Couldn't find a good thread for this, so I started a new one. The Mavs and Rockets are actually 4 and 5 in the NBA in point differential, behind San Antonio, Phoenix, and Miami. San Antonio leads the league at +7.80. The 72-10 Bulls team had a point different of over +12! To give you an idea of how good these teams have been down the stretch, I compiled the point differential for these teams down the stretch- March 1 to the end of the season. The Mavs have a pretty blistering +8.6 over 27 games, going 20-7. That's a 61 win pace. The Rockets meanwhile, compiled a 19-7 record over 26 games, with a monstrous +9.5 for a 60 win pace. 14 of the 19 wins were by double digits, 12 were by 14 or more, and 8 were by 19+. In contrast, 3 of the Rockets 7 losses were by 5 or less. For a comparison of the other top teams in the league (I left out San Antonio and Miami because both have kind of tip toed to the end with injuries to Duncan/Shaq) ... The Phoenix Suns went 19-6 over 25 games, and put up a +6.0, or +7.3 if you ignore their game 82 loss by 25 to Sacramento. The Detroit Pistons went 19-9 over 28 games (which included an 11 game win streak, a 5 game win streak and 2 3 game losing streaks) put up a modest +3.4. During their respective late season win streaks... Pistons: +13.5 (11 games) Rockets: +16.5 (7 games) Mavericks: +13 (9 games) Personally, I think whoever wins this series will roll the Suns. Dallas and Houston are playing the best basketball in the West right now, and it's gonna make for one heck of a series.
