Author Topic: Tough December Schedule  (Read 5688 times)

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Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #15 on: December 02, 2021, 04:31:09 PM »

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Yep. On a given night, I don't really fear any team except for the Warriors and kind of the Nets because of Durant. This stretch is tough but the Celtics need to go into it with the mindset that they're as good as anyone else and use these games to prove it.

The Suns have won 17 in a row and we play them twice.  They are worthy of fear if you are going to fear anyone.
They also have played an easy schedule and Ayton is the only starting that has missed any games (he missed 6 of 21).  All of their other starters have played all 21 games.  Kaminsky and Payne are the only main rotation players to miss some time as well.  They've been pretty darn healthy with an easy schedule.  They are obviously a very good team, but I worry much more about a team like the Bucks than I do the Suns.  Giannis is scary.  Durant is scary.  Phoenix just doesn't have a scary player.  They have a lot of really good players, but no mega star that can drop 50 on you at any time.

At what point do the Suns win enough games for you to begin to take them seriously?  You had them losing every round of the playoffs last year, and then making excuses whenever they won, despite them being the 2 seed (again, by pure accident, because they must have had an easy schedule I guess?).  And now this year.  It's impossible to win 17 games in a row solely on an easy schedule -- nobody gets 17 straight against Houston and Detroit. 

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #16 on: December 02, 2021, 04:32:26 PM »

Offline LilRip

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Good start 1-0
Yep. On a given night, I don't really fear any team except for the Warriors and kind of the Nets because of Durant. This stretch is tough but the Celtics need to go into it with the mindset that they're as good as anyone else and use these games to prove it.

The Suns have won 17 in a row and we play them twice.  They are worthy of fear if you are going to fear anyone.
They also have played an easy schedule and Ayton is the only starting that has missed any games (he missed 6 of 21).  All of their other starters have played all 21 games.  Kaminsky and Payne are the only main rotation players to miss some time as well.  They've been pretty darn healthy with an easy schedule.  They are obviously a very good team, but I worry much more about a team like the Bucks than I do the Suns.  Giannis is scary.  Durant is scary.  Phoenix just doesn't have a scary player.  They have a lot of really good players, but no mega star that can drop 50 on you at any time.

Don’t they have a guy who literally dropped 70 on us?
- LilRip

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #17 on: December 02, 2021, 05:54:45 PM »

Offline KG Living Legend

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Good start 1-0
Yep. On a given night, I don't really fear any team except for the Warriors and kind of the Nets because of Durant. This stretch is tough but the Celtics need to go into it with the mindset that they're as good as anyone else and use these games to prove it.

The Suns have won 17 in a row and we play them twice.  They are worthy of fear if you are going to fear anyone.
They also have played an easy schedule and Ayton is the only starting that has missed any games (he missed 6 of 21).  All of their other starters have played all 21 games.  Kaminsky and Payne are the only main rotation players to miss some time as well.  They've been pretty darn healthy with an easy schedule.  They are obviously a very good team, but I worry much more about a team like the Bucks than I do the Suns.  Giannis is scary.  Durant is scary.  Phoenix just doesn't have a scary player.  They have a lot of really good players, but no mega star that can drop 50 on you at any time.

At what point do the Suns win enough games for you to begin to take them seriously?  You had them losing every round of the playoffs last year, and then making excuses whenever they won, despite them being the 2 seed (again, by pure accident, because they must have had an easy schedule I guess?).  And now this year.  It's impossible to win 17 games in a row solely on an easy schedule -- nobody gets 17 straight against Houston and Detroit.



 Suns are looking great but I do agree with the posters point. CP3 gets beat down at the end of the year.

 I really like booker but he's just not that superstar that KD or Giannis or Kawhi is. Ayton really fell off when the stage got bright.

He does have a point.

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #18 on: December 02, 2021, 06:28:44 PM »

Offline 4THQTR

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On the bright side the schedule gets much much easier after around mid-January. If they can do reasonably well in this current stretch they‘ll be in an excellent position to climb in the standings and finish the season strong. Even if they lose a bunch over the next couple of weeks, they’ll still have the chance to make up for it too.

Either way, I just hope they can get into some sort of groove against the tough teams now and carry that into February/March to feast on lesser opponents!

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #19 on: December 02, 2021, 06:46:05 PM »

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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.

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #20 on: December 02, 2021, 07:04:25 PM »

Offline W8ting2McHale

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On the bright side the schedule gets much much easier after around mid-January. If they can do reasonably well in this current stretch they‘ll be in an excellent position to climb in the standings and finish the season strong. Even if they lose a bunch over the next couple of weeks, they’ll still have the chance to make up for it too.

Either way, I just hope they can get into some sort of groove against the tough teams now and carry that into February/March to feast on lesser opponents!

This is my outlook as well. TP. Even though people saw earlier games as weak schedule because teams looked weak on paper, in reality a lot of those games were road games and home teams win more often than not. This next stretch looks tough because a lot of these teams look strong on paper, but the reality is a west coast road trip is always tough because of the time difference and being road games.

