Colin Cowherd believes three teams are capable of winning the NBA championship this season: the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers and Boston Celtics.
Surprised?
The Bucks and Clippers probably seem obvious, as Milwaukee owns the NBA’s best record and Los Angeles has been considered a legitimate title contender since landing Kawhi Leonard and Paul George during the offseason. But the Celtics, currently in third place in the Eastern Conference, are somewhat of a wild card.
Yet Cowherd explained Monday on FS1 the Celtics are “inside” his NBA championship “bubble” alongside the Bucks and Clippers. Meanwhile, he listed five other playoff teams — the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers — who don’t hold that distinction.
“Boston Celtics, they’re my dark horse to win it. They’re inside my bubble,” Cowherd said. “One of the reasons I like them, especially now, if they lost a guy to an injury or COVID, they’re (still) in pretty good shape. They’re the only team to have three players average 20-plus points. Averaging 20-plus points in the NBA is a real thing; that’s like an All-Star.
“Kemba (Walker), (Jayson) Tatum and (Jaylen) Brown. And if Gordon Hayward drops 24 (points), you wouldn’t be shocked. They were also 5-2 against the best teams in the Eastern Conference. I think they’re a dark horse team to win it.”
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Lakers: Outside
Celtics: Inside@ColinCowherd fills out his NBA Championship Bubble heading into Orlando: pic.twitter.com/GyIvkdynyc— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) July 13, 2020
Cowherd isn’t alone in his high evaluation of Boston ahead of the NBA’s restart later this month. The Celtics are becoming an increasingly popular NBA Finals pick, largely for the reasons outlined by Cowherd, who didn’t even mention Marcus Smart’s tenacious defense or Brad Stevens’ coaching acumen.
Is there suddenly too much hype surrounding the C’s? We’ll find out soon enough.
