Van Gundy Says Heat Will Win 73+

Jeff Van Gundy, a member of the NBA's playoff broadcasting crew, has reached out with a bold statement about LeBron James and this newly refurbished Miami Heat squad. Van Gundy claims that the Heat will break the Bulls' record for wins in a season (72). Additionally, he said that the Heat have a "legit shit" at breaking the 1971-72 Lakers' record of 33 straight victories and that they will never lose two games in a row this season. On top of all that, he finished up by saying that the Lakers will be the only team that has a remote chance of beating the Heat in a playoff series. In a later interview, though, he added Boston to the mix as having a shot at beating the Heat.

I'm a little torn about this whole thing. As much as Van Gundy drives me crazy during NBA games, he made a few valid points. LeBron won 66 games with his Cleveland crew. It may not be a huge stretch for him to win 7 more with Dwayne Wade replacing the likes of Mo Williams and Delonte West and Chris Bosh replacing guys like Anderson Varejao. In that respect, 73 wins is a legitimate possibility. But I'm still not betting on that. I won't be one of those people to simply deny that the Heat will be good. They Heat will be very good. And they're definitely the favorite to win the title this season. They've (somehow?) built a very good roster around their South Beach Big Three, and I think they're going to be a very difficult team to derail. However, you just cannot write off the Celtics yet. If you ask me, the C's have only improved from last season to this season. Lose Tony Allen and gain the two O'Neals? Yes please. Big man help was exactly what we needed. The only area in question right now may be the backup 2-guard spot. Von Wafer? Not so sure. Either way, the Celtics addressed the areas they had to address and are in good shape moving forward. You can't just pencil the Heat into the finals just yet, people. We got an 82 game season and playoffs. If I'm not mistaken, everyone thought Cleveland would run LeBron James straight to the finals last year. The old, beaten, rag-tag Celtics shut him up. That could easily happen again. Not to mention teams like Orlando, Chicago, Atlanta, and Milwaukee in the East, who have all gotten better. Teams like Oklahoma City and Memphis in the West are seriously on the rise and could emerge as contenders at any time. This league is getting more competitive, despite the imbalance of power that has landed in Miami. It isn't going to be nice stroll on South Beach for the Heat this year. They're going to need to leave it all out on the court, because I know a few of their counterparts who would never think about leaving anything less.