Which Celtics Team Should have Won the Title?

[RebusRankin]

Given the downtime, for interest sake, which Celtics team should have won the title but didn't? I'll throw out 1958, 1973, 1987 and 2010 as starting points. Discuss away.

[Brendan]

don't know about 58, but +1 on the other three.

[birdbrady]

It starts and ends with 1973.  It is simple - they lost their best player to injury in the middle of the ECF v a vastly inferior Knicks team, and still ended up pushing the series to 7 games.  The 73 Celtics may very well be the best NBA team ever to not win a title, maybe besides the 69 Lakers.

[wahz]

Beyond 58 and 73 it becomes a bit more of a stretch. Russell is hurt in 58, Havlicek in 73, or we win, and quite probably easily.

other teams that had the right stuff

81-82: We lose in 7 to Philly who goes on to lose to LA. A stretch right? Well we had the big 3 on that team along with Archibald, Maxwell, Gerald Henderson, Ainge, Carr, Robey and Chris Ford. We were deep, folks. But Fitch was in the process of burning the guys up and Tiny got hurt and missed 1/3 of the playoffs

82-83. See above. Wedman and Buckner on the team too, no Ford. Fitch just messed them up which was about to be proven.

86-87: Waltons injury made a great team beatable

the 08-09, and 09-10 teams. Kg's injury

[slamtheking]

Beyond 58 and 73 it becomes a bit more of a stretch. Russell is hurt in 58, Havlicek in 73, or we win, and quite probably easily.

other teams that had the right stuff

81-82: We lose in 7 to Philly who goes on to lose to LA. A stretch right? Well we had the big 3 on that team along with Archibald, Maxwell, Gerald Henderson, Ainge, Carr, Robey and Chris Ford. We were deep, folks. But Fitch was in the process of burning the guys up and Tiny got hurt and missed 1/3 of the playoffs

82-83. See above. Wedman and Buckner on the team too, no Ford. Fitch just messed them up which was about to be proven.

86-87: Waltons injury made a great team beatable

the 08-09, and 09-10 teams. Kg's injury

I believe it was the 83 playoffs where Tiny was injured because that was the year we were swept by the Bucks that year.  That led to the trade Robey for DJ for the following year.

For '87, I think Mchale's injury was more critical to their title chances.  DJ's injury too for that matter.

I'd throw '85 into the mix as well.  Max's injury stopped us that year.  (leading to the Max for Walton deal for the '86 season)

For that matter, throw in '80 with Cowens' last year with the team.  I think if that team had gotten past Philly, they'd have beaten the Lakers.

[manbehindtheman]

Beyond 58 and 73 it becomes a bit more of a stretch. Russell is hurt in 58, Havlicek in 73, or we win, and quite probably easily.

other teams that had the right stuff

81-82: We lose in 7 to Philly who goes on to lose to LA. A stretch right? Well we had the big 3 on that team along with Archibald, Maxwell, Gerald Henderson, Ainge, Carr, Robey and Chris Ford. We were deep, folks. But Fitch was in the process of burning the guys up and Tiny got hurt and missed 1/3 of the playoffs

82-83. See above. Wedman and Buckner on the team too, no Ford. Fitch just messed them up which was about to be proven.

86-87: Waltons injury made a great team beatable

the 08-09, and 09-10 teams. Kg's injury

I don't like to blame injuries because it is practically a given that the healthy team at the end wins the championship. 

I'm trying to think of a time I thought the refs blew it for a team in the finals, but off the top of my head I can't remember any such occasion.

[wahz]

I think last year and the Mia Dallas series and LA Sac series stand out as the only ones effected by the refs that I recall in watching the NBA since 1968. We lose last year, imho, because of the refs in addition to Perks injury. Mia, and LA twice have been gifted championships

[jambr380]

Last year may prove to be more the worst, when looking back at this 'era', but '87 has always really bothered me. It seemed like an obvious title run and they just couldn't get over the nagging injuries. They pretty much went downhill from there. Last year's loss may very well parallel '87.

