No, the Heat are not going to do it!

[Billo_Really]

The 87 C's were only a bad call away from beating the Lakers anyways and the 85 C's lost b/c Stern switched the format last minute to put Game 5 in LA and not Boston. Both those teams were close and imo should've won. Ironically, 84 was the year the Lakers looked the best in those series. C's just got in their heads though.

I think Walton may have said he believed the 77 Blazers were the best passing team; but I'm not 100 percent on that. It could've been best defensive team, so I'm a bit hazy.

I just haven't seen a team pass like the 86 C's though. The Spurs of the last couple years have been up there. But that's more of a system and they don't have the instincts or abilities to make some of the passes consistently that those 86 C's did. I'm not familiar enough with the 77 Blazers or 70 Knicks to say no for sure; but I would just doubt it. Probably the closest team to rivaling the passing the 86 C's would be the 00, 01, 02 Kings; I would say.

The Lakers were the team of the decade in the '80's. Those were our golden years. Houston was too intimidated by all the Celtic mystique and tradition. We're not. No other team is better prepared to face them in the finals than we are. And we owe you 7 more ass-whuppin's and 1 Don Nelson bounce!


What drove me nuts about the '70 Knicks, was the amount of open shots they kept getting game after game. That's a sign of a good passing team. They had an allstar starting five (Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dollar Bill Bradley, Dave Debutcher, Dick Barnett) and a very good bench (Jerry Lucas, Phil Jackson). In one game, they were down 6 points with 15 seconds left and won the game.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGysbjsDZ70]1970 New York Knicks Season - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Billo_Really]

Oh and I wish the Lakers would have played the C's in 86. That's the one year that they would not have presented a challenge. Kareem was on his downhill. Magic was still a year from hitting the MVP level, Green was just a rookie. Thompson was not there yet. It would have just been a contain Worthy series and sweep their asses series. The Lakers saved a lot of face by shrinking against the Rockets in 5 (a team that the C's nearly swept).

Magic was an MVP from his rookie season on.

If we would've met you in the '86 Finals, it would be like the Patriots vs Giants when they were just one game away from a perfect season. But it never happened, because they expected to win, but the Giants wanted it more.

 

[Billo_Really]

Sampson hurt his knee the next year. It's common knowledge that he was never the same after that. The dude was three-time player of the year at Virginia. Only one to ever do that I think.

Sampson was there the year before Hakeem. He was out of the league by 92 b/c of his knee. Hakeem played many years longer.

But Sampson's rookie year before he had to share some of the glory with Hakeem and when he was playing his natural 5 spot; he had his best per 36 min numbers as 23, 12, 2.2, 2.6. That's about as good as it gets, really. And no, I don't want to hear about Wilt's ungodly numbers. B/C if a guy like Sampson played against 6'5" centers he would have had them also.

He was 7'-4" and couldn't play center!

What does that tell you?

Wilt didn't play against 6'-5" centers, he played against 6'-11" centers that were a lot more talented than 80% of the centers today.

 

[Billo_Really]

If you look at the shot, he actually got a pretty good look and shot at the basket despite the time and the awkward look of it.

The Rockets had won the previous three games by 10, 8, 8 and had they not won that game, it is very likely they would have won the next game in Houston. They were a good team. They had won their division.

They had six guys who averaged double digits and went twelve deep as I said. You know you're pretty good when you have five guys like Olajuwon, Sampson, McCray, Wiggins and Peterson for your front court. My hell, the Miami Heat don't have two front court guys of that caliber (unless you count LBJ as front court).

He threw it up over his shoulder as he was facing "away" from the basket!

It was the equivelant of the Flutie Hail Mary.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

1970 New York Knicks Season - YouTube

Nope. Just not seeing them as an especially great passing team. Maybe they were good relative to the league at that time though. But they don't hold a candle to the 86 C's.

 

[Billo_Really]

Nope. Just not seeing them as an especially great passing team. Maybe they were good relative to the league at that time though. But they don't hold a candle to the 86 C's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXffA9YIWIA

They had better players at every position, except one.

Willis Reed was a better center than Robert Parish
Walt Frazier was a better guard than Dennis Johnson
Dick Barnett was a better guard than Danny Ainge
And Jerry Lucas was a better power forward than Mchale

They also had Dave Debutcher and Senator Dollar Bill Bradley.

