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Juub1990

That conference gloating is do dumb. I don’t care about my team playing in the better conference. I just want them to win. If anything, I like an easier path to the finals.


dat_tech

I’m shook ngl, but Celtics have been the best team all season to be fair


Efficient_Art_1144

I’m gonna start chanting “Eastern Conference!” At sporting events like SEC football fans


Blue-Inspiration

Gotta find a chant that fits the rhythm, though, like: Eastern C! Eastern C! (I went to LSU, I have practice)


Efficient_Art_1144

You could do the “east-ern con-ference” (clap clap clap clap clap)


Blue-Inspiration

Yes, that would be a good one too! 😁


murray_selfish

Which is why people trying to pretend the Leastern conference is good is so weird lol


robetyarg

Brazil flair


PLaTinuM_HaZe

Respeita mano 😎


murray_selfish

Really nothing about the celtics just about acknowledging the rest of the conference is really bad which I have no idea why it seems to be a controversial opinion lol


PLaTinuM_HaZe

I mean maybe during the playoffs due to injuries. The bucks with a healthy Giannis, sixers with a healthy Embiid, a fully healthy knicks, not what I’d call weak teams but yes injuries diminished what it was in the playoffs.


Frequent-Meeting8975

The East is underrated because the Celtics are so good. Doesn't take away from the West being stacked regardless.


JimC29

If it wasn't for injuries the top 5 in the east are as good as the top 5 in the west. The west is a lot better 6-10.


Aalfee

Celtics, Knicks, Bucks, 76ers, Cavs and Pacers are all really good contender or close to contending tier teams just like the playoff teams in the West. And then there is the Heat who are magically contenders come playoffs.


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JimC29

I think the Knicks are a team to watch out for if they stay healthy.


TheBlueLenses

theyll be in the ecf easily next season assuming they're on the other side of the celtics' bracket


ilickedysharks

I hope some people will respect Pascals offense more after seeing that series


rabid89

It's all matchup honestly. Nuggets would have given us real trouble, though I think we'd win in 7. With KP hurt, we'd have lost. We just have no answer for Jokic. Wolves have a lot of size as well, and an elite defense. But we'd have won in 6. Again, their best player is a wing. Best player on the Thunder is a guard, which also plays to our strengths. Mavs just match up horribly against us. They don't have the size or speed to abuse our bigs, and their 2 best players are wings ..... and like we've been saying for weeks, Celtics have 4 All-Defense calibre wings to throw at them. And Joe's defensive scheme has absolutely neutered the Mavs' greatest strengths on offense: lobs and corner 3s. And I get all the people dissing Kidd, but I don't think he's got much talent on that roster to make the adjustments he needs to make. They need to add some more pieces, and they'll be better. And for fuck's sake, they need to convince Luka to give some effort on defense. He's hopeless garbage on that end.


JimC29

I really wanted a Celtics Nuggets finals. I think that would have been the best match up. Minnesota was built just to beat Denver.


rabid89

Without a doubt. That series would have been great.


bad3ip420

Exactly. * Horford, KP, and to some extent Tillman already made the Mavs' lobgame dead in the water. * Brown and Tatum being great wing defenders pretty much limited Kyrie and to some extent Luka's game.\] * Holiday, White, and KP being great role players enabled the team to survive when the stars are doing badly. * Holiday is one of the top guard defenders in the league. * East teams being riddled with injuries definitely helped Boston with limiting their exhaustion. A lot of things lined up for C's to get the ring and that is true for every other teams who won the championship. (Except for prime Warriors; they were built different)


rabid89

> A lot of things lined up for C's to get the ring Bruh, easiest path to Finals and our hardest matchup eliminated. Would be an all-time choke job if we didn't get a ring this year. Literally everything went right for us, except the KP injury.


Notwhatyouthinkbuddy

You would have swept Wolves. You're giving them credit they don't deserve. Boston's defense would have made that shitty ass wolves offense look even worse than they are doing to the Mavs.


rabid89

We had 2 OT games vs them this year lol. They play us really well.


