Just adjusting the topic title.
I readjusted it further after forced to figure out what the stat really is.
Here is perhaps a more important stat: 10-7 on the road.
Folks complaining that the C's haven't beaten anyone tough need to understand this basic point about the NBA: Winning on the road in the NBA is tough.
Right now, only 10 teams in the NBA have winning records on the road. Last year, by the end of the season, only SIX teams had winning road records. Home-court advantage in the NBA is a very real, very powerful thing.
Right now, the Cs have the 5th best road record. This is a very strong indicator of a good team, historically. They also have had one of the rougher schedules in terms of home-road disparity, playing 17 road games to just 11 home games.
And the C's have also had one of the toughest goes of it when it comes to health and missed games, especially among their starters. Their starting 5 have played a combined 139 minutes together. That's way down at 27th for minutes played by a 5-man lineup. For most teams, the starting 5 will have played over 200 minutes together by now.
So, personally, I see no reason for the Celtics to be ashamed of what their record is at this point.
I completely agree with you. Negative fans continue to move the goalposts. Winning against most teams on the road is an accomplishment. Even beating Philadelphia by only a point or two was a big win. Upsets can happen to any team. We avoided the trap. We stole the win. People can say that was Philadelphia, but they are not outright tanking anymore.
We did the same to Memphis. If I was a Grizzlies fan, I'd be a lot more bitter than some Celtics fans after that game. How much better can they defend and not win? If they can't stop Isaiah, how are they ever going to shut down Golden State or even the Clippers or Rockets? It does look like great offense beats great defense. It looks like there is an in-built advantage for offense over defense in NBA basketball.
Here are some home and away splits.
Team ....... Home ..... Away
Nets ........ 6-7 ......... 1-13
Detroit ..... 8-6 ......... 6-11
Wash ....... 10-6 ........ 3-9
Indiana .... 11-4 ........ 4-11
Cavs ........ 14-2 ........ 7-4
Toronto is probably where the negative fans want us to be before they lighten up. They are 11-5 at home and 9-3 on the road.
An objective view based on the early injuries and tough schedule should have us well above water since we are 16-12 and the third seed.
Isaiah could score 50 points with 12 assists against Indiana tonight and some will say he is a regular season player and will get shut down in the playoffs. Trade him while his stock price is at its peak, that sort of argument. As if it's not a great thing to have quite possibly the NBA's best offensive player on our team while entering his prime.
There are benefits to guys like Marcus Smart and Olynyk not busting loose as profoundly as Avery. It means we have a better chance to keep them when their contracts run out.
So after tonight we will have seven extra home games. That has to mean something positive. It means we can lose some games here and there and the sky won't be falling. We'd need to get another round of injuries to top players to fall apart. Even then, we showed the ability to be mediocre when missing those top players.
Memphis has been nibbling away for years at the feet of top teams. It only took the Celtics about a year or two to enter Memphis' tier.
They don't have Brooklyn picks and Gasol is getting older by the day.
I don't like the pressure that many of the fan base put on the C's. There is the saying with friends like this, who needs enemies.
Tonight will probably be no picnic or maybe it will be an easy win.
Win or lose, I will feel the same positivity. If we win, the negative fan won't change. He will move the goalposts. We could make it to the ECF and those people will still be complaining how we don't have enough to beat Cleveland or Golden State. They come off as immature, spoiled brats.
Or maybe they will start another thread on DeMarcus Cousins and what it will take to get him on the 2017-18 roster. Nothing is ever good enough for such people and it makes me wonder why they follow the Celtics if it's such a futile endeavor with no chance of ever happening because Marcus sucks and Isaiah is a midget or whatever else they keep repeating.
Doug Flutie was a midget, too. No one in the NFL had the guts to build a team around him. We are finding out this year and next what Isaiah truly has for an overall game. He doesn't pile up assists like a Rondo, but he seems to have shown some improvement in his assists to turnover ratio. He is nailing his free throws. He is showing that he is a decent jump shooter and not a chucker. He hustles on defense and is quite good at it for a little guy.
I think we can win it all with Isaiah. We'd just need a backup plan for when he is too little to defend and his offense isn't balancing it. Brad took him out against Memphis for a bit when that happened. He went to Smart and Bradley instead. Jaylen Brown is a twenty year old rookie. He is a slim, active six foot seven small forward who might be able to handle tall guards. The plan was for Young or Hunter to take that role. They were simply not good enough.
Isaiah is unstoppable on offense.
The win against Memphis was huge for team morale. It looks like we have survived the opening tsunami of a schedule. We also get to play Cleveland soon, so we'll have a barometer for that game. Oklahoma at home tomorrow night will be interesting. We can get some revenge and establish ourselves a bit as a good home team.
We are currently on a 47 win pace which is trending upward for the reasons mentioned by mmmmm.
I refuse to be negative. The roster is definitely close to being balanced for the first time during Brad's tenure. We need Brown to develop, so Crowder has a backup. We need a big big center, so Horford doesn't have to protect the rim alone. Smart seems to have become the backup pg, not Rozier. We are stacked for guards except for a tall shooting guard.
And thankfully Brad has stopped playing three guards at once. That is not the way to hide Isaiah on defense playing him with Avery and Marcus. Brad Stevens is a million times smarter than me for NBA coaching, but I think I got the better of him for that one.
Topic: Title Edit: The great Celtics are 10-3 with a healthy starting five (Read 7536 times)