76ers (15-15) at Celtics (15-15) Game #31 12/20/21

[pokeKingCurtis]

I think we all should get used to this type of result. This is a decent team, but nothing special. These guys will get the occasional big win against a top team, like the recent win over Milwaukee, but that sort of thing happens for most teams over the course of a full season—good teams have occasional bad days, and bad teams have occasional good days, and sometimes the two things align. Most Celtics games, however, against the upper-tier teams will be like this one—close, but no cigar (think the Utah game, then Golden State, and now Philly). They'll have some valiant play and some inspired comebacks, but usually they'll fall short.

Why? Bad health and lack of top-end talent.

This team cannot get healthy and stay healthy; they've proven that year after year, even before covid. And even if it somehow pulled off great health, it doesn't have enough firepower—just two pretty good players in Tatum and Brown, followed by a bunch of inconsistent role players, most of whom can't consistently shoot their way out of a paper bag. So unless Tatum and/or Brown becomes a top-5-ish player, or Boston acquires a high-impact player to go along with those two—and Boston finally gets a run of good luck on the health front—games like tonight's are going to be the rule rather than the exception.

I just can't get with you on the point about them "proving" to be unable to get "healthy". From Hayward's leg snapping to Tatum's long stretch of COVID last year most of these key injuries are just bad luck.

The main holdover players are Tatum, Brown and Smart, who have been pretty healthy. Even Timelord with his injury-discounted contract has been pretty available this year.

The injury prone players were Kemba and Hayward and they're gone. Our resident senior Al Horford is actually having a monster season for his age, a testament to his body being kept in great shape.

I would argue Kyrie's enlarged ego is probably the only "injury" that could have been dealt with through "ability" or "effort" or whatever.

Unless you're implying there's issues with the medical staff? I just can't understand how's past issues with health indicative of present ability to stay healthy if there's so much roster turnover?

[nickagneta]

I think everyone needs to remember that the start to this season has been one of the toughest in the NBA. They have also been on a monster run having, in their last 13 games played:

Brooklyn
Philadelphia twice
Toronto
Portland
Utah
LAL
LAC
Phoenix
Milwaukee
Golden State

And included a 5 game west coast swing that is never easy even for the best east coast team.

The schedule the 2nd half of the season is much easier and a healthy Celtics team should be able to go on an extended winning run then. At least, I am hoping they will.

[RJ87]

I think we all should get used to this type of result. This is a decent team, but nothing special. These guys will get the occasional big win against a top team, like the recent win over Milwaukee, but that sort of thing happens for most teams over the course of a full season—good teams have occasional bad days, and bad teams have occasional good days, and sometimes the two things align. Most Celtics games, however, against the upper-tier teams will be like this one—close, but no cigar (think the Utah game, then Golden State, and now Philly). They'll have some valiant play and some inspired comebacks, but usually they'll fall short.

Why? Bad health and lack of top-end talent.

This team cannot get healthy and stay healthy; they've proven that year after year, even before covid. And even if it somehow pulled off great health, it doesn't have enough firepower—just two pretty good players in Tatum and Brown, followed by a bunch of inconsistent role players, most of whom can't consistently shoot their way out of a paper bag. So unless Tatum and/or Brown becomes a top-5-ish player, or Boston acquires a high-impact player to go along with those two—and Boston finally gets a run of good luck on the health front—games like tonight's are going to be the rule rather than the exception.

I just can't get with you on the point about them "proving" to be unable to get "healthy". From Hayward's leg snapping to Tatum's long stretch of COVID last year most of these key injuries are just bad luck.

The main holdover players are Tatum, Brown and Smart, who have been pretty healthy. Even Timelord with his injury-discounted contract has been pretty available this year.

The injury prone players were Kemba and Hayward and they're gone. Our resident senior Al Horford is actually having a monster season for his age, a testament to his body being kept in great shape.

I would argue Kyrie's enlarged ego is probably the only "injury" that could have been dealt with through "ability" or "effort" or whatever.

Unless you're implying there's issues with the medical staff? I just can't understand how's past issues with health indicative of present ability to stay healthy if there's so much roster turnover?

