By Jonathan Lee
July 7, 2012

This past season showed that despite some advanced age and injuries Boston is still a threat to Miami in the Eastern Conference.  Both teams have been making moves this off-season, but the latest one directly affects both squads.  Ray Allen decided to turn down Boston’s offer of more money to join the Heat in pursuit of another championship.

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The Heat and Celtics rated as the top two teams in the East in AccuScore’s simulations both before and after this move.

The move, while not changing the actual seedings in the conference, puts a large distance between Miami at number one and Boston at number two.  The Heat improve by 1.6 wins while the Celtics drop 1.2 wins on average.  That creates a gap of 5.6 games between the two teams with everybody else in the East including Chicago trailing behind.  The road to an NBA title will definitely again go through LeBron James and Miami.

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