If the Celtics played any of those teams on a given night, who would you favor? Our SOS is not terrible, we have 6 wins over teams that have a winning record. Few teams have anything approaching that.
I'd take GSW, Houston (projecting them to be better once/if CP is healthy), Cleveland (assuming they'll be much better once IT gets back), but who else?
Washington? A lesser version of the Celtics beat them last year. I've seen nothing that indicates to me that they're an improved team.
Toronto? Same as Washington. We just beat them the other night without our best player. That's a small snapshot, but head to head, would any of you bet against the Celts vs. Raptors? I wouldn't.
SA? Tough call. Assuming a healthy KL, they're obviously great, but does anyone in that organization besides Popovich and Leonard scare you at all? If I were to put them ahead of us, it would be by the smallest margin possible.
Minnesota? They actually have a negative differential. They give up 111 points per game. We have yet to give up 111 points. I think anyone will have a very difficult time making the case they're a better team than us. Just as someone can make the case that Butler will need more time to gel with them, we can say the same about Kyrie. If we want to talk about easy schedules, they have exactly 1 win over a team currently with a winning record.
I think 3 or so teams are probably better than us, but when you get beyond that, no more than a couple are a coin flip, and it's really hard to make the case that any of the rest are better. If we stay healthy, our team is going to improve a lot between now and April.
Topic: SI Article on Boston (by Wizards fan Andrew Sharp) (Read 6604 times)