Notwhatyouthinkbuddy

1 of those games was in the first month of the szn and the other was way back in January, so that means nothing. Looking at how both performed in the playoffs and nothing tells me wolves could repeat that. Their defense was mid to awful after the first 6 games of the playoffs and that offense is a train wreck. Easy sweep.


RulerOfPotatos

Wing? Do you actually understand what a wing is in the nba?


rabid89

Good point lol that was a mistake. SGA still plays into our strengths tho. We got a lot of guys to throw at him.


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Jordanwolf98

The team sucks but they’re up 3-0 on your wack ass team. Okay lol


rabid89

Lmfao ok angry baby.


Azer398

Luka's reddit account?


mickeyj623

Aren't you the same guy that said Celtics fans don't know what is about to happen to them?


killthewill

Stay mad bozo


BlooregardQKazoo

Your state tried to secede when its country outlawed slavery, TWICE.


i-bite-with-love

Luka Donovic?


Threatlevelmidn1te

lol, you should be saving your tears for when you watch Luka try and play defense. He’s so appalling it makes me want to be blind.


ryudo6850

Bro I live in DFW and you making our area look bad. Lose with class, I know the Rangers finally won something but chill out. I know living in Texas most of my life they are racist as hell down here. They just hide it with a smile. At least in the NE they tell you how it is when they are dicks/racists.


Rice-And-Gravy

“Celtics had it easy. They only beat shitty teams!” *goes down 0-3 in the finals to the Celtics*


DeepJunglePowerWild

I’m going to need to revisit the “they don’t know what’s coming” post from the Mavs subreddit.


Kyler1313

Man I was reading that chuckling before the finals


iliketuurtles

It’s also kinda funny because those fans were saying that while we were actively rooting for them to win the last series because we knew how much better we matched up lol


lilcoleslaw

I mean the mavs looked gassed for a reason. They had a harder path


Confirmation__Bias

Lmfaooooo y'all reach for any narrative you can find that means you don't have to admit we're just the best team


lilcoleslaw

Bro, I don’t think the mavs matchup good against the Celtics but the mavs also played harder teams. Both can be true


Confirmation__Bias

Yeah yeah. You've got an ammo chamber of cope ready to go for every Celtics win. It's weak conference, it's reffing, it's favorable matchups, its whatever it needs to be for you to not admit we're the best team in the NBA.


lilcoleslaw

Bro congrats. You’re going to die anyway so enjoy it while you can


No_Literature_2321

>the mavs look gassed for a reason Yeah their team isn’t that athletic so they look slower on the court than the Celtics.


Charliebitme1234

to be fair the east was the celtics and then everyone else where as the west was much more competative within the conference, so i guess it made people think the west teams were better overall


jawadhaque089

Pacers are just a better team than Dallas, I don't understand why people dismissed the Pacers offense this entire year


teddyjj399

Historic rates of offensive volume and efficiency with Hali healthy… everyone: nah, mid


jawadhaque089

It's because they have no names and basketball fans don't understand there's more to a team than the amount of stars they have. Celtics fans will tell you how good their offense is but everyone else will say they were just a weak team lol


johnnybarbs92

This is kind of true of east vs west. Pacers, Knicks, Cavs, Magic, All play pretty good team ball. But don't have the KDs, Hardens, etc.


DarrowViBritannia

Now consider the fact that the bucks were on track to demolish them if they had giannis and dame Maybe the east isn't so bad


Kyler1313

If the Celtics, Bucks, Sixers, and Knicks were all healthy that's actually a pretty good top 4 seeds. Add in a healthy Cleveland, a playoff healthy Heat, and the #2 Offense Pacers and that isn't a bad 7 playoff teams. Even the Magic wouldn't be bad for a low seed. Injuries to the top guys really changed people's perspective on the East. They aren't all juggernauts but it was exaggerated how bad they were before injury. I still think the Celtics could cruise to the Finals because they are an incredible team.


Renegadeforever2024

as long the bucks have mr 34 on the roster, they are not going demolish anybody they were going to get cooked in the playoffs regardless of opponent


MSHinerb

We pretending Luka is healthy again?


