The koolest part about the Shaq trade.

[westkoast]

Last year's NBA champ is not assured of the chance to defend their title in the Finals.  The team that goes has to earn it every year.

SA gets their props for winning it all last year, but now the best team in the league based on their record is the Boston Celtics.

Teams are seeded by record and Boston is quite a few games ahead of the Spurs and everyone else. I would say that counts for quite a bit more than being last season's Champ.

Right now, it doesn't appear that SA is the team to beat.  Tony Parker being out makes it harder to get a bead on how good they are.  Stoudamire appears very inadequate as a replacement.  The Spurs have been beating up on EC teams, but play a good one tonight in Cleveland.  Last time the two teams played, the Cavs won, and they've started playing better themselves, with Larry Hughes putting up good numbers recently.

San Antonio can get along without Tony and still make the playoffs, but once they get there, without him, they're not winning anything. I think they loose tonight.

The Celtics are not assured a chance to get a title either.  Neither are the Pistons.  So I am not quite sure what your point is.  No one in this league is guaranteed anything.  Ask Dallas if your regular season record means you get to the finals.  The one thing that is for sure is the championship road still runs through San Antonio until someone else hoists up the trophy.  SA is the team to beat until they get beaten.  Every single year people say the same thing in Jan and Feb...oh the Spurs don't look good, they can't get it done, they need new blood.  Yet every year they are right in it up until the end or right before the end.  I think being a title contender for the past 7 years and holding 3 titles says more about what they do in the playoffs then what the Celtics might do because they are pounding the crap out of horrible teams out east.  How awesome would SA look if they got to play the Nets, Sixers, Heat, Knicks, and Bucs twice as much as they do the Suns, Lakers, Mavericks, Jazz, and Hornets?  The Western Conference has 5 teams under .500 and the Eastern Conference has TEN.  YES 10 TEAMS.  A majority of the EC plays less then .500 basketball.   I bet the Spurs would have an awesome record despite having injuries to the core players the entire year if they were out east.  There's almost as many teams playing better then .500 ball in their own division then there is in the entire EC.

Dallas was way ahead of every team last year in standings and that made 0 different to the Warriors who handled them.  While I agree their record does show the Celtics are a strong team  (which is why I conceeded they are #1) I don't think Detroit's record automatically places them above the Spurs who has been one of the best teams this entire decade. 

Sorry Rick I know you want so badly for the EC to look strong but it's not.

[rickortreat]

Sorry, But Detroit beat San Antonio in San Antonio even when they had Tony Parker in the lineup.  Detroit has proven they're better in that meeting.

Their stats and record say it all better point differential by a wide margin over everyone except Boston:

Boston  + 10.44
Detroit  + 7.88
LA        + 5.92
Phoenix + 5.82
Utah     + 5.76
NO        + 5.74
SA        +4.82
Dallas    + 3.92
Toronto + 3.60
Orlando + 3.15

Nothing is going through San Antonio this year unless they get it together. The term "Defending Champions" doesn't mean anything. All those wins and past championships just mean they're getting old.

The team with the best regular season doesn't always win it, but they're almost always in it.

Also note that of the top 10 teams 4 are from the East.

[Lurker]

Sorry, But Detroit beat San Antonio in San Antonio even when they had Tony Parker in the lineup.  Detroit has proven they're better in that meeting.

And the Cavs were 2-0 against the Spurs last year.  Your point?

Also note that of the top 10 teams 4 are from the East.

Maybe it has something to do with quality of opponents.

[westkoast]

Sorry, But Detroit beat San Antonio in San Antonio even when they had Tony Parker in the lineup.  Detroit has proven they're better in that meeting.

Their stats and record say it all better point differential by a wide margin over everyone except Boston:

Boston  + 10.44
Detroit  + 7.88
LA        + 5.92
Phoenix + 5.82
Utah     + 5.76
NO        + 5.74
SA        +4.82
Dallas    + 3.92
Toronto + 3.60
Orlando + 3.15

Nothing is going through San Antonio this year unless they get it together. The term "Defending Champions" doesn't mean anything. All those wins and past championships just mean they're getting old.

The team with the best regular season doesn't always win it, but they're almost always in it.

Also note that of the top 10 teams 4 are from the East.

Once again...the regular season doesn't always dictate the playoffs.  The Cavs whopped the Spurs last year yet couldn't win a game in the finals.  I believe Utah beat SA last year twice but they couldn't get it done either.  4 of the 10 top teams are from the East.....1 has a decent record and TEN are sub .500.  Logically if you play more games against lesser teams your going to have a better record.  It's just very simple.

Regardless if the Spurs are beating everyone or struggling because of injuries, the championship still is sitting in SA.  Until someone beats them then that is where it stays.  You do not win the title from the defending champs because you had a good first half of a regular season.

So according to you the Los Angeles Lakers is the 3rd best team in the league?  I wouldn't even say that as a die hard Laker fan.  Would you take NO over SA in the playoffs?

[rickortreat]

The limitation of pt. differential is that it is against all the teams in the league, not just playoff teams or teams your going to face in the playoffs.

It is a significant factor in the relative strength of teams, but you need to consider things like experience and individual match-ups and coaching to get an idea of who has the edge in a series.  Head to head experience is the best, but it too has limits, as you noted with the Spurs and Cavs last year.

But there's something to be said about that too, namely that the Spurs don't play as hard during the regular season- another sign of old age. As long as they make the playoffs, they think they can win it all.  It's hard to know just how good some teams are going to be until it comes to a game they really need to win. They weren't worried about LeBron during the regular season, but in the playoffs it was entirely different.

You know that Boston took them seriously when they played them, even without KG they wanted to send a message. The Spurs weren't exactly themselves, but you would have to think that this would bother them a bit.

In comparing NO vs. the Spurs- there's less than a 1 pt. difference between the two.  You mix in the Spurs experience and their defensive ability and it's pretty tough to say who has the edge based on stats. You add in the Spurs slacker attitude and you just can't say.  But let either of those teams play Detroit, right now I'd say they'd go down.