If the Celtics make the finals, I would like nothing more than to see the San Antonio Spurs. Duncan and Garnett in the finals is Where Legendary Matchups Happen. A win would also go miles in closing the current large gap between Duncan and Garnett when it comes to greatest Power Forwards/players of all time.

in the nba any given team with .350 mark can beat a .700 team on any given night by 15 points…it is really hard to tell who is the best team,especialy these days…we have the celtics,spurs, orlando, detroit, mavs, suns, rockets that are all capable off going to the finals this year. the best team is the one that wins the title period

“Marc Stein doesn’t like the Celts.”

Check the ESPNs experts season predictions if you think that is the case. Stein is one of the only guys who thought the Celtics could make the finals before the season started.

That’s fine, the last thing we need is another SI-style curse on the team.

Let ‘em underestimate us and we’ll cruise on through the post-season in a Fo’ Fo’ Fo’ manner.

Actually this season has been mostly boring. Nothing to complain about.

i dont think Stein even know the record for San Antonio, they are 17-3 not 17-2. get your facts straight smart genius

Do they really say “wicked good” in New England?

No

I’m as green as they come but I still say it’s too early to make any bold predictions other than for the immediate future…….we should beat Sac on Wednesday! There. That’s my prediction.

As a huge Rondo fan who watched him play here when he was at UK and really thought highly of him back then, I am prone to think that, as of right now, even coming off a great game with the Bulls, he still will have his hands full with Tony Parker, Deron Williams and Steve Nash. Ultimately, this may be our greatest challenge if we can get past Detroit and/or Cleveland to get to the Finals. (Notice I didn’t say get past Orlando.)

Teams go through streaks, up and down throughout the long season. Hopefully we, and he (Rondo) will continue to improve as May and June approach.

Right now, if I may quote one of CelticsBlog’s homies:
 “Actually this season has been mostly boring. Nothing to complain about.”
Well Brick, I too have nothing to complain about. But this season has been anything but boring.

I guess losing to an average team like the Hawks at home qualifies as a “bad loss” so the Magic have two of them now, the same amount as the Cs “good losses.”

Orlando’s record is now 16-6 (heh heh heh)….. but I don’t care what Stein, Hollinger or anyone else says about the Cs.

the only power rating that means anything is the one after the last playoff game has been played. but so far so good. let’s hope the players don’t get bored. it’s a long season. lots of time in aiports and hotel rooms. lots of nicks and bruises and that goes for egos as well.

It baffles me why anyone cares about “Power Rankings.” The only thing that matters is the actual standings.

The Celtics have been very good so far, but does that make them the best team in the East? Who can say? We’ll see in the second half. LeBron will be back. Wade is rounding into form, leading the Heat past Phoenix tonight. Detroit is going to be very tough.

The Spurs have been terrific, especially since this is a veteran team that gears itself for the playoffs. You could make a strong case that they are the team to beat.

I’m just enjoying the ride, and could care less what ESPN, the NBA website, or any other “expert” thinks about who’s number 1.

It’s funny because Hollinger has us first but Stein doesn’t even though Hollinger is a well documented Celtics hater and Stein is a C’s man. In fairness our schedule hasn’t been that tough so far, that not to say we will falter once it gets harder but we don’t know for sure.

I don’t care about this at all … except that this may be a nice motivator next time the Cs play the magic.

So, good.

Checking the rankings can be fun. I do it with some regularity but I don’t take them too seriously. They are totally subjective. At this point in the season I really can’t complain about anyones reason for their rankings. Sure the Celtics have played a relatively easy schedule, but they have won the games they should have. In very recent years they have had relatively easy schedules and they didn’t win the games they should have. That’s a wonderful improvement, why worry right now. For better or worse we’ll have a much better understanding of the Celtics true strength by the end of December, but even then the best thing will be knowing that they can and will get better before the end of the season. I read rankings like I read the point spreads —for entertainment purposes only.

I am a half-season ticket holders. I haven’t seen them lose a game this season — and I hope I don’t. I have never been able to say that this late in the season before. Seeing the Celtics win game after game is far more satisfying than somebody else’s opinion of their power ranking.

Remember a certain amount of “disrespect” has worked wonders for the Patriots. If the Celtics can use “direspect” to thier advantage what’s the problem?

Not too worried about Miami or the one man show in Cleveland. It takes more then one star to win. Both teams would really need a big trade to get them going that would be the only reason to worry.

Orlando has no business being number 2. Of the “elite” teams (Celtics, Spurs, Phoenix, Detroit, Orlando) that they’ve played, they have only won one game… their record against them is 1-4, so people can talk all about their tough schedule, but that argument is only worth anything if they had actually WON a good portion of those games, they didn’t so the point being made is worthless.

Celtics haven’t played any of these teams (only Orlando), but that only means that we STILL have the opportunity to beat them, Orlando already lost a good portion of those games.

That is the point I am still confused about Budweiser. Stein obviously doesn’t do much research. Apparently just stepping on the floor against better teams gets you a high ranking spot nevermind the fact that they have lost about every one of those games. Going on that presumption is like putting every West team ahead of every East team because the West is deemed the stronger conference. That is basically the logic Stein is putting forth when he has Magic above the Celtics.

C’s should be number one.

The fact that the Spurs won without Duncan only means other teams showed up unprepared and thought they would be “easier” to play without Duncan dressed.

C’s continue to blow teams out at home by 20 and win on the road by 10 against teams better than their current records indicate.

C’s only 2 losses came on the road where a slightly too strong 3 could have won the game for them and 1 or 2 free throws made could have put them at 19 and 0.

Yawn.

The C’s “weak” schedule has IMO been overplayed. Both Sagarin’s and Hollinger’s metrics say that the C’s schedule has been harder than the Spur’s so far, but no one docks the Spurs for that. While the C’s haven’t played many of the “elite” yet, they have been running rampant over the “pretty good’s” I think they are 9-1 against the top 15 teams in Stein’s rankings. But “easy schedule”, just like “they’re playing too many minutes” is an easy fall-back catch-phrase that a lot of media folks seem to grab onto without really looking into the circumstances…