2024 Playoffs- 4th Round: Boston Celtics - Dallas Mavericks

[HoosierDaddyKidd]

I would argue that they are not "head and shoulder's the best team in the NBA this year." A team's record is a construct of their competition. Here's another way to look at it. If OKC had been in the Eastern Conference, I could easily imagine them winning 7 more games and being a 64-win team. 

Boston had losses to almost all the playoff teams in the west - Minnesota, Denver, LAC, OKC, Golden State, and the Lakers. Dallas and Phoenix were the lone exceptions. While Boston is the East's best team by far, I would argue that they merely get lumped with maybe five very good NBA teams playing at the end of the season. They are certainly not the 2017 Golden State Warriors or even last year's Denver team.

Your opinion. You're entitled to it. As far as the conferences are concerned, The East doesn't have the depth the West does, that's pretty obvious. But you still have to play the team in front of you regardless. All the good teams you mentioned had the same or similar losses, some to even lesser teams. That's irrelevant. It's a long season. As far as comparing them with other championship teams, that story has yet to be written. I will say the pressure is on them to get it done after reaching the Finals two out of the last three years.