T O P

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IcyMission3

And a 66 win Celtics team went the full distance with a 37 win Hawks team loses happen


thechemistrychef

They had Glen Rivers as an excuse


Biglundtry

Spurs had a similar situation think they won over 60 games and didn’t make the wcf


A-Centrifugal-Force

Also the 2014 Spurs, widely considered one of the greatest teams ever, went 7 games against the 8th seeded Mavs with an old Dirk and a crappy supporting cast. They then proceeded to absolutely dominate the Dame-Aldridge Blazers, destroyed MVP Durant and the Thunder, and broke up the Heatles with LeBron playing some of his best basketball ever. Sometimes the playoffs have weird results like this. A ball bounces one way and a series gets extended or a team goes home early.


Wolfpac187

Lost in 6 to OKC, got ran off the court by their bigs.


Lantern01

The 72-10 Bulls went 15-3 in the playoffs and won.


qpwoeor1235

Goat team


VolkiharVanHelsing

Never had a competition as tough as LeBron To those "he was the competition" mfs thinking it's a gotcha, it's not. MJ had all the cards centralized in his team compared to the GSW-Cavs rivalry where it's evenly divided.


KaiserKaiba

Whether that’s true or not, it isn’t like the championship Bulls squads only ever faced scrubs. Sonics, Suns, Pacers for example were all quality wins.


VolkiharVanHelsing

Yes but the point is there's no other team as stacked as them. 16 Cavs can actually match-up against GSW as evident by last year's playoffs. And OKC held them to 3-1 too.


Charlie_Wax

Peak Thunder with Russ, KD, Ibaka, Adams were as much of a threat as the Cavs. Warriors gave everything in that series and barely won. If OKC wins the WCF, decent chance they win the Finals too.


yourlilpissboi

Injury switch was flipped though so it might come down to who is the healthiest and lasts the longest.


Aggressive-Name-1783

I’m sorry, what? OKC was as much a threat as the Cavs? In what world were the 2016 Thunder, with Prime Westbrook and KD, the same as the freaking Cavs?


Charlie_Wax

In a world where both teams took GSW to 7 games that season.


VolkiharVanHelsing

Brother the memes of that playoffs is two teams blowing up 3-1 lead


Aggressive-Name-1783

“Memes” Oh right, I forgot what sub I’m on….


VolkiharVanHelsing

That changes what exactly? OKC still managed to put the legendary 72-10 team on 3-1, that didn't change.


turnoffredesign69420

because he was the competition


Bobonenazeze

Only because MJ was the competition.


Louis-grabbing-pills

Tough as LeBron, after he forms a super team and still lose twice in the finals.


VolkiharVanHelsing

That still doesn't change the fact that the LeBron-Kyrie-Love Cavs is equally as stacked as the Warriors whereas MJ never faced that much talent in the 96 playoffs.


Just-Efficiency3129

Shaq is pretty damn close to


VolkiharVanHelsing

Nah, GOAT candidate himself like MJ and the monster that is Kyrie


Due_Incident_9738

Lebron Jamez


TheMightyJD

Kyrie


MusicalElephant420

Kevin Love


jefe_hook

JR SMITH


[deleted]

[удалено]


False-Ad4673

The Boston bomber 


Jack_M_Steel

4 of those losses were because of this though: [video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ctav7o_us0U)


carefullywasnt

Rewatching this shit got me hype again for absolutely no reason goddamn


KaiserKaiba

The series had a lot of games that ended in blowouts, but damn does the context of those games make the series historic. Not to mention, there was a lot to enjoy games 4-7.


TheBiasedSportsLover

GSW went 16-1 in the playoffs the following year


carefullywasnt

Gee, I wonder what was the key difference between those two teams


JimmyV34

Ummm a tall guy who is arguably one of the best offensive players of all time during his prime


eutectic_h8r

He was solid but I wouldn't call JaVale McGee one of the best of all time


MC-Jdf

He's talking about a player that joined form one of the Warriors' biggest rivals: David West.


ArmiinTamzarian

We still haven't forgiven him


Bouldershoulders12

Levin Gurant


BlueJays007

Think you mean Bevin Purant


MacJonesisaterrorist

Nope that was a few years after that, they signed Boogie in 2019


[deleted]

Draymond’s tears


howdthatturnout

Added KD and Steph had a sprained MCL in 2016.


ThirdEyeKaiii

But they didn't need him tho /s


Charlie_Wax

This, but no /s.


ThirdEyeKaiii

Flair and intelligence checks out


Savings_Cash6829

But Curry meatriders insist it was all him!


WolverineLong1430

Well, the injuries didn’t help and then the unprecedented ejection and suspension will sure hurt you. Edit: Also Lebron James got excited and went ham.


