"Miami does not want to play Boston" -- Bucher

[thestackshow]

Wouldn't be playoff time without a horde of negative nancies filling CB.

Lol. All we are missing is Vinnie, no clue where hes been, havent seen him in ages.

[hpantazo]

I sure as heck hope a Boston-Miami Eastern Conference Finals comes to fruition.

I think it'd be a heckuva series to watch from a basketball and drama standpoint.

Long ways to go, though.  A long way....

Yea all we have to do is beat up a banged up #8 seed. Lol.

That beat the Celtics a couple of times in the regular season.  

Not taking anything for granted.  Heck, this Atlanta series isn't even over yet.  I don't think Philly would be the cakewalk that almost everyone here seems to be thinking. From a matchup standpoint, that's a very tricky team to deal with. Athletic and defensive.

Not only do they cause problems for us with our youth, but I was watching Uno Sports Tonight and Adrian Wojnarowski said that their maybe back-to-backs in the next round due to the lockout and that would only make matters worse.

But, there would only be back-to-backs for the Celtics.  The Sixers would get the previous night off.

Hey, don't give Stern any ideas!

[CelticSooner]

I sure as heck hope a Boston-Miami Eastern Conference Finals comes to fruition.

I think it'd be a heckuva series to watch from a basketball and drama standpoint.

Long ways to go, though.  A long way....

Yea all we have to do is beat up a banged up #8 seed. Lol.

That beat the Celtics a couple of times in the regular season.  

Not taking anything for granted.  Heck, this Atlanta series isn't even over yet.  I don't think Philly would be the cakewalk that almost everyone here seems to be thinking. From a matchup standpoint, that's a very tricky team to deal with. Athletic and defensive.

Not only do they cause problems for us with our youth, but I was watching Uno Sports Tonight and Adrian Wojnarowski said that their maybe back-to-backs in the next round due to the lockout and that would only make matters worse.

I was going to ask about that. That would really suck and play into Philly's hands to prolong the series.

[nickagneta]

Also, against Miami Hibbert will be facing Haslem, Turiaf and Anthony. None are the low post defenders that Baby is and Hibbert should be able to rebound extremely well versus them. If 22/15 seems a bit much, I don't think 18/13 is far off from where he will end up.

Has anyone pointed out that in four regular season games, Hibbert averaged 10.5/8.3 against Miami?

Yup.

And my response was that 3 of those games came when David West was playing poorly and Miami could collapse off him with positive results. David West is a rather different player now.

[Eddie20]

Sadly I don't think it matters.  The Heat are just too good.

I bet I could find a lot of people making the same comments prior to the Dallas series. 

[nickagneta]

Sadly I don't think it matters.  The Heat are just too good.

I bet I could find a lot of people making the same comments prior to the Dallas series. 

Weren't those same people that early this year were saying the Celtics would be lucky to make the playoffs and would be a guaranteed first round out even if they did?

[thestackshow]

Sadly I don't think it matters.  The Heat are just too good.

I bet I could find a lot of people making the same comments prior to the Dallas series. 

Weren't those same people that early this year were saying the Celtics would be lucky to make the playoffs and would be a guaranteed first round out even if they did?

Oh man, those were dark days, this team was looking putrid at the start of the year. ALmost comedic now when you look back at how bad we were.

KG looked like someone had interrupted his hibernation and

Pierce looked like he had been training to be a competitive eater over the off-season and Jermaine O'neal looked like he was playing in weighted shoes.

My god this team was bad.

[cman88]

Sadly I don't think it matters.  The Heat are just too good.

I bet I could find a lot of people making the same comments prior to the Dallas series.  

exactly, and i'd like to think we are a better team defensively than the knicks...

the Heat have NO answer for Rajon rondo or Kevin garnett(with the way he has been playing)

id like to think a series vs. the heat could go either way....and this time we actually have wing defenders in bradley/pietrus we can throw at wade/lebron

[thestackshow]

Sadly I don't think it matters.  The Heat are just too good.

I bet I could find a lot of people making the same comments prior to the Dallas series.  

exactly, and i'd like to think we are a better team defensively than the knicks...

the Heat have NO answer for Rajon rondo or Kevin garnett(with the way he has been playing)

id like to think a series vs. the heat could go either way....and this time we actually have wing defenders in bradley/pietrus we can throw at wade/lebron

The problem with the Knicks isnt defense, its everything else.
They have stars that dont fit. (Melo, Amare)
They have idiots that make bonehead plays and take bad shots multiple times a game without correction. (J.R. Smith)
Injuries (Lin, Shumpert, Davis)
Coaching (Woodson is decent at best, and his style of play isnt a winning formula)
Lack of a playmaker (Lin was their only playmaker, Melo is out for himself and doesent make his teammates better.)
No chemistry.

The team is just bad, good defense or not, there are way more variables that make up a good team.

Theres a reason the Knicks are the 7th seed. They arent a good basketball team.

If I was the GM I would keep Lin, Melo, Chandler and get rid of everyone else and retool the team. Get rid of the boneheads (J.R. Smith)

I would make Lin the catalyst of the team and force Melo to play off the ball and deal with it. Lin would be the playmaker and make everyone else better, Melo would play the Paul Pierce role and close games and shoot the ball when Lin decides to give him the ball.

Chandler would anchor the defense and would fill the team around smart veteran players or talented rookies that could learn a new system.

The Knick front office made a fatal mistake, they decided to just grab as much talent as possible and assume it would become a winning team, the exact opposite happened. In order to have a winning team every single one of your players has to be commited to a single objective.

The Celtics team is commited to defense, every single player on the roster is a good defender, the entire team commits. The Knicks on the other hand have Chandler and Shumper, but nobody else on the team fully commits to defense. They arent unified and for that reason the team doesent work.

[BballTim]

Sadly I don't think it matters.  The Heat are just too good.

I bet I could find a lot of people making the same comments prior to the Dallas series. 

Weren't those same people that early this year were saying the Celtics would be lucky to make the playoffs and would be a guaranteed first round out even if they did?

  Any thoughts of catching the 76ers and winning the division were delusional as well.

[Kane3387]

Chicago was definitely our toughest matchup in my opinion with rose, thibs, their depth and more importantly their rebounding. As of now I like our chances to make the finals and as long as we don't play OKC I like our chances to win the whole thing.

If we can be up 2 games to 1 going into Boston for game 4 or even at 2—2 going into game five in Miami then I think the front running heat might crumble.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

As Skip Bayless has said, Paul Pierce owns LeBron James.

[guava_wrench]

They already know the formula to beat us. Tackle Rondo.

[guava_wrench]

They already know the formula to beat us. Go UFC on Rondo.

Edit: Sorry for the double post

[Fafnir]

As Skip Bayless has said, Paul Pierce owns LeBron James.

He really doesn't. He guards him as well as anyone, especially with KG to back him up, but he doesn't own him at all.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=piercpa01&p2=jamesle01#stats_playoffs::none