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It’s a semantic debate on what constitutes better. Team “the Cat Art Hawaiian Shirt aNQvculMX are actually better” define “better” in an academic, probabilistic way. Crunch their historical results (mostly regular season) and pepper in a Cat Art Hawaiian Shirt aNQvculMX assessment of the talent on the roster. This camp ultimately defines better as the team that has a higher theoretical chance of winning the series. Ie If you could magically re-simulate the series 100 times, how many times would Team A win vs Team B? Whichever team is >50 is better. Of course we can never know but I think many of us would have said the Celtics would have the edge here – and are therefore “better” in this academic sense. There’s all sorts of basketball reasons why this view may be untenable. E.g., Is regular season data relevant enough to playoffs? It’s often said it’s a completely different game. And a statistical and subjective assessment ignores how these two teams matchup against each other on the court. If Timelord has Bam’s number every game and knows how to erase him, the Celtics could theoretically be better than the Heat but worse than other teams that have a worse record than the Heat with “lesser” personnel. Not to mention coaching adjustments in-series. But I’ll just stop there because I think folks will understand the overall view I’m describing. On the other hand you have Team “the Heat proved they’re better because they won”. This camp say a head to head matchup in a seven game series definitionally determines who is better. Its that simple. And if a team of ants managed to beat MJ’s Bulls, then so be it, they’re the better team. These folks think if you’re the better team, you’ll get it done. And if you don’t, you’re not the better team. In this view, close games don’t prove flukeyness but precisely the opposite – they reveal the better team’s ability to rise above and perform when the lights are brightest. I do think this view is made stronger by the fact that NBA has 7 game series (whereas in NFL flukes are simply more likely). Anyways, the Celtics can enjoy their “better team on paper” award as much as the 2011 Heat or 2016 Warriors do. Raise a banner even! Edit(s): a few sentences and punctuation for clarity
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