Quote from: Goldstar88 on December 23, 2025, 09:41:06 AM

Quote from: Vermont Green on December 23, 2025, 09:03:56 AM

Quote from: Celtics2021 on December 23, 2025, 07:58:12 AM

No, it is you.  It was not just Tatum tearing his Achilles. It was Brown playing the entire postseason on a torn meniscus.  It was Porzingis being a shell of himself with an illness that is still affecting him this year.  It was Holiday missing time in the playoffs with a hamstring and also having some other condition that caused the Blazers to rescind draft picks in a trade.  It was Tatum getting leveled by the Magic and injuring his wrist.  The Celtics were an injured and old team in the playoffs, and faded down the stretch during games.  They bombed threes because they did not have the energy to do much else.

This is all pretty factual, facts that tend to get lost in the drama and emotion of losing games to NYK that BOS probably shouldn't have lost.  That was not a good series for Mazzulla or anyone else, injured or otherwise.  Multiple things can be true at the same time.  Mazzulla shares some of the blame for losing that series.  Just like he deserves credit for the team winning a title the season before.  It is really hard to definitively rate a coach but really easy to blame the coach.  I think Mazzulla has performed at a top 10 level as an NBA coach for his career.  If CotY voting were today, he would probably come in top 3 or higher for this season.

Is it safe to say that they weren't contending after Tatum went down, though? Other guys were banged up, but it's sort of moot once you lose Tatum.

They were already down 3-1 to NYK after blowing a couple of 20-point leads when Tatum went down.  That was more like salt in an already sustained flesh wound.  BOS was not good in the series even with Tatum.  They should have been up 3-1.  Are you saying that even if they were up 3-1, that once Tatum goes down they lose anyway?  I don't see this taking them off the hook for being down 3-1 to NYK in the first place.

Yeah, they weren't crawling back in that series. 

If somehow that made it to the Finals, they were gonna get lit up by OKC.   Team was limping along.

Quote from: Vermont Green on December 23, 2025, 09:03:56 AM

Quote from: Celtics2021 on December 23, 2025, 07:58:12 AM

No, it is you.  It was not just Tatum tearing his Achilles. It was Brown playing the entire postseason on a torn meniscus.  It was Porzingis being a shell of himself with an illness that is still affecting him this year.  It was Holiday missing time in the playoffs with a hamstring and also having some other condition that caused the Blazers to rescind draft picks in a trade.  It was Tatum getting leveled by the Magic and injuring his wrist.  The Celtics were an injured and old team in the playoffs, and faded down the stretch during games.  They bombed threes because they did not have the energy to do much else.

This is all pretty factual, facts that tend to get lost in the drama and emotion of losing games to NYK that BOS probably shouldn't have lost.  That was not a good series for Mazzulla or anyone else, injured or otherwise.  Multiple things can be true at the same time.  Mazzulla shares some of the blame for losing that series.  Just like he deserves credit for the team winning a title the season before.  It is really hard to definitively rate a coach but really easy to blame the coach.  I think Mazzulla has performed at a top 10 level as an NBA coach for his career.  If CotY voting were today, he would probably come in top 3 or higher for this season.

Is it safe to say that they weren't contending after Tatum went down, though? Other guys were banged up, but it's sort of moot once you lose Tatum.

They were already down 3-1 to NYK after blowing a couple of 20-point leads when Tatum went down.  That was more like salt in an already sustained flesh wound.  BOS was not good in the series even with Tatum.  They should have been up 3-1.  Are you saying that even if they were up 3-1, that once Tatum goes down they lose anyway?  I don't see this taking them off the hook for being down 3-1 to NYK in the first place.

Quote from: Celtics2021 on December 23, 2025, 07:58:12 AM

No, it is you.  It was not just Tatum tearing his Achilles. It was Brown playing the entire postseason on a torn meniscus.  It was Porzingis being a shell of himself with an illness that is still affecting him this year.  It was Holiday missing time in the playoffs with a hamstring and also having some other condition that caused the Blazers to rescind draft picks in a trade.  It was Tatum getting leveled by the Magic and injuring his wrist.  The Celtics were an injured and old team in the playoffs, and faded down the stretch during games.  They bombed threes because they did not have the energy to do much else.

This is all pretty factual, facts that tend to get lost in the drama and emotion of losing games to NYK that BOS probably shouldn't have lost.  That was not a good series for Mazzulla or anyone else, injured or otherwise.  Multiple things can be true at the same time.  Mazzulla shares some of the blame for losing that series.  Just like he deserves credit for the team winning a title the season before.  It is really hard to definitively rate a coach but really easy to blame the coach.  I think Mazzulla has performed at a top 10 level as an NBA coach for his career.  If CotY voting were today, he would probably come in top 3 or higher for this season.

Is it safe to say that they weren?t contending after Tatum went down, though? Other guys were banged up, but it?s sort of moot once you lose Tatum.

Quote from: Redz on December 23, 2025, 08:27:19 AM

Quote from: LatterDayCelticsfan on December 23, 2025, 02:42:46 AM

I think we have now won too many games to tank.

We could lose the rest of our games and not end up with the worst record.  Probably over a couple of teams.  So yeh.  I?d say tanking isn?t on the agenda. 

Not to mention the team is playing its butt off.

The only shot we would have now, is if Brown and another important starter had injuries that kept them out a month or more. And at that point, we would need Mavericks or Hawks lottery luck to move way up with the flattened odds.

barring major injuries, C's will not only make the play-in rounds but most likely the playoffs and quite possibly home court for the first round to boot.   I didn't think they'd be playing this well and thought for sure they'd be a lottery team with that frontcourt but they're making me eat crow (and happily doing so).

Tank talk is over, thankfully.  One other factor is that BOS has had one of the toughest schedules in the league so far.  They are not just beating up on chumps.  On pace for 51 wins and the schedule gets easier, not what I was expecting.

The question of course is how sustainable is this.  It is starting to feel like they may be able to keep this up.  Guys like Walsh, Queta, and Hugo all seem like they can continue their level of play.  Brown, White, Pritchard, Hauser, and Simons are not doing anything they haven't done regularly in their careers so no reason to expect them to drop off.  And there may be some remaining ceiling in Garza, Minott, and Boucher.  Tillman and Scheierman not so much.  I don't expect anything much this season from the 2-way guys including Amari Williams but I see Amari as the next Jordan Walsh, eventually developing into a useful player.

And that does not even account for Tatum when/if he comes back.  How many more regular season wins will Tatum impact?  Will he be available for 15 games?  Could that mean 3 or 4 more wins over those games?  If we lose Brown for any number of games, that will bring the wins back down.  But other than Brown, this team can probably navigate some level of injuries.