Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Let's go to the Eastern Conference playoff picture because Joe, for me, the story out east is the same. It has been, but it's a little bit different. The Celtics were far and away the best team in the NBA, but certainly out east all season long a year ago, and that has been the expectation for Boston this year, and they have largely lived up to it from the odds maker's perspective, not quite as historic as a season ago, but as our expectations get higher.
00:28So, due to our levels of success for the C, still 39 and 16, third best record in the NBA, second best in the Eastern Conference, but five and a half games back of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have, of course, been one of the stories out east.
00:44The Knicks, 36 and 18, and really, then you kind of find your drop off around the Eastern Conference standings, and you can see the records of the teams that would even be in consideration for the play in tournament at this moment, all at least two games, sub 500 or worse.
01:02Joe, the story to me in the Eastern Conference is simply this. The Boston Celtics are already a minus money favorite to win the Eastern Conference crown. Largely, they have been for the last month and a half or so, but can the Cavaliers or the New York Knicks actually challenge the Celtics and knock them off their perch in the Eastern Conference?
01:27It's so funny, Ben, because they're the champs, and they're the favorites, and with good reason, because I believe they're one of the only teams in the top five in both offense and defense this season.
01:40I think the biggest problem with the Celtics is not that they got worse. It's that everybody else around them got better, including those Cleveland Cavaliers, who are also sitting pretty good here, as they're the number one offense.
01:54They're number one in threes. They're number eight in defense. This team is doing it all, but like the conversation we had with OKC, what have they done in the postseason, Ben, to lead us to believe that they can get this done over a Boston Celtics?