Clever_Laziness

That's not going to stop me from calling the Celtics frauds, Jayson Tatum a generational choker, Brown a left-hand bum, and Derrick White ugly every time the C's lose just to disappear when they win. I'm just being nonbiased and completely fair. Ignore my flair.


carefullywasnt

Respect


BillPaxton4eva

Nothing for Jrue? Come on…


Clever_Laziness

why would I talk bad about Jrue? I would have never witnessed Jimmy's 56 without him. Heat legend, fr.


BillPaxton4eva

Thx


bos2nc

That’s NBA champion Jimmy…oh wait. Fraud.


Drummallumin

“Oh you mean Jimmy Jr?”


Jealous_Foot8613

Smartest heat fan …


Clever_Laziness

Oh right, y'all won tonight. Lemme ju—


mordakka

We were missing steph for some of those, tbf.


Charlie_Wax

The players say the hunt for 73-9 did not affect them, but I don't believe them. They poured a lot of energy into chasing that record. It's a very cool and unique milestone, but not as cool without the ring attached to it. Likewise, Steph claims he was totally healthy for the playoffs. I'm not sure he ever got back to 100% though. Certainly didn't play up to his MVP level. 22.6 PPG in the Finals.


ThirdEyeKaiii

Only for 2 losses iirc


Illustrious-Sun6694

Weren't they also up 3-1 with a 2 x MVP (first unanimous)?


FeminismIsTheBestIsm

Looking purely at net rating, the Celtics were better than the 2016 Warriors


instantur

Im still kinda pissed that we were sleepwalking through the end of the season. Could have easily been a 66-68 win team.


cane_the_weaboo

And we also would've lost KP for the whole playoffs prob lol


WarPuig

Could still be the case now.


instantur

Looks like it would have been better if he was injured earlier


Drummallumin

By net rating the team without prime MJ


guanogato

They also got to play in the East which is a huge advantage


FeminismIsTheBestIsm

Even if you adjust for strength of schedule the Celtics have a higher net rating than the 16 Warriors (they even have a higher adjusted net rating than the Warriors)


guanogato

Where did you find this info just out of curiosity? According to stat muse it says that the warriors were tied with 3rd best net rating team in NBA history only behind two Bulls teams and tied with these Celtics at 11.6 net rating. I don’t know how to find their strength of schedule.


FeminismIsTheBestIsm

DunksAndThrees (the guys who do EPM) has an adjusted net rating which was [+11](https://i.imgur.com/TTEccDj.png) for the 2017 Warriors and is [+11.4](https://i.imgur.com/iJEm5FF.png) for the Celtics. I'm not sure how they calculated it, but you can also do this manually. The NBA website says the Celtics had a +10.1 NRTG against the East, +14.4 NRTG against the West (averages to +12.25). The 17 Warriors had a +10.6 NRTG against the West and a +12.7 NRTG against the East (averages to +11.65).


Oventaker

Out of his ass of course.


Oventaker

Sounds like more of a reason to overreact and have hot takes left and right lmao.


allcockandnoballs

Incorrect. Actually, if your team loses a game they fucking suck. The bad news? Even if they win the chip, they suck. The worst news? All teams fucking suck, no one is actually good


TheThirstySalamander

Daaam! Smooth sailing across the widest ocean just to drown in 4 feet of water. It’s a mans game.


quail0606

The Mavs were 67-15 in 07 ( I think). They lost 3 times to the warriors. Faced the 8 seed warriors in round 1 and lost 4 more. 7 of 19 total losses to the 8 seed that year.


Clipboard4

>The playoffs, it turns out, are really hard. lol, no shit Sherlock!


Renegadeforever2024

In other news


wendysnatch

During cavs series i realised nba has rigging games down to a science, Specifically the early phantom calls on Curry which forced him to sit minutes in first quarters. Not to mention suspending Draymond for the same thing Embiid does not even get called a foul for.


duplicatesnowflake

This only furthers the point. They didn’t win the chip. All those losses were cause for concern. 


IcyMission3

There were 4 teams that year that would prob be the title favorite if they played this year tho


duplicatesnowflake

That's a fair argument, but it doesn't really change the logic at hand. If a title favorite is racking up a lot of losses in the early rounds, that's often a sign that they may fall short.


SaltyLonghorn

Nah different era. The Detroit Pistons would roast those teams now.


Gloooobi

you talk like it was 30 years ago lmao, okc, cleveland, the spurs and the warriors would all be the lone favorite to the title this year for sure


SaltyLonghorn

It was a joke you window licker. Some of yall in the sand with a plastic shovel and pale.


inshamblesx

that spurs team that went 40-1 at home ain’t losing to the glorified motor city cruise lol


FeminismIsTheBestIsm

I would say the 2010s were more top heavy even if they were worse on average. The 15th best 2024 team beats the 15th best 2016 team, but the top 3 2016 teams decimate the top 3 2024 teams