Celtics Record on 2/1/13

[PhoSita]

The Celtics are now 9-8.  We're a little less than three weeks away from Christmas and the Celtics are still mulling along around .500. 

After the first week or two of the season, I thought that perhaps the Celtics would not really get it together until Christmas, at which time they would go on a run.  Now I'm starting to think it will take longer than that.  Bradley coming back will be great, but how long will he need to get back into form?  A month?

There are 28 games between now and February 1st.  What will the Celtics record be then? 

They will play 7 games against teams you might call "contenders" between then and now.  Spurs, Knicks, Nets, Heat, Clippers, Grizzlies.  How many of those games will they win?

If I'm being optimistic, I would guess they'll win 3 of those 7 games.  They will win a few more than half of the rest, so let's say 16.


Feb 1st record: 28-24

If that is the case, in order to win 50 games, the Celtics will need to go 22-8 the rest of the way.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

They way we are playing now it will be tough to win 50.

[cman88]

if the C's win by 1 or 3 tonight, are we singing the same tune?

while a loss sucks, Im actually pretty encouraged by our play the last 2 games...our defense looks better and Green/Lee have finally got it going

the New Jersey loss/rondo suspension seemed to give a jolt to this team...I expect them to go on a run starting now actually.

[PhoSita]

They way we are playing now it will be tough to win 50.

Yes, that is pretty much the condensed version of what I posted. 

That's very disappointing considering coming into the season it seemed like they had the horses to win 55-60.

Last season, the starting lineup w/ Bradley at SG won at a rate that would be the equivalent of nearly 60 games over the course of a full season.  Perhaps they will greatly improve once he comes back.  We can hope.  But I'm very concerned.

I am starting to be concerned that the Atlantic Division will end up with 3-4 teams all having 40-50 wins, and the Celtics could end up anywhere between the 4th and the 8th seed as a result.

[PhoSita]

if the C's win by 1 or 3 tonight, are we singing the same tune?

while a loss sucks, Im actually pretty encouraged by our play the last 2 games...our defense looks better and Green/Lee have finally got it going

the New Jersey loss/rondo suspension seemed to give a jolt to this team...I expect them to go on a run starting now actually.

The thing is, the team has to show an ability and a mentality to find ways to win consistently in order to instill confidence.  So far this season, I haven't seen them string together even a handful of games where they just find ways to win even when the going is tough.  They've had a couple of nice nights where you think they're figuring it out, and then they have a misstep like tonight. 

They're just very, very inconsistent and I think that's because they lack chemistry, familiarity, and identity as a group.  It's hard to believe they're going to fix all of that any time soon.

[cman88]

if the C's win by 1 or 3 tonight, are we singing the same tune?

while a loss sucks, Im actually pretty encouraged by our play the last 2 games...our defense looks better and Green/Lee have finally got it going

the New Jersey loss/rondo suspension seemed to give a jolt to this team...I expect them to go on a run starting now actually.

The thing is, the team has to show an ability and a mentality to find ways to win consistently in order to instill confidence.  So far this season, I haven't seen them string together even a handful of games where they just find ways to win even when the going is tough.  They've had a couple of nice nights where you think they're figuring it out, and then they have a misstep like tonight. 

They're just very, very inconsistent and I think that's because they lack chemistry, familiarity, and identity as a group.  It's hard to believe they're going to fix all of that any time soon.

without that call on Garnett they likely win this game, and we look at how Lee had 13points and Green had 18/6

I see alot more positives going forward from these past two games than negatives.

[CelticSooner]

They way we are playing now it will be tough to win 50.

Yes, that is pretty much the condensed version of what I posted. 

That's very disappointing considering coming into the season it seemed like they had the horses to win 55-60.

Last season, the starting lineup w/ Bradley at SG won at a rate that would be the equivalent of nearly 60 games over the course of a full season.  Perhaps they will greatly improve once he comes back.  We can hope.  But I'm very concerned.

I am starting to be concerned that the Atlantic Division will end up with 3-4 teams all having 40-50 wins, and the Celtics could end up anywhere between the 4th and the 8th seed as a result.

This is very possible. C's could very well dig themselves a hole to deep to climb out of. Not panicking yet but they need to get it into gear soon.

