Celtics vs teams with a winning record

[W8ting2McHale]

Does last night count?  No Lavine or Ball.

Do our losses when we were down players count?

Dunno.  Feel free to subtract them out.

Beating a Chicago team down two key starters isn’t that impressive to me.

Not to mention the fact that the Celtics almost lost to the Lavine-less or Ball-less Bulls at the TD Garden

Do we really need “whataboutism” in basketball too?

You can only play who’s on the court. Celtics were down Smart.

If you must play the “If both teams were at full strength” card, Smart could very well neutralize Ball, and LaVine would surely take shots away from Vucevic. Vucevic hitting all those mid range shots kept the game close. LaVine has had good shooting nights against the Celtics, but he could easily end up shooting like Tatum did. Then the Celtics win by 12 instead of 2.

[Roy H.]

Does last night count?  No Lavine or Ball.

Do our losses when we were down players count?

Dunno.  Feel free to subtract them out.

Beating a Chicago team down two key starters isn’t that impressive to me.

Not to mention the fact that the Celtics almost lost to the Lavine-less or Ball-less Bulls at the TD Garden

Do we really need “whataboutism” in basketball too?

You can only play who’s on the court. Celtics were down Smart.

If want to play the “if both teams were at full strength” card, Smart could very well neutralize Ball, and LaVine would surely take shots away from Vucevic. Vucevic hitting all those mid range shots kept the game close. LaVine has had good shooting nights against the Celtics, but he could easily end up shooting like Tatum did. Then the Celtics win by 12 instead of 2.

Is a Chicago team that is starting Dosunmu, McKinney and White really reflective of their season?  They were down three starters and two other rotation players. 

I don't think it says much at all regarding our ability to beat good / winning teams. 

[ozgod]

Stats in this are super difficult in the last 2 years, due to not just injuries, but also, covid.

How many games have been played with 1-or-many people missing?

How lucky/unlucky have we been in this? How often have fully healthy teams beaten a depleted Celtics team? How often was it end-of-bench vs end-of-bench.

That's why I feel you just have to look at the results, it starts to get really complicated trying to accommodate for missing players due to Covid or injury or whatever else. You would have to weight each victory based on strength of team, and calculate that weight of team using some metric like win shares or PER or something. It just gets to the point where it's just easier to say "we beat team x, with the players they had available, with the players we have available".

[Surferdad]

Does last night count?  No Lavine or Ball.

Do our losses when we were down players count?

Dunno.  Feel free to subtract them out.

Beating a Chicago team down two key starters isn’t that impressive to me.

Not to mention the fact that the Celtics almost lost to the Lavine-less or Ball-less Bulls at the TD Garden

Do we really need “whataboutism” in basketball too?

You can only play who’s on the court. Celtics were down Smart.

If want to play the “if both teams were at full strength” card, Smart could very well neutralize Ball, and LaVine would surely take shots away from Vucevic. Vucevic hitting all those mid range shots kept the game close. LaVine has had good shooting nights against the Celtics, but he could easily end up shooting like Tatum did. Then the Celtics win by 12 instead of 2.

Is a Chicago team that is starting Dosunmu, McKinney and White really reflective of their season?  They were down three starters and two other rotation players. 

I don't think it says much at all regarding our ability to beat good / winning teams.

I agree with W8 here. White has been a good player and we saw how good Dosunmu is. The Bulls are in first place. This FACT has less to do with talent and more with coaching and mental mind-set. C's beat them fair-and-square and that's impressive.

[Duke4]

Celts are 2-1 vs. Bucks (defending champs) and 1-1 vs. Suns & Bulls (current conference leaders).....Suns were in last year's finals...small sample I know but they can hold their own when they play smart ball....just found it interesting...