but i'm a believer now.

as long as there are no injuries to the big 3...i see them winning 65.

i see them making it at least to the eastern conference finals.

i'm not sure dallas is an elite team anymore.

to what I have been saying...

They have no bench with players that will wear down by the time playoffs come...

Don't beleive me, but I know I am right...

Rajon is good enough with Ray, Paul and KG around. Paul is playing like he's always played, but just because they've had garbage around him no one really notices. Glad he's a Celt and not a Mav. Kendrick Perkins a solid player inside, a very good offensive rebounder. Bench is loaded, with Posey, House, Davis, Allen, Scalabrine, Pollard: all solid all around players. And the main thing, every single player can shoot and shoot well.

The Boston Three Party is going far this year.

If Ainge somehow gets Andre Miller, there is no reason for any other team to show up against them, just go ahead and get ready for next year...

they need more nationally televised games. It's pathetic to see Kevin Durant and the freaking Seattle Supersonics on national TV every few days...

"I'm seeing players that are producing that I didn't expect to..." - Stephen A. Smith 2 minutes ago...

road (and no, I refuse to count the Lakers or the Jazz as tough), I consider them about even with Detroit in the East, both a notch below most of the best teams in the West (SA, Phoenix, Dallas at a minimum).

Their bench sucks, and even though their big 3 have always played a ton of minutes, that doesn't mean they didn't wear down in previous seasons as well.  They'll now just do it all on the same team.

You all are just listening to ESPN to much, ofcourse they are going to praise Boston...  Its Boston, the same city as the Red Sox...

The Mavs had great starts like this the past years but that doesn't mean that they will win the damned championship.

So the 40 percent that voted that they would win the championship are misinformed.

You think they could beat even the Suns in a 7 game series?

No, the answer is no...

Are they actually known as "The C's," or is that some recent ESPN-generated thing to make SportsCenter sound more hip?

I swear I'd never heard that nickname before last season, and I've been following the NBA since the Mavericks' first season.

as in Utah last year real? Yes, very much so. Given that they play in a much weaker conference, I can see them making the finals, especially since the Pistons tend to wear down as the year goes on.

That said, real as in NBA Title real? No. Look at the teams they play, they get burned by dominant big men and good point guards. Most of the Western contenders have dominant low post bigmen or good point guards or both. I don't see how you can look at a matchup that involves Steve Nash or Tony Parker vs. Rajon Rondo and not expect coaches to exploit it for all its worth.

Also, the minutes do add up. 38 minutes per game might be the norm for players who were always "the man" on their team and playing for teams fighting to make the playoffs, but it's not really conducive to a long playoff season. Look at it this way, if you do make the finals, you'll most likely have played about 1/4 of the regular season . Even If you only play 4 games every round, that's 16 games. That's a lot of games, and the heavy minutes build up, especially for players in their 30s. It's part of the reason why Detroit fell apart last year, it's part of the reason that Dallas wore down, and it's why Phoenix always seems to run out of gas. Those minutes add up, and the Celts are playing ridiculous minutes for a team who is blowing teams out.

Big Baby took time out of his doughnut eating to play a game...

what bench?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=280105008

... I think that Boston has a very good chance to get to the Finals. But I think they will lose to almost any team from the West that would make the Finals.

So a few on their bench have intermittent good games? OK, let's see them sustain that with playoff intensity for two months ... How much deep playoff experience do these guys have? How many playoff contenders from the West have they faced yet to get a gauge on how they matchup up against real teams with a solid post presence or a true PG who can light it up?

They are real until proved otherwise, but I think that time to be proved is soon ...

beating the Pistons on the road is big. Bench stepped up again, I love what I'm seeing. I still think Chauncey > Rondo in a playoff series which would give the Pistons the edge but who knows.