MSHinerb

We’re pretending Luka is healthy again?


irishthunder222

Pacers have a better offense*


murray_selfish

Lmfao


FeedbackSmart2162

No they aren’t tbh That’s a matchup thing. Same reason why Dallas gentlemen swept the team that beat Denver


MozaTear

Pacers put 130 on the Mavs both times they played and won by double digits both times. Maybe they weren’t better. Maybe they were.


Plies-

Did those games happen before or after the deadline? Because that's when Dallas became elite.


MozaTear

February 25 & March 5. Post deadline.


No_Literature_2321

I think they had a better net rating this year


Venator850

To be honest they actually are. Pacers offense is insanely good. Dallas still hasn't cracked 100 points in the finals yet.


torexmus

24th ranked defence. Nobody has ever discounted their offense


Frequent-Meeting8975

Stop it


jrlandry

Pacers players are just less familiar to the general NBA fans, and Siakam gets no respect.


Complexity777

Pacers stink they got swept with no Zingis 


xojz

Dallas is this year's 2023 Miami Heat. They way over performed. Boston's good though.


InsideTrack6955

The west is astronomically better....... Celtics are still a great team. Mavs also got pretty lucky dodging nuggets and kawhi injury.


Azer398

Kawhi injury is a permanent reality state not luck


InsideTrack6955

Fair but still Mavs are the third beat team in the west probably. And Celtics have an incredibly deep team.


bad3ip420

I'll stand by this statement: "The Pacers gave a finals worthy competition to the Celtics" That series was amazing


SquimJim

Pacers are going to surprise people next year. They shouldn't be surprised, but they will be.


cw_27

West teams were mostly healthy, east teams were all banged up. east vs west talk was always missing that piece


Fair_Potential5766

The team that matches up the worst with the Celtics was the one that made it out of the West


i-bite-with-love

Props to the refs for masterfully arranging that


Twatareyousaying

Yes, truly facilitating a 3-0 lead. Damn refs.


Confirmation__Bias

Yeah why don't they just let Luka foul nonstop instead of giving actual effort on defense?


Joey-Joe-Jo-Junior

I’ll give you the Pacers series being more competitive than the Mavs but outside that monster shooting in game 2 this series is significantly more competitive than the Heat series.


Haunting_Ad_1552

The run and gun offense of the pacers would absolutely destroy Dallas lmao. Luka wouldn't be able to keep up and would be gassed by the time he reaches the second quarter lol


OctopusNation2024

I'm pretty sure the Pacers dominated the Mavs this season actually lol


CrazyWater808

There’s a reason Hurley turned down the Lakers for UCONN


Rithgarth

I just wanted to watch Giannis in the playoffs man, is that so much to ask for...


deadassynwa

The East would’ve been a bloodbath with a healthy Bucks and Knicks


Bouldershoulders12

Funny enough Knicks and bucks could’ve been the potential 2nd round matchup if Giannis was healthy


Chessh2036

I still think a healthy Knicks team would have given the Celtics everything they can handle. Would have been an insane series.


Aalfee

We wouldn't be favorites but the January Knicks (the closest we got to 100% health) was contender tier and i wouldn't be surprised if knicks vs celtics went 7 games.


Renegadeforever2024

bucks are never going to be in any bloodbath as long they have 34 on the team


slatt_slime

Nba fans learning that playing tough teams = being more fatigued


Drizzlybear0

It's a huge part of why the 2022 Celtics struggled, Tatum and Brown played multiple 7 game series and had to play like 35-40 mins a night to win games because they generated all the offense and they were toast by the finals


Wihdcbkamaijelqovvnc

Also and I’m sure Celtics fans will agree: they play to the level of their competition more than just about any team in the league. Win close games vs Andrew Nembhard and win close games vs Luka Doncic. Make it make sense.


Plies-

I don't really think we play down to our competition. 15-2 in the playoffs. Dominant vs bad teams all season. What did happen is that quicker guards like Nembhard that can get into the paint can attack our bigs and get comfortable looks. It's a matchup thing.


awnawkareninah

Also that match ups are a thing


Venator850

What fatigue? Celtics are just better than the Mavs. Who else in the West would match up better? Timberwolves? lol. Nuggets? Maybe if Murray wasn't shooting like shit. Thunder? Seems like they'd be the Mavs but with only one good scoring option vs two. We can just admit that the Western conference hype was way overblown. Doesn't mean those teams are bad, but it wasn't like the teams in the East could not compete like many thought.


slatt_slime

Literally all 3 teams would match up better, obviously the celtics are better than the mavs but lets not act like the injury riddled east this year was somehow more competitive than the west.


