I formatted that badly, sorry. They actually faced (Hollinger year-end power rankings in parentheses):
Boston (13)
Chicago (9)
Atlanta (5)
In a 1-16 system, they would have faced:
Dallas or Chicago (11 or 9)
Atlanta (5)
Houston or San Antonio or Memphis (2 or 6 or 8)
Also, getting out of the West as Golden State did is even tougher than this, even if they had a not so tough opponent in New Orleans in the first round by virtue of their #1 seed. GS has faced a first-team All-NBA player in each round (Davis, Marc Gasol, Harden and now LBJ).
Edit: To be clear, this is a historic argument if anything. I'm a major LeBron fan, but it bugs me a bit that he can largely coast through the regular season and a good chunk of the Eastern playoffs each year, and this year was the most extreme example yet. 12 of the 15 All-NBA players this year were in the West, the only non-Cavs player to make one of the teams was Pau Gasol.
Boston (13)
Chicago (9)
Atlanta (5)
In a 1-16 system, they would have faced:
Dallas or Chicago (11 or 9)
Atlanta (5)
Houston or San Antonio or Memphis (2 or 6 or 8)
Also, getting out of the West as Golden State did is even tougher than this, even if they had a not so tough opponent in New Orleans in the first round by virtue of their #1 seed. GS has faced a first-team All-NBA player in each round (Davis, Marc Gasol, Harden and now LBJ).
Edit: To be clear, this is a historic argument if anything. I'm a major LeBron fan, but it bugs me a bit that he can largely coast through the regular season and a good chunk of the Eastern playoffs each year, and this year was the most extreme example yet. 12 of the 15 All-NBA players this year were in the West, the only non-Cavs player to make one of the teams was Pau Gasol.