[PhoSita]

if the C's win by 1 or 3 tonight, are we singing the same tune?

while a loss sucks, Im actually pretty encouraged by our play the last 2 games...our defense looks better and Green/Lee have finally got it going

the New Jersey loss/rondo suspension seemed to give a jolt to this team...I expect them to go on a run starting now actually.

The thing is, the team has to show an ability and a mentality to find ways to win consistently in order to instill confidence.  So far this season, I haven't seen them string together even a handful of games where they just find ways to win even when the going is tough.  They've had a couple of nice nights where you think they're figuring it out, and then they have a misstep like tonight. 

They're just very, very inconsistent and I think that's because they lack chemistry, familiarity, and identity as a group.  It's hard to believe they're going to fix all of that any time soon.

without that call on Garnett they likely win this game, and we look at how Lee had 13points and Green had 18/6

I see alot more positives going forward from these past two games than negatives.

There are certainly positives there, I don't mean to deny that.

But the bottom line is they didn't win the game.  Sure, there was a bad call, but overcoming those is part of winning games, too.

So far, the Celtics haven't shown that they have a second gear to go up to.  This isn't like previous years when they played badly but at times they looked like world beaters, and you sensed that they just needed to "flip the switch" and learn to play like that most of the time.  We haven't really seen this team anywhere close to its best yet. 

That makes sense, because many of the players are still learning how they fit beside one another.  But that means the team has to sacrifice a lot of wins in the name of figuring out how to play winning basketball together. 

That's the kind of struggle that you usually see a much younger team have to go through.  But I guess that's because in many respects this is a very young team, even though they still rely on Pierce, KG, and Terry for so much.

[vinnie]

I don't know about Feb. 1, but I have said all along they will win 47-50 games.

[LarBrd33]

Before the season I figured we'd play .500 ball until late Feb.  I still think we will.  We're ripe for a trade, though.  We have a great PG, four backup SGs, two starting SF's and one great PF. 

[PhoSita]

Before the season I figured we'd play .500 ball until late Feb.  I still think we will.  We're ripe for a trade, though.  We have a great PG, four backup SGs, two starting SF's and one great PF.

When you put it like that, yes, it doesn't seem surprising that this is only a bit better than a middle of the road team.

But the team showed in the second half of last season that they could win 60-70% of their games while playing really great defense.  Given that, it's pretty disappointing that with a deeper, more potent bench and not much change in the starting lineup -- Courtney Lee's role is very similar to Bradley, even if he's an inferior player -- they are back to playing the way they did for the first half of last season.  And they don't even have a lockout as an excuse!

[chambers]

if the C's win by 1 or 3 tonight, are we singing the same tune?

while a loss sucks, Im actually pretty encouraged by our play the last 2 games...our defense looks better and Green/Lee have finally got it going

the New Jersey loss/rondo suspension seemed to give a jolt to this team...I expect them to go on a run starting now actually.

This is what I'm thinking.
The Bucks are much tougher than the Blazers and it was a back to back.
Green, Terry an Lee are all going much better than 2 weeks ago.
I wouldn't be surprised if we go on a nice streak soon.
Avery coming back and sparking some more toughness on defense will only help us win games.

[lightspeed5]

Before the season I figured we'd play .500 ball until late Feb.  I still think we will.  We're ripe for a trade, though.  We have a great PG, four backup SGs, two starting SF's and one great PF.

whos the great PF? KG's been playing center for the past 1.5 years now.

[masteremile123]

I mostly agree that we are going to see this team go on a nice streak right now. If we win last night (despite that terrible call) everybody here would be stating how "tough" this team is and how doc calling them out really affected them. What poeple fail to realise/remember is that we are missing our starting back court , wich include an all star and the best defender on the team. Just imagine the 13 and 15 from Lee and Jet coming from the bench...

[Kuberski1]

I think we win in the high 40s, low 50s.  What I'm hoping for is Home in round 1....if we get that, I'll take it.

If we are going to make a deep run, we need first and foremost to be healthy.  If we are, and are clicking like we are able, we can win on the road - have done it many times.  As importantly, we need some "luck", i.e. a hobbled opponent or two - we often say we were 1 game away from the Finals, and we were...but if D.Rose doesn't get hurt, we very well might not have made it to the ECF; if Bosh didn't come back when he did, and/or we had Green and Bradley, we would have played OKC.   Health matters more than HCA...