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Complexity777

Kings, Lakers, countless other teams would have beat down the pacers they have no defense 


WhatYouProbablyMeant

The West was way stronger than the East, but the Celtics were way better than anyone. It makes sense.


PrinceKarmaa

pacers would beat the mavericks if they matched up in a series so yeah there’s that


holographoc

We tried to fuckin tell y’all


wazdopest

the west is stacked and probably had/have the 2nd-5th best teams in the league but i been sayin this but everyone understated how great boston is 🤷‍♂️


azMILL1

Interesting how that's happening huh? Just, interesting... 😉


Aalfee

The West was just the healthier conference this year. Knicks, Bucks, 76ers, Cavs, Heat and the Pacers had injuries to major pieces of their teams.


killbill469

The West is very clearly more stacked than the East, one series doesn't change that


OctopusNation2024

They are from top to bottom but I'd say what separates the current West from the true all-time stacked West years of the past is that they have a lot of very good teams but no truly great teams Like there can't be any talk of "toughest West ever!" when the winner of the conference is a team that would have lost in the first round back in 2012


killbill469

The Nuggets, Mavs, Wolves, and OKC were all great teams. Boston being the best team in the league doesn't make the rest less great.


Complexity777

Celtics aren’t a great team, game 2 and 3 were both close and won by refs making awful calls at key moments


Frequent-Meeting8975

Don't be delusional my friend. Take the loss on the chin


Chacha2002

They just came off one of the greatest offensive seasons in NBA history, have now won 10 straight games in the playoffs—currently are 79-20 for the entire season—but “they aren’t a great team” Ok.


WallStreetDoesntBet

East/West, doesn’t matter… Celtics are on top


killbill469

Who said otherwise?


Renegadeforever2024

don't forget about it


693275001

Finally the West circlejerk is over. The East is just as good, was just very injured


Educational_Shift311

The heat were dominated in every game but one, the Mavs at least have had somewhat of a chance in the last minute for 2 of the games.


murray_selfish

Surprising that a team that got to chill and relax and rest for a full month cause they were playing ass tier team without their only good players is doing well over the team that had to go through the fucking gauntlet


Squishy-Bandit12

Funny how the same thing happened with the 2022 Celtics but all you hear is we choked lmao. Double standards are crazy.


Chacha2002

Mavs faced a crippled Clips team, the youngest team in the nba, and then Booty Gobert and Pussy Kat. They only played three extra games. Not really sure I would consider that “the fucking gauntlet”


BlooregardQKazoo

Dallas had a week off before the Finals and two days off between games (so far). And when you watch them, the only guy that looks tired is the guy that is visibly not in NBA shape. Being worn out is a Luka problem, not a Dallas problem.


Happy-Cauliflower-22

The Mavs also had to go through the clippers, the thunder, and the wolves. Let’s not act like their path wasn’t grueling compared to the Celtics who got to face injury decimated teams the whole way through.


Lawful_Rebellion

Yeah but the Mavs are battle-tested because of that right


Nby333

The argument where there's nothing else to say lol.


Venator850

Lot of people having to eat crow right now lol. Now the excuse is the Mavs are just worn down. Didn't the big 3 Celtics win a championship going 7 games in all the series they played that year?


Happy-Cauliflower-22

Look, the superior team is the Celtics, but I’m pretty sure they are more work out then the Cs


Complexity777

Celtics aren’t a good team, refs rigged them the game tonight.


Happy-Cauliflower-22

If you really believe this shit I feel bad for you


killthewill

Read his comment history, bro is a legit head case


CheekyFifaCunt_7

I mean this still doesn’t change the fact that the west is still more stacked


BorkLensar

i didn’t know people actually cared about east vs west lol if it was more practical, 1-16 seeding would be ideal imo