[mgent]

I think it's the 09 Celtics, that team got off to such a crazy start it's sad they had to lose their best player toward the end.  I still think we could have gone all the way if Leon didn't go down.

Followed of course by the 10 Celtics, who I think would have won without Perk if Artest didn't take Ray Allen COMPLETELY out of the series (and we NEVER stopped going to him, all the way up to game 7, because his name is Ray Allen, even though at that point we probably would have been better off starting Tony or Nate).  In fact the series would have been over before Perk even went down.

Funny how without injuries we'd probably be looking at a 4th peat (with homecourt all the way).  Although if that was the logic maybe the Blazers would be the best team in the league.

[PosImpos]

'09 if KG didn't get injured -- even though the bench that year was unrelentingly awful.

[mgent]

'09 if KG didn't get injured -- even though the bench that year was unrelentingly awful.

At least we still had Powe.  Once he was gone our bench lost all sense of rebounding and interior presence.

[tenn_smoothie]

It starts and ends with 1973.  It is simple - they lost their best player to injury in the middle of the ECF v a vastly inferior Knicks team, and still ended up pushing the series to 7 games.  The 73 Celtics may very well be the best NBA team ever to not win a title, maybe besides the 69 Lakers.

exactly.

until the 2010 game 7 loss, the 1973 ECF game 7 loss to the Knicks was my personal most painful Celtics loss in history.

also, not sure i'll ever understand what happened against the Bullets in '75.

while we are at it, why is it that the 1970's Celtics title teams so often are left out of the conversation when the Celtics dynasty is discussed, whether on tv, radio, this board or generally among fans ? the '73 & '74 teams, if healthy, would have given the 1965, 1986 or 2008 Celtics all they wanted and more.

[TitleMaster]

until the 2010 game 7 loss, the 1973 ECF game 7 loss to the Knicks was my personal most painful Celtics loss in history.

also, not sure i'll ever understand what happened against the Bullets in '75.

while we are at it, why is it that the 1970's Celtics title teams so often are left out of the conversation when the Celtics dynasty is discussed, whether on tv, radio, this board or generally among fans ?

Cowens was playing on a fractured ankle in '75. His job was to cover Wes Unseld, possibly his only true equal during that run, not possible w/o a healthy ankle.

So in effect, Havlicek's elbow in '73 & Cowen's ankle in '75 stopped a four-peat in the mid-70s.

I think what a lot of C's fans don't realize is those years, '73 to '76, were the Paul Silas era. It was truly a rare feat that with both Cowens and Silas on the floor, we could mop up 25-30 boards per game between the two stars.

I'd say that that differentiates the 70s squad from that of today. Other than the title team of '08, we never had a true rounding machine, making both our defense and offense run on all cylinders. The 70s squads had that and unlike Rondo, JoJo was an inside-out thread on all ends.

[Junkyard Dawg]

how is it even a contest?  C's were up 3 games to 2 headed to LA with all the momentum, Perk goes down and chaos breaks lose.  Game 7 we lose by 4 points.  1 or 2 rebounds, a put-back, a single blocked shot changes the outcome of that series.  Honestly, a patented Perkins staredown could have changed the outcome of that series.

That is a loss that will keep die-hard fans up at night for years to come.

[Surferdad]

how is it even a contest?  C's were up 3 games to 2 headed to LA with all the momentum, Perk goes down and chaos breaks lose.  Game 7 we lose by 4 points.  1 or 2 rebounds, a put-back, a single blocked shot changes the outcome of that series.  Honestly, a patented Perkins staredown could have changed the outcome of that series.

That is a loss that will keep die-hard fans up at night for years to come.

I agree, and I really don't want to turn this into yet another debate about that series BUT, that series was lost in Game 6.  As influential as Perk's injury was, I had no confidence going into Game 7 and apparently the team didn't either.