Our first matchup is....


#16 seed 1984-85 Boston Celtics
Starters: Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson, Larry Bird, Danny Ainge, Kevin McHale
Key Reserves: Cedric Maxwell, Scott Wedman, Quinn Buckner, Carlos Clark
Record: 63-19
Pythagorean W/L: 57-25
Lost: to Lakers in Finals 4-2



vs



#17 seed 1992-93 Phoenix Suns
Starters: Charles Barkley, Dan Majerle, Mark West, Kevin Johnson, Richard Dumas
Key Reserves: Danny Ainge, Tom Chambers, Cedric Ceballos, Frank Johnson, Oliver Miller, Negele Knight
Record: 62-20
Pythagorean W/L: 57-25
Lost: to Bulls in Finals 4-2

92-93 suns win imo.

The Ainge vs Ainge matchup is pretty sick. Phoenix has a big edge on the bench and could probably tire the Celtics starters who'd have to log a lot of minutes, but Parish and McHale could still run at that point in their careers and that starting five of Boston was obviously one of the best ever so I'd take the Celtics.

Eh, I messed up the bracket in the OP. Here is how it should look:

Barkley vs McHale would be awesome.

Both teams have some games up on youtube btw.

This, imo, is the key matchup. I also think KJ gets underrated and could be big in this series.

Suns in 6

[QUOTE=Assani Fisher;24785341]
Starters: Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson, Larry Bird, Danny Ainge, Kevin McHale
Key Reserves: Cedric Maxwell, Scott Wedman, Quinn Buckner, Carlos Clark

vs

Starters: Charles Barkley, Dan Majerle, Mark West, Kevin Johnson, Richard Dumas
Key Reserves: Danny Ainge, Tom Chambers, Cedric Ceballos, Frank Johnson, Oliver Miller, Negele Knight

I would say the Suns would win this one but it would definitely go 7. The Suns were a great offensive team which in the half court was derived from KJ's speed and ability to penetrate and Barkley in the post or on the wing. Since the defensive value of the C's came from a team D standpoint of everyone driving their guy towards Parish. This wouldn't seem to be as effective given the abilities of Barkley, Majerle, Frank Johnson and TC to shoot from outside. I also think that KJ, Dumas and Ceballos turn up the pace and the Suns end up winning a lot of the high scoring games.

How the **** are the Suns only the #17 seed? This should be locked and started over based on that alone.

Seems super close, I voted Suns to try to counter the obvious Boston bias on the forum.

Celtics win every game they're involved in due to the sheer volume of Boston NBA posters.

Richard Dumas was hot **** in 92-93. Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

Suns bench too deep, in 6.

I'll go with the team that isn't playing Mark West/Oliver Miller in the middle.

people are ****ing high

who is in charge of seeding?

game 7 neutral site pls

Series looks super close. McHale wasn't yet what he became and Barkley had probably his best season ever. Boston has a decided advantage at center where Parrish >>> the corpses Phoenix threw out there. If Boston plays their home games in 1984 Boston they have an incredible home court advantage.

Bottom line: Bird avg 28/10 that year with (52,42,88 shooting) and was the greatest clutch performer of his time. Cocaine may be a hell of a drug but Bird regularly abused guys on coke in 1984. Bird wins one game pretty much by himself and Boston wins in 6 or 7.

Can't believe I'm the first to have this opinion.

Want to boycott the rest because 98 Pacers pythag was 59 wins and I think they beat half these teams in a series.

I came up with the seeding criteria before I began anything so that bias would have nothing to do with it. Initially my rule was that you needed 60+ pythagorean wins and the Suns didn't even make it. But I only had 10 teams make it, which wasn't enough for a tournament. Then I changed the qualification to 120+ combined pythagorean and actual wins....the Suns still didn't make it, but I only had 13 teams. Finally when I changed it to "60 wins or 60 pythagorean wins" the Suns made it and we had enough teams to do a tournament.

I want to wait to reveal the seeds as we go along, but I'll give you a small hint and say that if the Suns win this round I think the next round will be quite the debate.

Btw the team with the most pythagorean wins to not win the title in the modern era didn't even make the tourney because they didn't meet the requirement about losing in the Finals or in the Conference Finals to the eventual champions(the 2008-09 Cavs with 65 pythagorean wins).

Assani,

OIC. Well actually I like using pythag over regular W-L as a criteria. It's not perfect because there is no accounting for strength of league.

Anyway, I think the Celtics are almost certainly the better team here but it looks like we have 3 1/2 more months before voting closes so I have time to do some research!

Just to mention again....better seed gets home court advantage, so game 7 would be in Boston.

I'm not saying I necessarily disagree with you or the 6 others who picks Suns in 7, but if I were to pick the Suns I might say Suns in 6 because I'd have to think the Celtics would be favored at home if it went to the 7th game.

I do agree that this series is very very close though, and I think many who picked Suns in 7 wanted to communicate that "its close but the Suns are a tiny bit better" but maybe they didn't remember the HCA rules, which is why I mention them again now.

I mean, theres no way he actually couldn't see anything, right?

Hmmm...do people think it'd be better to have game 7 be neutral? I was just trying to emulate real life. These two teams tied with 57 pythagorean wins, but the Celtics had 63 actual wins to the Suns 62, which gave them the higher seed.

you won't have to be patient for long.....the Pacers will have a team in the very next matchup we vote on!

Yeah, Ceballos eventually admitted he could see making the dunk pretty lame overall.

I mean, how were people ever fooled to begin with though? Forget the dunking part, its almost impossible to start where he did and walk to the rim if you're truly blindfolded(unless you practice a ton and know exactly how many steps and how big of steps to take).

And yeah, once its common knowledge that he could see, its a 100% normal dunk, right? Wtf???