Refuting the Excuses

[GreenFaith1819]

the biggest warning sign is losing the decent-big leads in the third quarter. that shows this team is mentally going through the motions. i mean dallas is a good team...but you give up 34 points in one quarter to them? same with atlanta...29 points in the 3rd to them? then again last night to a bad pistons team...you score 13 points in the third? other than the injuries...this team just plays like they can cruise until april then show up and turn it on...i dont like that mentalitiy

And I'm starting to consider more the possibility that some of this MAY be on Sheed...he's said before that regular season isn't as important...I've read somewhere this season that Pierce even stated this.

Sheed appeared to coast even when Detroit was at it's best, while he played for them...it'd be a hard pill for me to swallow if he's is in fact in that frame of mind here in Boston.

Pay me several million my friend and I promise you I won't coast during regular season, lol......

[jadams5214]

Many great posts in this thread good job everyone -

As a few people pointed out, many of us know what is wrong with the Celtics but what needs to happen to fix them?

The easy answer is KG returning.  I really hope he comes back, stays healthy and leads the C's quickly back to playing championship caliber basketball no matter how unlikely that scenario is.

However if that doesn't happen what next? ---

The only logical option is making roster moves.  Would adding a bench player such as Nate Robinson make that big a difference?

Or would trading Ray Allen or some other big move be needed?  Not sure what the answer is but I tend to think that the Celtics should make a minor move or two and hope for a healthy KG.  It's a risky move but not sure what other realistic options they have.  It would be terrible to have KG get hurt again after the trade deadline when it would be too late to make a big move but the C's may just have to wait and hope.

The goal for this team is Championships not making the playoffs and losing in the 1st or 2nd round. 

So I guess the hopes for this team hinge on the flimsy hopes of Perk, Rondo, Ray, Paul and KG staying healthy for the remainder of the season and leading this team back to prominence.  There appears to be no margin for error with these Celtics, they can't afford any major injuries or other issues to stay afloat...   

[Chris]

Many great posts in this thread good job everyone -

As a few people pointed out, many of us know what is wrong with the Celtics but what needs to happen to fix them?

The easy answer is KG returning.  I really hope he comes back, stays healthy and leads the C's quickly back to playing championship caliber basketball no matter how unlikely that scenario is.

However if that doesn't happen what next? ---

The only logical option is making roster moves.  Would adding a bench player such as Nate Robinson make that big a difference?

Or would trading Ray Allen or some other big move be needed?  Not sure what the answer is but I tend to think that the Celtics should make a minor move or two and hope for a healthy KG.  It's a risky move but not sure what other realistic options they have.  It would be terrible to have KG get hurt again after the trade deadline when it would be too late to make a big move but the C's may just have to wait and hope.

The goal for this team is Championships not making the playoffs and losing in the 1st or 2nd round. 

So I guess the hopes for this team hinge on the flimsy hopes of Perk, Rondo, Ray, Paul and KG staying healthy for the remainder of the season and leading this team back to prominence.  There appears to be no margin for error with these Celtics, they can't afford any major injuries or other issues to stay afloat...   

I think if KG does not come back healthy, it opens up a whole new world that I am not ready to plunge into just yet. 

Right now, this team has 1 hope, stay healthy.  If that doesn't happen, better luck next year.  But if they know for sure it won't happen, then we can talk about blowing it up.  Either way, that decision is not being made right now.

[dlpin]

Let me repeat what I said in the other post:

People here severely overestimate how good we were last year without Garnett. Last year without Garnett we were only marginally better than we are this year without Garnett.
Last year's 18-7 record without him included several easy games. Of those 25, 12 were against lottery teams. And many of those wins were in the last month, as lottery teams were playing for nothing or trying to lose to improve their chances in the draft.

[BballTim]

Let me repeat what I said in the other post:

People here severely overestimate how good we were last year without Garnett. Last year without Garnett we were only marginally better than we are this year without Garnett.
Last year's 18-7 record without him included several easy games. Of those 25, 12 were against lottery teams. And many of those wins were in the last month, as lottery teams were playing for nothing or trying to lose to improve their chances in the draft.

  We also would have beat the Magic if not for the fact that the Chicago aeries was so exhausting.

[dlpin]

Let me repeat what I said in the other post:

People here severely overestimate how good we were last year without Garnett. Last year without Garnett we were only marginally better than we are this year without Garnett.
Last year's 18-7 record without him included several easy games. Of those 25, 12 were against lottery teams. And many of those wins were in the last month, as lottery teams were playing for nothing or trying to lose to improve their chances in the draft.

  We also would have beat the Magic if not for the fact that the Chicago aeries was so exhausting.

Well, that playoff team that took the magic to 7 is also the same team that was taken by the bulls to seven, so I don't know how the magic series proves that we were better than we are now. Heck, we'd probably beat the magic right now too, given how they are playing.

Point being KG's absence really hurt last year, and really hurt this year.

[drza44]

Let me repeat what I said in the other post:

People here severely overestimate how good we were last year without Garnett. Last year without Garnett we were only marginally better than we are this year without Garnett.
Last year's 18-7 record without him included several easy games. Of those 25, 12 were against lottery teams. And many of those wins were in the last month, as lottery teams were playing for nothing or trying to lose to improve their chances in the draft.

The similarities to last year go even further than that.  Let's look at how the Celtics looked right before KG got hurt both last year and this year:

08-09: 10-game winning streak with KG, KG goes out for 2 games (both wins), he returns and they go 3-2 before he gets hurt and misses 13 games. 

09-10: Won 12-of-13 with KG, KG misses a game (win), he returns limited (w/o Pierce) and they go 1 - 2; he gets hurt and misses the next 10 games. 

Now, let's look at what happened in KG's absence:

08-09: Celtics lost 4 of 6, 5 of 9, and 6 of 11 before his return. 

09-10: Celtics lost 4 of 6, 5 of 9, and 6 of 10 before his return.

Look familiar?  People acting like a stretch like this has never happened before really have short memories.  This EXACT stretch happened last year, from how the team was playing before KG went down to how they played while he was hurt.

Where I'm praying that things are different is that last year, KG only returned in part-time duty for 4 games before shutting it down for the season.  From everything the Cs are releasing, this year he's supposed to be returning at full health.  If that happens and the health sticks, 18.  That is all.