I Think I Am Aboard The Tank Train Now

[tenn_smoothie]

Brown looked just fine against the Magic though and played over 37 mpg against the Knicks.  Holiday was coming back from injury but also started every game and played over 32 mpg against the Knicks.  Zinger barely played the title season as well.  Relying on Zinger to be healthy is a fools errand. 

The Celtics were mostly healthy against the Knicks and lost badly.  Absolutely should have won the first two games and the series (and Tatum likely doesn't get hurt), but they didn't.  They got embarrassed by a team that designed its roster with beating the Celtics in mind and that is exactly what they did.  They put pressure on Tatum and Brown and the rest of the team just wasn't good enough. 

That was the fundamental problem with bringing the team back.  Boston would have been too old, too injury prone, and simply not good enough going forward, especially next year when Tatum is back.  In my view, they absolutely would not have won the title again if they mostly brought the team back.  The window was over.  They had to make moves.  I don't think they went far enough, but making moves was absolutely the correct decision, because running it back just would have delayed the inevitable.

I don't think the 2025 Celtics weren't good enough to beat the Knicks (or that their supporting cast around the Jays wasn't good enough). They just didn't play well in the series. It happens. It sucks. But it happens.

I'd still feel confident of beating that same Knicks team in a rematch with that same Celtics team. I still believe that Celtics team was the best team in the East last season and would have been the best team in the East again this season (assuming Tatum comes back and plays at a top 10 player in the league level). So I would have brought it back. I did not and do not believe the window had closed. That group was still very much a title contender.

Mostly healthy in the Knicks series? I would say healthy enough. They were healthy enough to win that series. They did not lose because of bad health. They lost because guys underperformed.

They lost because they have an incompetent coach who wanted the team to keep launching 3-pointers that they were not making which led to big leads being blown at home in games 1 & 2. Those two games were an embarrassment. I still do not see what it is that Brad sees in Mazzulla. We won the title in spite of him with talent and a good playoff draw.