a good, experienced team can sorta take it easy in the reg. season, knowing they're basically ensured a top 4 seed. a new team doesn't have that luxury. they HAVE to focus on gelling completely in the regular season in order to have playoff success. the 08 celts are a good example: they stormed in and took the top spot from the pistons. the heat are on the other end, as we should've known something was up when they let the bulls steal away the 1 seed (no excuse for their finals performance, just saying everything wasn't as perfect as everyone's painting it now). in fairness, they did destroy the bulls in the playoffs, but couldn't that be more emblematic of problems with that bulls team rather than a credit to how good the heat were? more than 1 team can flame out in a single postseason.