Celtics (26-9) at Thunder (29-5) Game #36 1/5/25

[SparzWizard]

There's no asterisk on the 2024 banner for "cakewalk"

Celtics were a historically dominant team who won the title last year.

Yep.  Plenty of teams have faced weak opponents, and you know what?  Nobody remembers those easy paths, only the banners.

Plus, obligatory "we were missing our starting near All-Star center" reminder.

I've been argued that our 2024 run was a lot worse than the bubble ring (in terms of legitimacy) lol if that makes any sense

[jpotter33]

There's no asterisk on the 2024 banner for "cakewalk"

Celtics were a historically dominant team who won the title last year.

Yep.  Plenty of teams have faced weak opponents, and you know what?  Nobody remembers those easy paths, only the banners.

Plus, obligatory "we were missing our starting near All-Star center" reminder.

I've been argued that our 2024 run was a lot worse than the bubble ring (in terms of legitimacy) lol if that makes any sense

It doesn?t and shouldn?t to any rational fan.

[Phantom255x]

There's no asterisk on the 2024 banner for "cakewalk"

Celtics were a historically dominant team who won the title last year.

Yep.  Plenty of teams have faced weak opponents, and you know what?  Nobody remembers those easy paths, only the banners.

Plus, obligatory "we were missing our starting near All-Star center" reminder.

I'll also add, even though I do think the Bubble benefitted the Lakers, they won in 2020 and still often get criticized about their "Mickey Mouse" ring. I still believe it fully counts, and it's still written on the Banners, history books, etc.

Another thing too, why doesn't Denver ever get any flack about an "easy schedule" in 2023

Their run was 8 seeded Minny, 4 seeded Phoenix, 7 seeded Lakers, then 8 seed Heat. None of those teams had more than 46 wins in the regular season btw.

[Roy H.]

There's no asterisk on the 2024 banner for "cakewalk"

Celtics were a historically dominant team who won the title last year.

Yep.  Plenty of teams have faced weak opponents, and you know what?  Nobody remembers those easy paths, only the banners.

Plus, obligatory "we were missing our starting near All-Star center" reminder.

I'll also add, even though I do think the Bubble benefitted the Lakers, they won in 2020 and still often get criticized about their "Mickey Mouse" ring. I still believe it fully counts, and it's still written on the Banners, history books, etc.

Another thing too, why doesn't Denver ever get any flack about an "easy schedule" in 2023

Their run was 8 seeded Minny, 4 seeded Phoenix, 7 seeded Lakers, then 8 seed Heat. None of those teams had more than 46 wins in the regular season btw.

Yeah, that's one of the easy runs I think of.  Compare that to the 1995 Rockets (1st seeded Spurs, 1st seeded Magic, 2nd seeded Jazz, 3rd seeded Suns).  Both those titles count the same. 

[keevsnick]

I think the C's largely lost this game becasue they shot 20% on open threes. If you shoot 20% on the kind of shot your team is best at at making, you are going to lose.

Everything else is sort of window dressing. I know the three point shooting thing annoys fans, but the C's offense is largely built around their 4-8 guys being able to make shots. White, Horford, Holiday, Hauser and Pritchard all derive MOST of their offense value form hitting three pointers, and KP Brown and Tatum derive at least a fair amount of theirs even if they can do stuff inside the arc. If nobody can make a shot your offense just isn't going to score enough to keep up with great teams.

The thing about the C's is the reliance on threes means they will occasionally lose a game and it will look terrible, but are they going to shoot 20% from three 4 times in a 7 game series? Probably not. That's the hope anyway.

[Vermont Green]

The Celtics looked pretty good against MIN and HOU.  They didn't vs. OKC but could easily go 3-1 on this killer road trip and are still the betting favorite to win the title (per ESPN Bet).  They won the title last year, are the favorite to win the title this year, and yet some people are back to the "easy path narrative"?

A lot has to go right for any team to win a title in any season.  It is more likely that the Celtics don't win again than they do win again.  The Celtics are going to have to play better than they have so far, or more consistently better, if they are going to win another title.  But I think it is a little premature to be giving up on them already.