that is without Pierce playing well.

The Cavs are heavily reliant on James and have not played well. I am not convinced by Mo Williams, Anthony Parker, Shaq. People keep saying tha Cavs are deep, really!!?? How many teams would really look at Moon, Sideshow bob, Delonte etc as meaningful depth. I will give you Hickson who is very talented.

Another thing is lebron cannot guard Rondo because if he does rondo will just work on distribution and with Lebron out on the top of the key how will he back up on D like he does when he is closer to the paint guarding Pierce?

I only fear the flukey freakish performances that Mo Williams and guys like Parker produce from time to time and the Celtics being their own worst enemy with a performance that lacks effort.

THE CELTICS CAN TAKE GAME 5 - I am sure of it!

[PosImpos]

Well, watching the Magic I couldn't blame commentators for writing off both of their potential ECF opponents.  But I guess we'll see in due time.

I'm having a hard time seeing the Finals being something other than Lakers vs Magic, though.

I'd love the Celtics to prove me wrong, but on the other hand I would really hate to see them lose to the Lakers.

[Cman]

The way most commentators are still writing the Celtics off. On form in this series apart from the abomination that was Game 3 The C's have kept the Cavs under control and that is without Pierce playing well.

You could also argue that the Cavs have kept the Cs under control.  The Cavs still have home court advantage, and have limited Paul Pierce's effectiveness.

I see in a lot of posts backslapping about how well the Cs have limited LBJ's use of his other weapons (eg: Mo Williams is playing surprisingly poorly), but then write off PP's performance as an anomaly. 

The reality is that this series is close, Cavs still have the upper hand, and ultimately whichever team can start getting other players involved first will win. 

Now to the OPs point, all that I write above doesn't stop me from sharing in your sentiment.  Given how boring the other series are, I'm surprised the analysts/ announcers aren't playing up the idea that LBJ is overhyped, and his Cavs are about to lose (I'm not saying they will, I'm saying the "idea" that they will lose) because it will ultimately drive excitement about the series, and drive TV/web traffic...

[openairmovie]

I wouldnt write the Celtics off from the Magic...all homer aside.   I've said since day one this season that we match up well vs. Cleveland  and noone listened to me they just pointed out Clev's record.  I said it when the playoffs started that I want the Cavs, everyone I knew laughed at the idea. I said it before the series, again   pointed out their record and laughed.  But now its pretty obvious we match up well against them and we certainly match up well against Orlando (if we get to them)

Perk vs. Howard- Perk has kept Howard in check on the offensive side for the most part of his career

KG vs. Lewis-  Not even a contest the way KG has been playing...neither are even half the player that KG is

Pierce vs. Barnes-  Again  no contest even if Pierce has some struggles. Barnes is a mouth

Ray vs. Vince-  likely the best matchup of what this series would give us,  Vince has played well for Orlando  and Ray has shown up for some big games thus far in the playoffs. I think that Ray is healthier at this point but the rest Orlando is getting could give Vince the advantage overall

Rondo vs. Jameer-  I dont even need to comment on this, as long as Rondo plays like he did against Cleveland or even what  he was doing against Miami, it wont even be close. Jameer doesnt penetrate , he shoots, and thats it


Only obvious advantage over us is Orlandos bench with Reddick, Pietrus, Williams, Gortat

I still would take the Celtics in 6 in that series

On the other hand  the Cavs would lose against Orlando in 7

Shaq vs. Howard   adv. Howard
Jamison vs. Lewis  adv. Jamison
James vs. Barnes  adv. James
Parker vs. Carter adv. Carter
Williams vs. Jameer adv. Jameer

Bench- Orlando

[BballTim]

Well, watching the Magic I couldn't blame commentators for writing off both of their potential ECF opponents.  But I guess we'll see in due time.

I'm having a hard time seeing the Finals being something other than Lakers vs Magic, though.

I'd love the Celtics to prove me wrong, but on the other hand I would really hate to see them lose to the Lakers.

  If we can beat the Cavs and the Magic to get to the finals, why would we lose to the Lakers?

[Redz]

How anyone can take anything from the first four games of the C's/Cavs series and say one team has an advantage over the other is beyond me.  Both teams have dominated each other at different point of the series, and done so both home and away.

Home court advantage has been meaningless.  Either a team shows up to play or they don't.  The one bright side I see is that the Celtics won the most competitive game of the series so far, and I'd figure at least two of the potential three remaining games will be super competitive.

[PosImpos]

Well, watching the Magic I couldn't blame commentators for writing off both of their potential ECF opponents.  But I guess we'll see in due time.

I'm having a hard time seeing the Finals being something other than Lakers vs Magic, though.

I'd love the Celtics to prove me wrong, but on the other hand I would really hate to see them lose to the Lakers.

  If we can beat the Cavs and the Magic to get to the finals, why would we lose to the Lakers?

Well, being real tired after playing two hard 6-7 game series (while the Lakers may win in 4 or 5), if for no other reason.

But you make a good point...if the C's can beat the Cavs and the Magic, they could beat anybody.  I still highly doubt they'll get there, but if they do my main concern would be how much they'd have left in the tank.

[wdleehi]

Most of those commentators are the ones who expect that it can only be Kobe vs. Lebron for the finals. 



I can understand leaning towards Clev in this series right now.  Home court.  Lebron.  Not as old.


But the ones who are already talking about Magic/Cavs or even worse, Lakers/Cavs...

These are the same ones that talked about Lakers/Cavs all last season.

[Induna]

I take everyone's points but the C's should have beat the Cavs in game one as well and that is significant. They have actually played better for longer in 3 of the 4 games so far.

My point is even the people that called this one a 4 game sweep for the Cavs are not relenting for long enough to event suggest that the Cavs could lose this.

[MMacOH]

Well, the Celtics are a championship caliber team.  Just because they didn't have a great regular season doesn't change that.

The Magic have looked good but lets look at who they played as well.  The Hawks are not near as good as Boston or Cleveland.

[Mr October]

LAL, ORL, CLE and BOS are the 4 best teams in the NBA. Everyone thought so in the preseason, and here we are in the postseason and look who the top remaining teams are (with all due respect to the Suns who are about to be sacrificed to the Lakers).

LAL, ORL, CLE and BOS are all really really close to each other. And none should be heavily favored over each other.

The players, coaches in the NBA and smart media members have maintained this.