I was looking at the Celtics‘ schedule for December and realized that this upcoming stretch is brutal: They don’t play a team with a losing record (as of today) the entire month and the combined winning percentage of opposing teams is at 0.609!
It features 15 games with 4 back-to-backs and while slightly more than half are at home with 8 being at TD garden, there’s also a 5-game road trip with 2 back-to-backs at the beginning of the month.
Dec. 2: PHI —> W
Dec. 4: @UTA
Dec. 5: @POR
Dec. 8: @LAL
Dec. 9: @LAC
Dec. 11: @PHX
Dec. 14: MIL
Dec. 18: GSW
Dec. 19: NYK
Dec. 21: PHI
Dec. 23: CLE
Dec. 25: @MIL
Dec. 28: @MIN
Dec. 30: LAC
Dec. 31: PHX
Would be a great time for them to get healthy and start hitting their stride and hopefully they can pleasantly surprise me, but I‘m not sure I expect them to move up in the standings during this stretch.
What do you think their record will be to start the new year?
For some reason, I missed this topic, and just now read it.
First off; TP.
Second; mother of cows, that's some stretch O_o
Super excited. You know how we had the "20 games" topic? This is the stretch that will tell us so much more.
Hope we establish some of the things we've shown flashes of.
- Great D. Great ball movement.
- Tatum's been a surprise - can he keep up passing out of double teams?
- Can Brown recapture himself and become confident in his body again? He's clearly struggling mentally, maybe because of his physical.
- Can we field RWill in 66+% of the games?
- Can Smart average 6+ assists per game?
- Can Dennis settle into the bench role he's been assigned?
- Can we not be blown out more than once?
- Can we blow out a great team at least twice?
- Can we win the games we
should win?
- Can J-Rich keep up his stretch of great contributions?
- Can the rest of our bench contribute meaningfully?
That's what goes through my mind looking at this stretch.
Reason I'm putting it here, is that I'm done judging guys on 1 game. Mostly because I'm sick of judging players by 1 play that "cost us the game".
This isn't about 1 play. It's not about "the fourth quarter". It's about establishing good habits, growing as a team, and possessing the ability to play at a high level.
Because none of that is there consistently right now. And that's what we'll need to be able to compete in the future.