Brown missed parts of last season because of his knee in the beginning. Smart missed about 20 or so games last season due to his calf. Then Tatum got Covid and took time to look llke himself again, then Brown missed the last 10 or so games + the playoffs after breaking his wrist. To start this season, Brown has missed half the games due to his hamstring and played injured in quite a few. You also mentioned Rob, he isn't missing as much time but he's missed nearly a third of our games this year.

They just haven't been able get healthy and stay healthy at the same time.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I think we all should get used to this type of result. This is a decent team, but nothing special. These guys will get the occasional big win against a top team, like the recent win over Milwaukee, but that sort of thing happens for most teams over the course of a full season—good teams have occasional bad days, and bad teams have occasional good days, and sometimes the two things align. Most Celtics games, however, against the upper-tier teams will be like this one—close, but no cigar (think the Utah game, then Golden State, and now Philly). They'll have some valiant play and some inspired comebacks, but usually they'll fall short.

Why? Bad health and lack of top-end talent.

This team cannot get healthy and stay healthy; they've proven that year after year, even before covid. And even if it somehow pulled off great health, it doesn't have enough firepower—just two pretty good players in Tatum and Brown, followed by a bunch of inconsistent role players, most of whom can't consistently shoot their way out of a paper bag. So unless Tatum and/or Brown becomes a top-5-ish player, or Boston acquires a high-impact player to go along with those two—and Boston finally gets a run of good luck on the health front—games like tonight's are going to be the rule rather than the exception.

I just can't get with you on the point about them "proving" to be unable to get "healthy". From Hayward's leg snapping to Tatum's long stretch of COVID last year most of these key injuries are just bad luck.

The main holdover players are Tatum, Brown and Smart, who have been pretty healthy. Even Timelord with his injury-discounted contract has been pretty available this year.

The injury prone players were Kemba and Hayward and they're gone. Our resident senior Al Horford is actually having a monster season for his age, a testament to his body being kept in great shape.

I would argue Kyrie's enlarged ego is probably the only "injury" that could have been dealt with through "ability" or "effort" or whatever.

Unless you're implying there's issues with the medical staff? I just can't understand how's past issues with health indicative of present ability to stay healthy if there's so much roster turnover?

I'm not hung up on labeling the phenomenon. All I know is that this team can't stay healthy. I know that covid is affecting all teams, but (last season and this one) it has been impacting the Celtics more than most teams (I have a theory on that, but not everyone agrees). As for the injuries, maybe it's a problem with the medical staff; I really don't know. But while I agree with your basic logic that past health issues aren't necessarily indicative of ability to stay healthy in the present, especially with high roster turnover, I also know that "bad health" has been a major part of Boston's story for many years now.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I think we all should get used to this type of result. This is a decent team, but nothing special. These guys will get the occasional big win against a top team, like the recent win over Milwaukee, but that sort of thing happens for most teams over the course of a full season—good teams have occasional bad days, and bad teams have occasional good days, and sometimes the two things align. Most Celtics games, however, against the upper-tier teams will be like this one—close, but no cigar (think the Utah game, then Golden State, and now Philly). They'll have some valiant play and some inspired comebacks, but usually they'll fall short.

Why? Bad health and lack of top-end talent.

This team cannot get healthy and stay healthy; they've proven that year after year, even before covid. And even if it somehow pulled off great health, it doesn't have enough firepower—just two pretty good players in Tatum and Brown, followed by a bunch of inconsistent role players, most of whom can't consistently shoot their way out of a paper bag. So unless Tatum and/or Brown becomes a top-5-ish player, or Boston acquires a high-impact player to go along with those two—and Boston finally gets a run of good luck on the health front—games like tonight's are going to be the rule rather than the exception.

I just can't get with you on the point about them "proving" to be unable to get "healthy". From Hayward's leg snapping to Tatum's long stretch of COVID last year most of these key injuries are just bad luck.

The main holdover players are Tatum, Brown and Smart, who have been pretty healthy. Even Timelord with his injury-discounted contract has been pretty available this year.

