2011 Celtics vs 2011 Mavs Finals

[Fire Colangelo]

Had the Celtics gotten past the Heat and the Bulls in the Eastern Conference, would they be able to stop a red hot Dirk?

Or would Dirk annihilate them just like he annihilated everybody else?

Who you got?

EDIT: Rondo doesn't get his arm broken by Wade.

[Cone]

dirk and the mavs were on a mission that year. imo, they still win it all.

[BlackWhiteGreen]

KG was ...better in 11 than 10, but I don't think he stops Dirk. He was a shell really following the injury in 09 and he was overmatched against Pau in '10 and Bosh (what we saw of him) in '12, so no reason to think he'd have stopped Dirk.

You can guarantee no one on that team is having a mental breakdown like LeBron, though, and Pierce isn't being stopped by DeShawn Stevenson. The deciding factor in this question is really more that the Celtics had no healthy centre and Rondo was essentially down to one arm. Dallas wins.

[JohnnySic]

At full strength they could have won it all (healthy Shaq, Rondo, JO...)

[ArbitraryWater]

At full strength they could have won it all (healthy Shaq, Rondo, JO...)

You can't do that though, healthy Shaq in 2011

JO lol

[Derka]

As constituted, we'd have lost that series even if we were healthy. Rondo might have had a good series against old Kidd but I think Dallas wins every other matchup there.

[ProfessorMurder]

Does Rondo still get his arm broken by Wade?

[Fire Colangelo]

Does Rondo still get his arm broken by Wade?

I didn't want to get into health because Mavs had their health problems as well (Caron Butler), but let's say Rondo's arm doesn't get broken by Wade.

[ProfessorMurder]

I didn't want to get into health because Mavs had their health problems as well (Caron Butler), but let's say Rondo's arm doesn't get broken by Wade.

I think the Mavs were winning it that year, they had something special click during the playoffs.

However it wouldn't surprise me if it went 6 or 7. Dirk was clearly better than KG after the knee injury. Rondo clearly better than Kidd. Tyson was a little better than the center by committee on the Celtics. Ray and Pierce could keep up or beat Terry/Marion/Barea.

2-3-2 format would also benefit the Celtics since Mavs won 57 games to the Celtics 56 in the season... Honestly I'd like to pick the Celtics, but those Mavs just hit something special.

[Young X]

I've said it before and I will continue to say it, this Celtics team would've won it all had they not traded for Green. They were playing the best ball in the league before the all star break.

[Fire Colangelo]

I think the Mavs were winning it that year, they had something special click during the playoffs.

However it wouldn't surprise me if it went 6 or 7. Dirk was clearly better than KG after the knee injury. Rondo clearly better than Kidd. Tyson was a little better than the center by committee on the Celtics. Ray and Pierce could keep up or beat Terry/Marion/Barea.

2-3-2 format would also benefit the Celtics since Mavs won 57 games to the Celtics 56 in the season... Honestly I'd like to pick the Celtics, but those Mavs just hit something special.

I agree that it would've went to 6 or 7.

Honestly, I get the feeling that those Mavs are a little overrated somehow. They swept the Lakers, which is a huge accomplishment, but really they didn't face much competition other than that.

Obviously Dirk had a great run, and I'm not taking that away from him. But they played against a Blazers team that lost their best player to injury, a baby Thunders team that had no real experience, and a choking LeBron....

I was just thinking how easily the Heat would've dismantled the Mavs had LeBron played to his normal standards... I feel like the Bulls or the Celtics would've had a good chance against the Mavs that year had they just gotten past the Heat.

[Fire Colangelo]

I've said it before and I will continue to say it, this Celtics team would've won it all had they not traded for Green. They were playing the best ball in the league before the all star break.

Agreed.

I think the C's with Green went for something like 15-10 (don't remember could be wrong) to end the season while Perkins with OKC went for 13-4 to end the season.

As much as we make fun of OKC Perkins, dude was pretty legit in a Celtics jersey. Could've been a legit 10/10 defensive big men.

[ProfessorMurder]

I agree that it would've went to 6 or 7.

Honestly, I get the feeling that those Mavs are a little overrated somehow. They swept the Lakers, which is a huge accomplishment, but really they didn't face much competition other than that.

Obviously Dirk had a great run, and I'm not taking that away from him. But they played against a Blazers team that lost their best player to injury, a baby Thunders team that had no real experience, and a choking LeBron....

I was just thinking how easily the Heat would've dismantled the Mavs had LeBron played to his normal standards... I feel like the Bulls or the Celtics would've had a good chance against the Mavs that year had they just gotten past the Heat.

The Celtics definitely wouldn't have had total meltdowns and collapses like Bran did. They had been there before. During the regular season they lost twice to the Mavs, but only by like 6 total points.

Their offense wasn't super efficient, but their defense second in the league. Which would match up well with Dallas.

Jeff Green sucked. Krstic/JO at center though, yeesh. That was bad. JO was solid in limited minutes, but that was it. Putting KG on Tyson wouldn't be terrible, but that would leave Big Baby on Dirk.

Dirk did seem a little gassed by the finals though...

It would be interesting.

[JohnnySic]

I've said it before and I will continue to say it, this Celtics team would've won it all had they not traded for Green. They were playing the best ball in the league before the all star break.

LOL. Lets clear this up once and for all - Perkins sucks. He always sucked. Even when he was "good", he actually sucked - he was a product of playing next to KG, which masked his shortcomings. He was no better than Krstic. Perkins is NOT the reason they lost that year, and having him would not have changed a thing.

Green had difficulty fitting in but he was not the reason either.

Mainly, it was Rondo's broken arm and Shaq's unavailability. Shaq fit in seamlessly with KG/PP/Allen/Rondo. That is the principle reason for thier success early on that year.

[Hamtaro CP3KDKG]

Rooted for the Cs that season but Dirk wouldve killed em worse than he did in the RS. KG can only do so much on the defensive end against arguably a top 5 offensive player ever (speaking of 11 Dirk here). You need an elite allaround D to even hope to contain him that year and even then he was drawing defensive attention like prime Shaq and the role players would eat if that happened cuz Dirk was a great passer and one of the leaders in hockey assists that season

Plus offensively the Cs wouldnt hold up well to Mavs great zone defense they played all year. Rondo led offense was garbage more often than not even tho he didnt completely get the keys like 2012 on