日韩精品久久一区二区三区_亚洲色图p_亚洲综合在线最大成人_国产中出在线观看_日韩免费_亚洲综合在线一区

Make me your Homepage
left corner left corner
China Daily Website

For the time being, East is least among NBA powerhouses

Updated: 2013-12-25 07:04
By Associated Press in Miami ( China Daily)

Apart from Indiana and Miami, rest of the pack is woefully weak

Christmas morning, 2008.

The Boston Celtics were 27-2. The Cleveland Cavaliers were 24-4. It could have been argued those teams were well ahead of everyone else, not just in the Eastern Conference, but the entire NBA.

But neither made the NBA Finals that season.

Maybe that is a warning to Indiana and Miami.

When the East's 15 teams wake up on Christmas morning this year, only the Pacers, the Heat and the Atlanta Hawks will be on pace to finish with records of .500 or better.

The last time things wound up so bleak in the East was 1971-72, when only Boston and New York finished with winning records. Of course, back then, the conference had just eight teams.

By any measure, the East is least right now - by far.

"The thing about the NBA is you are trying to build the right habits each and every day, then it's the teams that are playing the best and are the healthiest going into the playoffs," Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau said.

"So that's what you're aiming for, to continue to improve - and anything could happen."

One thing is for sure, outside of Indiana and Miami, there's plenty of room for improvement in the East.

Entering Tuesday, the Atlantic Division leaders were the Toronto Raptors, fresh off a loss at San Antonio that left them a mere 11-15 overall.

Combined, teams in the East are winning 44 percent of their games; teams out West, 56 percent. Take away the Heat and Pacers (a combined 42-11 entering Monday), and the rest of the East is a putrid 135-214.

And it looks inevitable some bad teams will be in the playoffs come April.

It is not outside the realm of possibility that five teams with losing records will be in the East bracket; that matches the total of the past six postseasons combined, all on the East side. The West hasn't sent a sub-.500 team to the playoffs since 1997.

Nonetheless, those who look like also-rans in the East hardly sound discouraged.

"We have got tough guys in here," Toronto's Kyle Lowry said. "No matter what's happening, we are going to keep playing and trying to get it done."

It tends to happen that way.

Those 27-2 Celtics finished 62-20, and the Cavaliers were 66-16 with the NBA's best record. Orlando was seven games behind Cleveland, clearly third best in the East.

That is, until the playoffs happened. Orlando won Game 7 in Boston to reach the East Finals, then topped LeBron James and the Cavaliers in six games for a trip to the NBA Finals. The Los Angeles Lakers wound up winning the title.

"It's never easy," said James, now with the two-time defending champion Heat. "We knew that. We never thought it would be."

There's also plenty of people still around the Heat organization who know that the season doesn't end on Dec 25. The 82-game marathon isn't even at the halfway mark.

Take, for example, Christmas 2003. The Heat had been 0-7 that season and were just 11-17 at the holiday break.

On Feb 10 of that season, they were 21-32. On March 2, 25-36. At the finish: 42-40, not just good enough for the playoffs, but good enough for home court in one round and ultimately a trip to the East semifinals.

That is why Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is not only a staunch defender of the East - young teams are going to get better in a hurry, he said - but also insists the race is a long way from being classified a two-horse affair.

"You hear all that talk about the Eastern Conference and how down it is this year," Spoelstra said. "That's really from a simple perspective and you are not really looking at it with any depth at all. That is just the average, uninformed voice out there. If you really looked at it in-depth ... you see about three or four teams that have that type of potential."

Toronto won at Oklahoma City, something no one else has done this season. Boston won in Miami. Detroit won in Indiana and Miami.

Brooklyn and New York probably can't stay this bad - among the very worst in the East - all season.

"It's a long season, you know, and teams that have injuries now, they get healthy as they go along," said Thibodeau, whose Bulls have lost Derrick Rose for probably another entire season with yet another injury.

"Anything could happen at the end."

True. But right now it doesn't look good.

(China Daily 12/25/2013 page23)

8.03K
 
...
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 在线观看免费黄色小视频 | 狠狠狠狠狠狠狠狠狠狠 | 夜夜爽爽| 中国一级大黄大黄大色毛片 | 久久久国产精品福利免费 | 91精品国产91久久久久久 | 欧美日韩一区在线观看 | 国产精品久久久爽爽爽麻豆色哟哟 | 成人免费在线视频观看 | 久久99精品久久久久久琪琪 | 亚州一区二区三区 | 亚洲午夜精品视频 | 91欧美精品激情在线观看 | 一级黄色片毛片 | 久久69精品久久久久久久电影好 | 黑粗硬大欧美 | 欧美高清3dfreexxxx性 | 亚洲zscs综合网站 | a在线观看欧美在线观看 | 国产成人精品免费 | 国产精品免费观看 | 欧美成人免费在线视频 | 成人欧美一区二区三区在线播放 | 久久综合狠狠综合狠狠 | 亚洲精品久久 | 婷婷的久久五月综合先锋影音 | 亚洲综合色丁香婷婷六月图片 | 欧美日韩精品一区二区在线播放 | 日韩欧美亚洲综合 | 国产片在线观看 | 欧美高清成人 | 国产a区| 日本色播 | 国产欧美日韩一区二区三区四区 | 91九色精品国产 | 亚洲国产精品热久久 | 久草在线看 | 久久精品天天中文字幕人 | 成人理论 | 91精品久久久久久久久久 | 亚欧免费视频一区二区三区 |