The injury prone players were Kemba and Hayward and they're gone. Our resident senior Al Horford is actually having a monster season for his age, a testament to his body being kept in great shape.

I would argue Kyrie's enlarged ego is probably the only "injury" that could have been dealt with through "ability" or "effort" or whatever.

Unless you're implying there's issues with the medical staff? I just can't understand how's past issues with health indicative of present ability to stay healthy if there's so much roster turnover?

Brown missed parts of last season because of his knee in the beginning. Smart missed about 20 or so games last season due to his calf. Then Tatum got Covid and took time to look llke himself again, then Brown missed the last 10 or so games + the playoffs after breaking his wrist. To start this season, Brown has missed half the games due to his hamstring and played injured in quite a few. You also mentioned Rob, he isn't missing as much time but he's missed nearly a third of our games this year.

They just haven't been able get healthy and stay healthy at the same time.

Good point—the young core (Brown/Tatum/Smart) has been a big part of the health issue. Seems like health would be less of a concern with a young team, but Boston disagrees.

[pokeKingCurtis]

I think we all should get used to this type of result. This is a decent team, but nothing special. These guys will get the occasional big win against a top team, like the recent win over Milwaukee, but that sort of thing happens for most teams over the course of a full season—good teams have occasional bad days, and bad teams have occasional good days, and sometimes the two things align. Most Celtics games, however, against the upper-tier teams will be like this one—close, but no cigar (think the Utah game, then Golden State, and now Philly). They'll have some valiant play and some inspired comebacks, but usually they'll fall short.

Why? Bad health and lack of top-end talent.

This team cannot get healthy and stay healthy; they've proven that year after year, even before covid. And even if it somehow pulled off great health, it doesn't have enough firepower—just two pretty good players in Tatum and Brown, followed by a bunch of inconsistent role players, most of whom can't consistently shoot their way out of a paper bag. So unless Tatum and/or Brown becomes a top-5-ish player, or Boston acquires a high-impact player to go along with those two—and Boston finally gets a run of good luck on the health front—games like tonight's are going to be the rule rather than the exception.

I just can't get with you on the point about them "proving" to be unable to get "healthy". From Hayward's leg snapping to Tatum's long stretch of COVID last year most of these key injuries are just bad luck.

The main holdover players are Tatum, Brown and Smart, who have been pretty healthy. Even Timelord with his injury-discounted contract has been pretty available this year.

The injury prone players were Kemba and Hayward and they're gone. Our resident senior Al Horford is actually having a monster season for his age, a testament to his body being kept in great shape.

I would argue Kyrie's enlarged ego is probably the only "injury" that could have been dealt with through "ability" or "effort" or whatever.

Unless you're implying there's issues with the medical staff? I just can't understand how's past issues with health indicative of present ability to stay healthy if there's so much roster turnover?

Brown missed parts of last season because of his knee in the beginning. Smart missed about 20 or so games last season due to his calf. Then Tatum got Covid and took time to look llke himself again, then Brown missed the last 10 or so games + the playoffs after breaking his wrist. To start this season, Brown has missed half the games due to his hamstring and played injured in quite a few. You also mentioned Rob, he isn't missing as much time but he's missed nearly a third of our games this year.

They just haven't been able get healthy and stay healthy at the same time.

Good point—the young core (Brown/Tatum/Smart) has been a big part of the health issue. Seems like health would be less of a concern with a young team, but Boston disagrees.

The only one that might concern me is the Brown injuries.

Injuries would only concern me if they have an injury that's chronic, recurring and/or degenerative (Kemba, Michael Porter, Timelord), or they are sort of "all over" injured due to play style or whatever other reason (Bogut comes to mind) ... Or like Hayward where it's a bit of both.

It's possible Brown is catching a bit of the Bogut bug, remains to be seen.

Smart has been fairly healthy for the most part, and it's a bit ridiculous to call Tatum's covid bout anything but a one off.

The way I see it is this core only started taking the reigns last season or the season before. From a health perspective, they were bombarded with covid and started this season with health issues. Last season there were also leadership issues of course and generally issues with attitude, but just from a health perspective...losing Tatum to covid sucked.