NBA Tournament of Champions: Bob Cousy Bracket Finals

What a ride the NBA Tournament of Champions has been thus far. Sixty four teams entered, and right now only nine are left standing, but one more must fall before the end of the week. The Cooz couldn't get any of his teams to move onto this stage, but his franchise did get an incarnation this far in his bracket. However, they have an incredibly tough task ahead. Can they knock off arguably the best team ever assembled? There's only one way to find out.

As the prior 47 series have been, this is a best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court going to the team with the better overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. To see how we got here, you can click on the links for first and second round results. Let's round this out.

'08 Boston Celtics (82-26) vs '96 Chicago Bulls (87-13)
Game 1: @ '96 Bulls 108, '08 Celtics 104 (CHI leads 1-0)
Game 2: @ '96 Bulls 108, '08 Celtics 88 (CHI leads 2-0)
Game 3: '96 Bulls 113, @ '08 Celtics 96 (CHI leads 3-0)
Game 4: @ '08 Celtics 90, '96 Bulls 86 (CHI leads 3-1)
Game 5: @ '96 Bulls 101, '08 Celtics 80 (CHI wins 4-1)
The Bulls were gunning to be the only team to make it through the bracket stage unbeaten, but MJ and Scottie went cold in Game 4 and Kevin Garnett went off to help Boston avoid the sweep. The Bulls actually fell behind by 21 at halftime of Game 1 and battled back to win. Otherwise it was pretty much cruise control for these guys.

To see the updated bracket, click here.

It took 311 games over 56 series to narrow down the field to the final 8 teams. Quick math says that the average series lasted about 5 1/2 games (which, thinking about it, makes sense). Looking over the bracket as a whole, we saw 16 sweeps and 8 that went the distance. Quite a tournament, and there's still as many as 56 games left to be played. Before we get to that though, we need to look through this bracket and determine the best quintet of guys. Ultimately this decision forced me to fudge positions a little bit again. Each player is accompanied by his per game averages and shooting splits (field goals/threes/free throws). So one last time, here's the Bob Cousy All Bracket Team:

• PG: Michael Jordan ('96 CHI, 13 G): 30.1 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 4.4 APG, 0.3 BPG, 1.4 SPG; 48/42/84
• SG: Paul Pierce ('08 BOS, 16 G): 17.2 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 4.8 APG, 0.4 BPG, 1.8 SPG; 45/37/80
• SF: Scottie Pippen ('96 CHI, 13 G): 19.4 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 5/3 APG, 0.6 BPG, 2.2 SPG; 54/40/71
• PF: Kevin Garnett ('08 BOS, 16 G): 16.6 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 4.3 APG, 1.7 BPG, 1.7 SPG; 50/0/78
• C: Bill Walton ('77 POR, 12 G): 18.4 PPG, 15.7 RPG, 3.9 APG, 3.8 BPG, 0.9 SPG; 55/0/67

Bob Cousy Bracket MVP: Michael Jordan, '96 CHI. There were no good point guard candidates, so I moved him over (which is fair, since he would bring the ball up a lot for the Bulls). Really, he was a no-brainer MVP though because of his prolific scoring bursts at opportune times, even though he scored progressively less as the series went on. He also crashed the boards with authority, and his shooting numbers were excellent. Who else would you want?

I'm off to South Haven, Michigan now this weekend to enjoy the beach, awesome ice cream, and the company of great friends and my wonderful fiancee. At some point in the next week or 2, I will be back with the results from the quarterfinals of the NBA Tournament of Champions. Enjoy your weekend!