** NBA Conference Finals **

[Phoenix1010]

Pistons > Mavs > Spurs > Suns > Heat

Woops no it's not.

[tdarko]

[ QUOTE ]
playing at their absolute best.
PISTONS>SPURS>HEAT>MAVERICKS>SUNS>?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is pretty funny. The Mavs beat the Heat by 36 basically w/o D. Harris in Miami and is this b/c the Heat didn't play their absolute best or b/c Dallas is just simply a better team? I hate these "who would win when playing at their best crap," are you saying Dallas won the Spurs series b/c SA didn't play their best? B/c if you are then any opinion you have ever again should be negated. Dallas won the series b/c they are the better team, they outplayed them and SA should have actually felt lucky to push that game to 7--they should thank Jason Terry for that.

The only reason SA ended up with the better record than Dallas is b/c of tons of key injuries on the Dallas team at the end of the year, right in the middle of a part of the schedule that was the toughest in the NBA. They don't have these key players go down, they are probably the one seed and Detroit is the only team in the league that is "viewed" as better as far as wins go. Dallas, just so you know also had the 2nd best record in the NBA against the teams that made the playoffs--the best was Detroit, they also got to pound up against a much weaker Conference and didn't have as tough a division as Dallas as well. Clearly, on paper there is only one team that looks to stand the test and they are looking worse than ever and have troubles against Dallas even when they are "running on all cylinders."

[Fallen Hero]

darko, if Ginobli doesn't make that stupid foul on Dirk in the end of game 7 would the spurs now be a better team?

[tdarko]

[ QUOTE ]
darko, if Ginobli doesn't make that stupid foul on Dirk in the end of game 7 would the spurs now be a better team?

[/ QUOTE ]

I do understand what you are getting at here. I am a big advocate against excuses, they bother me so much, but if Ginobli doesn't make one of the biggest playoff boneheaded blunders ever then I am seriously questioning things in a different light. See, Dallas had to overcome one of the biggest factors and keys to their offense being suspended for game 6 (his fault and he is an idiot for that obviously) and the ticky tacky crazy foul calls and basically having to overcome a great team in SA and the refs in game 7. How on earth they won a game 7 in the penalty 2 minutes into the third, with 3 key players with 5 fouls for the entire second half and then won in OT with three key players fouled out speaks volumes for how good this Dallas team is. And if they lose game 7 in SA, I still think Dallas outplayed SA and have probably the sickest feeling in my stomach of all-time b/c SA was basically given the series, those refs did basically everything they could--fouls in that game should have been called the "Tim Duncan you can't even touch rule."

With all of this said, there is no way I could concede that they were the better team. On the contrary though, as much as the way PHO plays bothers utter crap out of me, if they win the series--there is no doubt in my mind that they earned/deserved it and are the better team. That is if the series continues as is, when they win it is b/c they do what they need to do to win...this is what the better team does, just as Dallas did tonight.

[CharlieDontSurf]

Uhh Nobody had more than like 8 points in that game beside Shaq and Wade..and Wade had 16 total points.

So either that means that Dallas was the greatest defensive team in the history of basketball for that one game or MIA had a god awful game on offense and defense....and it was a complete aberation. I'd go with the latter.

The Spurs played poor defense against the Mavericks...though credit goes to the Mavs players for hitting their shots.
In every win the Mavs scored 104 or more points.
Spurs are not going to win if they are playing that poorly on defense.

Likewise the Pistons have been playing crappy defense against the Heat.
If they end up losing that will be the cause.
The Pistons didn't play to what they are capable of defensivly and the Heat capitalized on it.

I'll take
Rasheed Wallace
Ben Wallace
Teshan Prince
Chancey Billups
and Richard Hamilton

If they are playing at the top of their game on both defense and offense I'll bet the devil my soul in a match-up against any team in the league.

The Spurs might cause me to sweat but no one else would.

This is why I can't stand the Pistons...cuz I knew when they are by far the best team when they are firing on all cylinders.

[tuq]

Wow - that game tonight really had a high-intensity "instant classic" playoff feel...and then the last five or so minutes happened.

Where I was watching we didn't have sound, and I haven't read anything about it (except this thread), but while it seemed the Mavs were getting a lot of calls going their way, it's also clear they were the better team for 48 minutes regardless.

EDIT: I'm not sure I put too much stock in Sagarin ratings, but here are his thru tonight's game:

[ QUOTE ]
1 Dallas Mavericks = 97.66
2 San Antonio Spurs = 97.03
3 Detroit Pistons = 96.28
4 Phoenix Suns = 94.85
5 Miami Heat = 94.21
6 Cleveland Cavaliers = 92.91
7 Los Angeles Clippers= 92.62
8 Memphis Grizzlies = 92.46
9 Los Angeles Lakers = 91.90
10 New Jersey Nets = 91.69

[/ QUOTE ]
I'd be interested to hear if any sports bettors on this site apply any weight to these numbers (bearing in mind I edited out a lot of additional data).

[CharlieDontSurf]

I'm not saying they are excuses...its just one team showing up and another not.

If the Pistons go on to beat the Heat which would be a HUGE comeback in my mind...it will most likely mean that the Pistons somehow turned on that switch and are playing their best basketball on defense and offense.

If that is the case then no team in the west is going to beat them unless they go back to sucking it up. Thats what I was saying...I then stated what I believed to be the greater teams if all said teams are playing to their best on offense/defense/coaching etc.

Hence
DET>SAN>MIA>DAL>SUNS

The MIA/DAL ranking is the only place one could flip flop on but in my mind if Shaq and Wade are playing at their best along with the role players showing up---same problem the Spurs tend to have---add in them playing their best defensive....I'd say they are a greater team then the MAVS.

SUNS w/o Amare of course.

[teamdonkey]

FH, do you really think the better team lost that series?

as for who's better when they're on their "A" game, all 4 teams left are very very good. The only team i've ever seen that i thought was absolutely unbeatable when they were on was UNLV in 1990. Everyone else is debateable, and it's not really a good debate, just people waving their dicks in the air.

[Fallen Hero]

darko, you're putting way to much blame on the refs, if they wanted to [censored] Dallas there's a clear foul on Duncan left uncalled in the last possession of the game

[CharlieDontSurf]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow - that game tonight really had a high-intensity "instant classic" playoff feel...and then the last five or so minutes happened.

Where I was watching we didn't have sound, and I haven't read anything about it (except this thread), but while it seemed the Mavs were getting a lot of calls going their way, it's also clear they were the better team for 48 minutes regardless.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dirk going off means your going to have to have things going your way in order to have a shot if your the Suns...and the way the officiating went in the last 5 minutes kinda ended any hope for the Suns given you knew Dirk wasn't going to go cold all of a sudden.
Again though it was because Dirk was on fire.
If your the Suns you just got to shake that off and go play your game at home....hopefully the refs won't get involved in this one.