Phil Jackson dismisses talk of 70

[Andrew]

Phil Doesn't Think Lakers Can Reach 70

The Lakers are 15-2, but Phil Jackson doesn't see his team as being capable of winning 70 games.

"I don't think there's any chance that we're going to get anywhere close to 70 wins," he said. "I'm not going to say that we can't win 60, but I don't think that there's a chance [at 70] -- and that's if everything goes well health-wise. Traveling in the West is just too difficult. Changing time zones, it just makes it very difficult to be consistent night in and night out on the road."

Probably not a bad idea to downplay that for now. The way the Lakers and Celtics are playing right now, either of them hitting 70 would certainly seem a possibility but the same has been said about several times the last few years and it doesn't end up happening. If they can get to the All-Star break with only three or four losses then the 70 talk will definitely heat up but until then it's not a bad idea to brush it aside and just go out there and take care of business.

[Sam The Man]

Did anyone see the small article on ESPN, about the possibility of teams reaching 70 wins. Surprisingly, the Cavaliers have the biggest short out of any NBA team, to get to the 70W mark. Hollinger has a very good point about the Lakers wanting to rest the stars of the team, if they have a large margin as the top seed in the West. While Boston and Cleveland will most likely both be battling for the top seed in the East.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/s ... iem-081205

[StupidBoy]

Of the two, I think only Celtics have the possibilty to win 70 games.
The Lakers will have the top seed locked, dare I say, a month before the playoffs. There's no team at all, that's a threat to them in the West.
On the other side, Celtics and Cavaliers will both fight for the top seed, and I think Cavaliers will prevail, because they have a much better bench. Through the last few games, LeBron (and Z too), has rested pretty much all of 4th quarter and is avereging around 35MPG, compared to last years 40MPG. But he still does everything he ussulay does, but with 5 minutes less. So he'll be pretty well rested for the end of the season. That's because they have a great bench, they have Boobie, Andy, Wally and others. And don't forget, they WILL trade Wally for a second star. Wally also said, that if he does get traded, he will ask for a buyout and return to Cleveland, same with Joe Smith. Talk about depth.

[Doobie]

Can you find the article where Wally said that?? And I truly see no potential star on there way to Cleveland besides Vince Carter or possible Antawn Jamison if the Wizards deside to rebuild there team.

[Andrew]

Did anyone see the small article on ESPN, about the possibility of teams reaching 70 wins. Surprisingly, the Cavaliers have the biggest short out of any NBA team, to get to the 70W mark. Hollinger has a very good point about the Lakers wanting to rest the stars of the team, if they have a large margin as the top seed in the West. While Boston and Cleveland will most likely both be battling for the top seed in the East.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/s ... iem-081205

I read that too and I'd have to agree, the competitive fire to win 70+ might not be there if they've locked up the first seed and want to hold their starters out. Plus, as the Indiana game demonstrated sometimes the unthinkable happens particularly late in the season if their focus is wavering as they look ahead to the playoffs. Both the Lakers and Celtics are currently on the same pace as the '96 Bulls but right now I'm guessing that neither reaches that plateau. As I said, let them get to the All-Star break with three or four, maybe five losses at the most, then 70 seems a more likely possibility.

[Alejandrov011]

Everybody is talking of Lakers and Celtics..

Look the Cavs... They're 17-3

[Andrew]

True, the Cavs are in there as well given their record and the way they're playing but the Lakers and Celtics are currently on the same pace as the 1995/1996 Bulls through the same amount of games, have the best records their respective conference and were in the Finals last season, so they tend to grab most of the attention, even though Cleveland isn't far behind.

[Bodz]

Eastern Conference Insider: Celtics, Cavs enter 70-win talk

http://www.nba.com/2008/news/features/r ... index.html

[Andrew]

As already suggested, they both probably have an advantage over the Lakers in that they're in the same conference and will be pushing each other to strive for the best record and the number one seed but those projections still seem optimistic to me. If they've got less than five losses at the All-Star break and hit 60 wins before 10 losses then we could be looking at another 70 win team, or maybe a tied/broken record. As we've seen the last few years though, rough patches here and there cause the losses to add up and push the record out of reach though in all fairness as much as it's too early to pencil them in for the record, it's too early to write them off either.