Players always say "until proven otherwise" they are the champs, its about respect for what they have done. THis is how the players want to be treated after they win: they are the champs until proven otherwise. The spurs are a very good team, but their record against the top 8 is worse than any of the 8 except for the suns. And their defense has slipped, they are no longer the defensive juggernaut they were. The suns "top eight" record is primarily without shaq, when the team was outrebounded by a wide margin every night. Its likely that the suns with shaq are a substantially different team, so who knows what their record would be. Recently Antonio McDyess said the suns looked like "the team to beat out west", after shaq was shaqlimated. I think the hornets are the team to beat, unless the lakers can get healthy fast, very fast. the hornets have all the pieces, and CP3 is unbelievable. The spurs are right there though, they still have their big 3, all of them clutch.
In a matchup sense, the suns matchup well with the spurs as they have shaq for duncan and raja for manu, and the spurs have no one for amare. the lakers match up well with the jazz as the jazz dont have a decent defender at the '2', every outstanding '2' has torched them, and the best '2', kobe, just is incendiary against the jazz. The Jazz match up well with the warriors, because Deron WIlliams can play Baron Davis physical, and the jazz can abuse them down low with Boozer.
