Rather Cavs or Raptors?

[greenbeerd]

Raptors, I know it isn't the popular choice, but the refs will be in Cleveland's pockets..

 

[UMRules06]

Raptors. I think they can beat them.

 

[biggunsbob]

Probably Raptors..

 

[dubbsco]

Cavs. Pistons have already beaten them twice in regular season, match up much better. Their depth does not scare me at all, and if the Pistons were to go in there and steal game 1, the whole thing could come unglued.

Toronto, top to bottom, feels like a much more complete team.

 

[manchild98]

Cavs. Pistons have already beaten them twice in regular season, match up much better. Their depth does not scare me at all, and if the Pistons were to go in there and steal game 1, the whole thing could come unglued.

Toronto, top to bottom, feels like a much more complete team.

This

 

[greenbeerd]

This

Except for Lebron and the Refs. Remember that the Playoffs is when Lebron starts giving a $hit.

 

[UMRules06]

Lebron has been to like 5 straight finals...no thanks. Regular season wins do not mean much at all, and one of them was without Kyrie Irving I believe.

 

[UMRules06]

Honestly it doesn't matter either way. The NBA playoffs offer the least amount of excitement of all the 4 major sports in my opinion.

Everyone knows only the top seeds have a chance. I believe it is still true that no 5, 7, or 8 seed has ever won a title in the NBA, and over 70% of champions are #1 seeds.

 

[Mitchrapp]

If you win you gotta play the other team any way.. Doesn't matter to me.

 

[dubbsco]

It's not about winning the whole thing, it's about who matches up in this particular series. And Cleveland is the more favorable series IMO.

 

[everyoneneedsasmil]

I don't think it matters much. When talking about matchups, they only really matter if the teams are relatively even to begin with. Further, regular season results (between two teams) have little predictive value - this is most easily understood as a sample size issue.

The Pistons are not relatively equal to the Cavs or Raptors, so matchups aren't going to matter much. The Pistons won the regular season series over the Cavs, but again, the Cavs were a significantly better team over a much larger sample size. Asking which team the Pistons have a better chance of defeating is more akin to asking which opposing superstar (Lebron or Lowry) is more likely to get injured early in the series (of the two, Lowry is the only one that has had injury concerns in the playoffs).

So I am going to take a different tact here. Since the likelihood of actually beating either team is minuscule, I'd ask which matchup is the best learning experience for the Pistons. And from that question, it leans heavily towards the Cavs. The Cavs are the only actual contender of the two. Better to be tested against your goal, to see how far you have left to go.

 

[tomdalton22]

Honestly it doesn't matter either way. The NBA playoffs offer the least amount of excitement of all the 4 major sports in my opinion.

Everyone knows only the top seeds have a chance. I believe it is still true that no 5, 7, or 8 seed has ever won a title in the NBA, and over 70% of champions are #1 seeds.

That's because the best team wins more often in a series. If there were 5 or 7 games series in football or the NCAA basketball tournaments the top seeds would win more often than not. Baseball and hockey are different because of pitchers (different starters) and goalies (hot goalie can win a series).

All that said...I agree with the NBA playoffs being boring. I probably won't watch.

 

[SoCalLions]

I'll take Toronto. Cleveland is the most talented squad in the East and it's not close. Only rosters that can compete with them are the top three seeds in the West. There isn't much of a difference between #2-8 in the East. Outside of Stevens, SVG can out coach the rest of the East. Cleveland has too much talent for coaching and matchups to make a difference in a 7 game series. I think our only chance against Cleveland is if some of their top guys get injured. I think our shot against Toronto is a lot more realistic.