The next 15 games or so look doable. Clippers at home and Bulls away are the only teams I consider definite loses. I think the other games are all winnable and right now.
1. our offense will take defenses a while to figure out how to defend. Before it was obvious who was holding the ball 95% of the game and it was incredibly easy to predict.
2. It's us against the world. How many times have we seen this in sports? Giants in 2007, Heat in 2011, Patriots in 2007, Celtics in 2008, Patriots in 2001/2003. The "no respect" card is a pretty powerful one.
3. Expect the offense to improve. If we saw "playoff Rondo" every night, then we would absolutely be better with Rondo, but with "regular season Rondo" we are WAY better off without him killing our fastbreak, and sitting at the top of the key draining shot clock. Better ball movement, more fastbreak points are coming.
4. Expect the defense to improve. I can't count the number of times I've watched games lately p---ed off because I focused on Rondo on defense. He gambles, he leaves his man wide open, he lets his guy blow by him while he takes a shot at the steal because it's easier for him, he doesn't consistently close out on shooters, he doesn't consistently contest shots. Again during the playoffs he tries harder and it's drastically better (see him guarding Lebron 1 on 1.. WOW how is this the same guy???) Lee and Bradley have been phenomenal on defense for us and I'm excited to see our defense with more of them together. Bradley will also be able to guard 1s instead of 2s which will be even better.