They were an allstar team. And they even got better in '73, when they replaced Barnett with Black Jesus (Earl the Pearl Monroe).

The best teams in NBA history are in this order:

1. '87 Lakers
2. '72 Lakers
3. '67 Philidelphia Warriors
4. '71 Bucks
5. '70 Knicks
6. '73 Knicks
7. '86 Celtics
8. '96 Bulls
9. '77 Trailblazers
10. '79 Supersonics

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

[

The best teams in NBA history are in this order:

1. '87 Lakers
2. '72 Lakers
3. '67 Philidelphia Warriors
4. '71 Bucks
5. '70 Knicks
6. '73 Knicks
7. '86 Celtics
8. '96 Bulls
9. '77 Trailblazers
10. '79 Supersonics

1. '86 Celtics
2. '65 Celtics
3. '87 Lakers
4. '05 Spurs
5. '83 Sixers
6. '02 Kings
7. '88 Pistons
8. '08 Celtics
9. '01 Lakers
10. '98 Jazz
11. '11 Mavericks
12. '95 Rockets
13. '04 Pistons
14. '96 Bulls
15. '77 Trailblazers
16. '04 Pistons
17. '72 Lakers
18. '75 Warriors
19. '86 Rockets
20. '71 Bucks

 

[Billo_Really]

1. '86 Celtics
2. '65 Celtics
3. '87 Lakers
4. '05 Spurs
5. '83 Sixers
6. '02 Kings
7. '88 Pistons
8. '08 Celtics
9. '01 Lakers
10. '98 Jazz
11. '11 Mavericks
12. '95 Rockets
13. '04 Pistons
14. '96 Bulls
15. '77 Trailblazers
16. '04 Pistons
17. '72 Lakers
18. '75 Warriors
19. '86 Rockets
20. '71 Bucks

What are you?

Some kind of St. Louis Hawk hater?

What did Bob Pettit ever do to you?

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

1. '86 Celtics
2. '65 Celtics
3. '87 Lakers
4. '05 Spurs
5. '83 Sixers
6. '02 Kings
7. '88 Pistons
8. '08 Celtics
9. '01 Lakers
10. '98 Jazz
11. '11 Mavericks
12. '95 Rockets
13. '04 Pistons
14. '96 Bulls
15. '77 Trailblazers
16. '04 Pistons
17. '72 Lakers
18. '75 Warriors
19. '86 Rockets
20. '71 Bucks

What are you?

Some kind of St. Louis Hawk hater?

What did Bob Pettit ever do to you?

LOL. I love Bob Petit. I don't know how good his teams were. I'm just realizing the 67 Sixers would be an omission though. They had a great year and are the only reason that the Celtics didn't win 11 straight championships! They probably should be somewhere on my list.

Hawks did have great numbers by looking at their team. The shooting percentages are down but the points are about the same. I'm guessing that they counted misses on fouls as misses or something. The ball was probably a bit heavier and the rims a bit tighter too.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

1. '86 Celtics
2. '65 Celtics
3. '87 Lakers
4. '05 Spurs
5. '83 Sixers
6. '02 Kings
7. '88 Pistons
8. '08 Celtics
9. '01 Lakers
10. '98 Jazz
11. '11 Mavericks
12. '67 Sixers
13. '95 Rockets
14. '96 Bulls
15. '77 Trailblazers
16. '04 Pistons
17. '72 Lakers
18. '75 Warriors
19. '86 Rockets
20. '71 Bucks

 

[Billo_Really]

LOL. I love Bob Petit. I don't know how good his teams were. I'm just realizing the 67 Sixers would be an omission though. They had a great year and are the only reason that the Celtics didn't win 11 straight championships! They probably should be somewhere on my list.

They ended the 8 straight Celtics and spanked them in 5 games.

They were a super-team:

Wilt
Chet the jet Walker
Hal Greer
Billy Cunningham (the Kangaroo Kid)
Lucias Jackson​

They were real good! The problem teams had with them, were the same problems teams had with the '86 Celtics, '72 Lakers and '87 Lakers, they were loaded with veterans you couldn't rattle, because they'd seen it all before.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

87 Lakers are over-rated by fans like you. They would have lost to a healthy C's. And they would have lost to the Pistons the next year in the finals if Isiah didn't sprain his ankle or if Rodman hadn't taken that bad shot at the end of Game 7. And then in 89, they made sure they spanked em by like 20 every game as they swept them.