If the Celtics can weather this stretch they can get in a grove the 2nd half of the season and pass a lot of the teams a head of them now. This team will go as far as Tatum and Brown take them, and if they avoid injury. That hasn’t changed. Other teams are beginning to have to deal with star’s injury issues, so if the Celtics stay healthy, that’s another way to pass teams and get to the playoffs.

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #21 on: December 02, 2021, 07:11:15 PM »

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Good start 1-0
Yep. On a given night, I don't really fear any team except for the Warriors and kind of the Nets because of Durant. This stretch is tough but the Celtics need to go into it with the mindset that they're as good as anyone else and use these games to prove it.

The Suns have won 17 in a row and we play them twice.  They are worthy of fear if you are going to fear anyone.
They also have played an easy schedule and Ayton is the only starting that has missed any games (he missed 6 of 21).  All of their other starters have played all 21 games.  Kaminsky and Payne are the only main rotation players to miss some time as well.  They've been pretty darn healthy with an easy schedule.  They are obviously a very good team, but I worry much more about a team like the Bucks than I do the Suns.  Giannis is scary.  Durant is scary.  Phoenix just doesn't have a scary player.  They have a lot of really good players, but no mega star that can drop 50 on you at any time.

At what point do the Suns win enough games for you to begin to take them seriously?  You had them losing every round of the playoffs last year, and then making excuses whenever they won, despite them being the 2 seed (again, by pure accident, because they must have had an easy schedule I guess?).  And now this year.  It's impossible to win 17 games in a row solely on an easy schedule -- nobody gets 17 straight against Houston and Detroit.



 Suns are looking great but I do agree with the posters point. CP3 gets beat down at the end of the year.

 I really like booker but he's just not that superstar that KD or Giannis or Kawhi is. Ayton really fell off when the stage got bright.

He does have a point.

This is about playing the Suns in December.  You’re off point, and he’s repeatedly wrong about the Suns.

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #22 on: December 02, 2021, 07:19:40 PM »

Offline footey

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Brown out vs Utah.  I'd be surprised if he plays at all this trip. He looks like his hammy is still bothering him. Am surprised he is playing.

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #23 on: December 02, 2021, 08:35:20 PM »

Offline liam

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Brown out vs Utah.  I'd be surprised if he plays at all this trip. He looks like his hammy is still bothering him. Am surprised he is playing.

He shouldn't be playing the way he's moving.

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #24 on: December 03, 2021, 06:37:18 AM »

Offline nickagneta

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Brown out vs Utah.  I'd be surprised if he plays at all this trip. He looks like his hammy is still bothering him. Am surprised he is playing.

He shouldn't be playing the way he's moving.
Sixers did all they could to get Brown switched onto Embiid at the end of the game to try to take advantage of Brown's limited movement due to the hammy. But.....Brown played great deny defense on Embiid and did all he could to move Embiid off his sweet spots. At game's end, you could see just how much pain Jaylen played through to shut down Embiid those last bunch of possessions. He turned grimacing while everyone else celebrated Timelord's block.

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #25 on: December 03, 2021, 07:04:04 AM »

Offline Surferdad

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Brown out vs Utah.  I'd be surprised if he plays at all this trip. He looks like his hammy is still bothering him. Am surprised he is playing.

He shouldn't be playing the way he's moving.
Sixers did all they could to get Brown switched onto Embiid at the end of the game to try to take advantage of Brown's limited movement due to the hammy. But.....Brown played great deny defense on Embiid and did all he could to move Embiid off his sweet spots. At game's end, you could see just how much pain Jaylen played through to shut down Embiid those last bunch of possessions. He turned grimacing while everyone else celebrated Timelord's block.
That's pretty significant.  There's an unwritten rule in the NBA (probably other sports as well) to not show weakness or pain for exactly the reason you mentioned.  If he was grimacing, then he's really in bad shape.

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #26 on: December 03, 2021, 07:58:56 AM »

Offline Birdman

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Hope I’m wrong but I don’t see us winning a game on this West Coast trip
C/PF-Horford, Baynes, Noel, Theis, Morris,
SF/SG- Tatum, Brown, Hayward, Smart, Semi, Clark
PG- Irving, Rozier, Larkin

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #27 on: December 03, 2021, 08:27:31 AM »

Offline nickagneta

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Hope I’m wrong but I don’t see us winning a game on this West Coast trip
I think the Lakers and Portland are very winnable games. The rest...well....we will see.

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #28 on: December 04, 2021, 12:16:07 AM »

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1-1 with a good showing against one of the west's best

Re: Tough December Schedule
« Reply #29 on: December 11, 2021, 05:02:38 PM »

Offline 4THQTR

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2 and 4 thus far which is quite disappointing considering that they played great against the Jazz and still lost and then also lost to pretty injury-plagued versions of the the Clippers and Suns.

Would be ecstatic if they can just split the next two (Milwaukee and Golden State) and get back to playing the way they did at the start of their west coast road trip in Utah and Portland.