Celtics cut down Nets.

Rajon Rondo may have taken himself out of the starting lineup due to his nagging injuries just seconds before the game, but the Celtics rose up to crush the someday-to-be Brooklyn Nets 100-75. It's starting to seem that the Green Army just can't be stopped, and the way our bench has been stepping up makes that all the more exciting.

Backup point guard Nate Robinson stepped into Rondo's shoes and led the team in scoring with 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. I'm not sure how, but Nate Dawg is a freaking stud when filling in for Double R. KG and Ray Ray had 13 a piece (with Garnett adding an impressive 14 boards), while my boy Uno Uno went for 16 off the bench, and Daniels added 10. I was impressed with the overall 50% FG% for the C's, in a game where the defense held the Nets to a 37% mark. We had 13 more rebounds, 8 more assists, 5 less turnovers, and 5 less fouls. It was total domination.

Thanks to Celtics Blog, we'll examine a couple of key points. How about KG nabbing the aforementioned double double? He now has as many double doubles this season as he did last season (animal style). How about the pregame warmup, when Glen Davis took a medicine ball to the head? How did he put up the numbers he did after an attempted attack on his life like that? Stud. Mainly, it was nice to see the C's going hard on every possession. I know I've said this over and over this season, but our "B" team is so freaking amazing. They are the guys that really get me fired up for this squad. 

Just like that, we've stormed out to a 16-4 start after 20 games. I know it's lame, but we're projected to finish 66-16 this year if we keep it up. Yeah, I'd take that. By the way, what happened to all that "the Heat are going to win 70 talk?" At 14-8, they'll be lucky to finish with more than 50. I hate ESPN so much. Hadn't anyone ever seen the Yankees fail season after season? Individual superstars don't automatically make a superstar team. Well, we're 1.5 up on the Magic and 3 up on the Heat over in the East. Against our most hated rivals from Los Angeles, we have a 12 game lead. Hey, at least you guys pulled out of the cellar! However, overall in the NBA, we're 1 GB of the surprising Spurs, and tied with the Mavs. 

That got me thinking. Who is the best team in the NBA right now, 25% of the way into the season? I, of course, think it's the Celtics. But, let's be a little more objective. We'll compare the top 6 teams (as ranked by ESPN's standings, because it'll make Laker fans hate ESPN even more) in the league by record, SRS, point differential per game, and attendance.

Records:

1. San Antonio: 17-3
2. Bean Town: 16-4
3. Dallas: 16-4
4. Utah: 16-6
5. Orlando: 15-6
6. Miami: 14-8

SRS (average being 0.00):

1. Miami: +8.40
2. San Antonio: +8.25
3. Bean Town: +7.85
4. Dallas: +6.50
5. Orlando: +5.72
6. Utah: +4.96

Point differential per game:

1. San Antonio: +8.9
2. Bean Town: +8.8
3. Miami: +8.4
4 Orlando: +6.6
5. Dallas: +5.8
6. Utah: +4.5

Attendance:

1. Miami: 255,050
2. Utah: 250,010
3. Orlando: 226,314
4. Dallas: 198,554
5. San Antonio: 197,761
6. Bean Town: 186,240

Now we'll assign a value to the rankings (6 points for 1st place, 5 for 2nd, etc) and give the list of the LSF's top 6 NBA teams after a quarter of the regular season:

1. San Antonio: 19
2. Miami: 17
3. Bean Town: 15
4. Dallas: 12
5. Orlando: 11
6. Utah: 10

I almost want to throw out attendance so that the Celtics can beat the Heat? What was I thinking? No, no, the ability to draw a crowd does show the "betterness" of a team in some way. That's the fun thing about this blog, sometimes my made up stats make me eat my words. But, does this mean I think the Spurs and Heat will meet in the Finals? Nay! There is still 75% of the season remaining. So let's improve on that record, raise our SRS, widen our PPG differential, and get some more fans out to the Garden every night.

We can start against 13-6 Denver tomorrow night. 

-- Sent from my Palm Prē