Preferred ECF opponent: Cleveland or Boston?

[shags]

I voted no preference. Each team poses different problems.

[Higherwarrior]

i fear the nba would prefer either team to advance ahead of us, so we could be fighting an uphill battle when it comes to the officiating.

anyway, i go back and forth on this one.....at times i'd prefer cleveland so we could get revenge from last year.

but then it would be nice to take out boston the new 'sweethearts' of david stern. we could take out 'the big 3' and shut up a lot of frontrunning media types who have already annointed them champs of the east, if not the nba.

but when it comes right down to it, the way i feel at this point is that boston has a great trio and a lot better supporting cast than many give them credit for. but i STILL would prefer to play them, even without homecourt advantage.

they have 3 great players but nobody who is 'unguardable' or unstoppable like lebron. james can make all those other cavalier punks into much better players if all they have to do is camp out at the 3 line and knock down jumpers. (see: gibson from 2007!)

he can take over a game himself and score or get to the line at will. boston presents its own problems but they don't have a player who does that.

no matter how much our D focuses on lebron, i don't think we can stop him if he's determined. after prince, who could even attempt to guard him? rip? afflalo?

i'd hate to see rip and prince getting in foul trouble TRYING to stop lebron. i think boston is a better matchup believe it or not, and i like our chances against them more than against the cavs. and i think we're definitely a superior team to cleveland but lebron in a playoff setting changes things completely IMO.

[Uncle Mxy]

Honestly, after what happened last year, I bet the NBA would prefer us over Cleveland. A Detroit-LA series has history written all over it. Kobe-LeBron doesn't have very much emotional resonance. They don't hate each other, or kiss each other before every game.

[WTFchris]

Honestly, after what happened last year, I bet the NBA would prefer us over Cleveland. A Detroit-LA series has history written all over it. Kobe-LeBron doesn't have very much emotional resonance. They don't hate each other, or kiss each other before every game.

Yeah, they know the Cavs would get swept or close to it. If they want a real series than Detroit or Boston has to be in the finals.

[Higherwarrior]

yeah but you know they would play the whole 'the future of the nba' versus the present. kobe versus lebron would make many a media person thrilled.

[Higherwarrior]

i think whoever wins the east out of boston/detroit wins the title. probably in 7 games though. true the west is the stronger conference overall, but IMO both boston and detroit will beat the winner of the west.

however if the cavs get there.......i think they'll at least make a series of it and avoid a sweep.

[MoTown]

Unless of course, the Jazz make the Finals. Then they would destroy the Pistons, probably in 4 games.

[15buckshort]

The Jazz wont make it out of this series, better yet past the hornets or the spurs if they do get past kobe and pao. As far as the east, if the cavs-celtics series goes 7 games, they are going to be wore out. Lebron has never been so beat up in this kind of stretch of games and his team is no help against the pistons. Sam Cassell was supposed to be the answer for the celtics but as seen in game 5, his place is on the bench. I dont care who we play, but in the end I want to play the celtics to answer all the hype that have been put into them. There isnt anyone on the celtics team will go off for 48 points or score the last 30 points for their team in the 4th quarter like lebron did to us last year. Either way, look for the pistons to be in the Finals and im thinking against the Hornets, I feel like CP3 is going to pull a cinderella story in the west with how dominant hes playing right now.

[Higherwarrior]

i love paul. IMO he should've been MVP. but we own the hornets. i'd love to play them in the finals as we match up really well with them.

[Wilfredo Ledezma]

The way I see it, if Cleveland gets to the ECF, that means they (LBJ) must've done something special in those last 2 games...

Thus making Cleveland pretty scary.

At least if we play Boston, it'd be expected. Plus I think we can steal one of those first 2 games at the Garden.