C's Best against the best (Heat not so much)

[NoraG1]

Yeah, the Lakers SOS is at .410 right now, which is crazy low.  Knicks next lowest at .429, Kings at .453 then Pistons & Magic at .473.

Mavs at .530, Celts .514, Heat .483

Stern as usual makes sure Lakers have it as easy as they possibly can. I believe they have the smallest amt of back to backs of any team as well. 

[Fafnir]

Very cool thanks for the info.  It's looking like Boston might have home court in the East wrapped up by the AS break.

How do you figure that? Even if the C's keep winning at a .846 clip they won't have clinched it by then. They'd have around 46 wins with 28 games left to play. That's assuming we keep winning at near record pace.

The C's are in excellent position to get home court, but we're still only up 5 games in the loss column on Miami. Even after their 9-8 start. It'd be nice if we could clinch it in the Finals as well, though honestly I'm not worried about it. I think even if we're slightly behind SA/Dallas we'd still have it over LA.

(By the way Miami has played a lot of games, four or five more than most teams)

  I think when he said "wrapped up" he didn't mean clinched, more like something drastic would have to happen for us to get caught by anyone.

I don't think we'll get far enough clear of Miami that I'll be comfortable with 28 games to go, that's what was really trying to say.

I think its fair to say I don't expect to win 70 with this team, which means we'll fall off somewhat in the last two thirds of the season.

  Say we were up by 5-6 games with 28 left though. Even if the Heat went 24-4 over that stretch we'd have to lose 9-10 games to be caught. You might not call that "wrapped up" but I'd call it "firmly in control".

I wouldn't call it wrapped up, which is what I was responding too.

I just don't see us pulling much farther away from the Heat than we are right now, at best.

[jdpapa3]

The Mavs have been impressive against top teams.  They've beat the Heat twice (including once ending a 12 game winning streak), the Spurs once (ending a 12 game winning streak), and the Celts once.

Tyson Chandler is proving to be a huge addition. The difference between him and Dampier/Haywood is striking.

Well, Dirk recently compared his defensive impact to KG and I kind of have to agree with him: Chandler has been phenomenal in pick and roll defense and guarding bigs straight up. Not as good as KG, but pretty darn good. And Dirk is having a crazy season when you consider his TS is 64% and his high USG. He had a bad shooting 4th quarter in Miami last night, but 2 Heat defenders were stuck like glue to Dirk in the pick and roll and allowed Terry to go off.

[Birdbrain]

Very cool thanks for the info.  It's looking like Boston might have home court in the East wrapped up by the AS break.

How do you figure that? Even if the C's keep winning at a .846 clip they won't have clinched it by then. They'd have around 46 wins with 28 games left to play. That's assuming we keep winning at near record pace.

The C's are in excellent position to get home court, but we're still only up 5 games in the loss column on Miami. Even after their 9-8 start. It'd be nice if we could clinch it in the Finals as well, though honestly I'm not worried about it. I think even if we're slightly behind SA/Dallas we'd still have it over LA.

(By the way Miami has played a lot of games, four or five more than most teams)

  I think when he said "wrapped up" he didn't mean clinched, more like something drastic would have to happen for us to get caught by anyone.

I don't think we'll get far enough clear of Miami that I'll be comfortable with 28 games to go, that's what was really trying to say.

I think its fair to say I don't expect to win 70 with this team, which means we'll fall off somewhat in the last two thirds of the season.

  Say we were up by 5-6 games with 28 left though. Even if the Heat went 24-4 over that stretch we'd have to lose 9-10 games to be caught. You might not call that "wrapped up" but I'd call it "firmly in control".

I wouldn't call it wrapped up, which is what I was responding too.

I just don't see us pulling much farther away from the Heat than we are right now, at best.

I was trying to be sort of funny while making a point but, I do agree there is a lot of work left.  I've since moved on to the Western Conference in regards to home court advantage in the Finals.

[celticinorlando]

i am going to say this is the year the lakers don't get out of the West

[Mike-Dub]

i am going to say this is the year the lakers don't get out of the West

With the Mavs getting a year to jell with there trades and the Spurs improvement the top teams of the West have definitely improved. 

Still I think the Lakers will come out of the West and there is no other team that I want to come out of the West and the C's to knock off.

[mgent]

Yeah, the Lakers SOS is at .410 right now, which is crazy low.  Knicks next lowest at .429, Kings at .453 then Pistons & Magic at .473.

Mavs at .530, Celts .514, Heat .483

Stern as usual makes sure Lakers have it as easy as they possibly can. I believe they have the smallest amt of back to backs of any team as well. 

This makes me sick.  I remember last year they had the easiest schedule too.  Of their first 21 games only 4 were on the road.  What are the chances of this happening without any help from Stern and the league?  I don't think it has anything to do with being the defending champs but I could be wrong.

[Dr H]

Yeah, the Lakers SOS is at .410 right now, which is crazy low.  Knicks next lowest at .429, Kings at .453 then Pistons & Magic at .473.

Mavs at .530, Celts .514, Heat .483

Stern as usual makes sure Lakers have it as easy as they possibly can. I believe they have the smallest amt of back to backs of any team as well. 

This makes me sick.  I remember last year they had the easiest schedule too.  Of their first 21 games only 4 were on the road.  What are the chances of this happening without any help from Stern and the league?  I don't think it has anything to do with being the defending champs but I could be wrong.

So tell me how LA benefits from having an easy schedule this early in the season? It just means that later on in the season they will have a tough stretch in there somewhere..

Same thing for Boston, our SoS is up there, but we also have the 2nd least amount of games played I believe..that helps our favor a lot(especially with our injury situation) but it means later on in the season we'll have more back to backs and '2 games in 3 nights'-type situations..

[Fafnir]

The amount of games won't catch up the C's nearly as much as the SoS will the Lakers. I think the C's got a reasonably favorable schedule overall.