I think the elite teams are more serious this year

[cleaveland]

A Doc Rivers quote from a few weeks ago was very telling:

"This year’s not like last year where you can coast. You don’t have home court this year, you could go home."

http://greenstreet.weei.com/sports/boston/basketball/celtics/2011/01/11/with-an-eye-on-big-picture-doc-rivers-admits-i-dont-like-where-were-at-right-now/

I don't know if anyone one's noticed it but the elite teams are more serious this year:

Spurs, Lakers, Mavs (before the injuries), Celtics, Heat, Magic

There's a lot less coasting going on then in the past, imho. I bring this up because I'm trying to decide if the Lakers will be motivated to keep their winning streak going and I think the Lakers are like the other elite teams, they're actually trying to win (almost) every game this year, imagine that.

Any thoughts on this?

[cleaveland]

Another telling comment from Rivers (speaking about today's game with the Magic):

"It's just a regular-season game," Rivers said. "There's history between us and all that stuff, so you always want to win. The game doesn't have real meaning, but guys get fired up, at least I hope ours do. I know the other teams do for sure."

http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nba/columns/story?columnist=forsberg_chris&id=6029230