The FACTS don't lie

[Rondo_is_better]

And, if the Celts can't win it, someone else must stop the dreaded Lakers.

We'd have to depend on:

Cavs - Please God no.
Magic - I don't see it happening.  They could get to the Finals and lose again, though.
Hawks - They can definitely get to the ECF, but I don't see them getting farther.  And really, that'd be a great accomplishment for them.

Mavs - Not with their team as it is now.  Maybe if they trade Josh Howard for somebody good and play good defense consistently.
Nuggets - I doubt it; I'm not sure they're better than they were last year.  In fact, I'm fairly confident they aren't.

That's pretty much it, as far as I see it.  Fringe contenders would be San Antonio, who are in pretty much the same boat as us, and Utah, who doesn't really have enough talent or good enough defense for it in my opinion.

Sick.....

Los Angeles Lakers: Default NBA champions two years in a row.

Slogan: "Because there was no one else!"

---------------------

can we just be a completely healthy team for the rest of the year? Seriously? No more injuries. This team was supposed to be nasty. Lately, we kind of suck. Let's PULL IT TOGETHER.

[PosImpos]

And, if the Celts can't win it, someone else must stop the dreaded Lakers.

We'd have to depend on:

Cavs - Please God no.
Magic - I don't see it happening.  They could get to the Finals and lose again, though.
Hawks - They can definitely get to the ECF, but I don't see them getting farther.  And really, that'd be a great accomplishment for them.

Mavs - Not with their team as it is now.  Maybe if they trade Josh Howard for somebody good and play good defense consistently.
Nuggets - I doubt it; I'm not sure they're better than they were last year.  In fact, I'm fairly confident they aren't.

That's pretty much it, as far as I see it.  Fringe contenders would be San Antonio, who are in pretty much the same boat as us, and Utah, who doesn't really have enough talent or good enough defense for it in my opinion.

Sick.....

Los Angeles Lakers: Default NBA champions two years in a row.

Slogan: "Because there was no one else!"

---------------------

can we just be a completely healthy team for the rest of the year? Seriously? No more injuries. This team was supposed to be nasty. Lately, we kind of suck. Let's PULL IT TOGETHER.

Honestly, I wouldn't be that surprised if the Cavs won it this year.  I really doubted them to start the year but they're coming together.  Which isn't really due to Shaq so much as it's due to LeBron being ridiculously good and the other players doing as well as they can. 

The Cavs have owned the Lakers so far this year, too, so if that were the Finals matchup it might not be so easy for the Lakers to win.

That said, I can't stand LeBron and all of the love he gets, and if (it's more like when) he wins a championship, it'll only get worse.  At least the Kobe lovefest can't really get any worse than it already is.  Can it?

[Rondo_is_better]

And, if the Celts can't win it, someone else must stop the dreaded Lakers.

We'd have to depend on:

Cavs - Please God no.
Magic - I don't see it happening.  They could get to the Finals and lose again, though.
Hawks - They can definitely get to the ECF, but I don't see them getting farther.  And really, that'd be a great accomplishment for them.

Mavs - Not with their team as it is now.  Maybe if they trade Josh Howard for somebody good and play good defense consistently.
Nuggets - I doubt it; I'm not sure they're better than they were last year.  In fact, I'm fairly confident they aren't.

That's pretty much it, as far as I see it.  Fringe contenders would be San Antonio, who are in pretty much the same boat as us, and Utah, who doesn't really have enough talent or good enough defense for it in my opinion.

Sick.....

Los Angeles Lakers: Default NBA champions two years in a row.

Slogan: "Because there was no one else!"

---------------------

can we just be a completely healthy team for the rest of the year? Seriously? No more injuries. This team was supposed to be nasty. Lately, we kind of suck. Let's PULL IT TOGETHER.

Honestly, I wouldn't be that surprised if the Cavs won it this year.  I really doubted them to start the year but they're coming together.  Which isn't really due to Shaq so much as it's due to LeBron being ridiculously good and the other players doing as well as they can. 

The Cavs have owned the Lakers so far this year, too, so if that were the Finals matchup it might not be so easy for the Lakers to win.

That said, I can't stand LeBron and all of the love he gets, and if (it's more like when) he wins a championship, it'll only get worse.  At least the Kobe lovefest can't really get any worse than it already is.  Can it?

Skip Bayless. Asking if Skip Bayless can get worse is like asking if Stephen A. Smith has ever raised his voice.

[albas89]

And, if the Celts can't win it, someone else must stop the dreaded Lakers.

We'd have to depend on:

Cavs - Please God no.
Magic - I don't see it happening.  They could get to the Finals and lose again, though.
Hawks - They can definitely get to the ECF, but I don't see them getting farther.  And really, that'd be a great accomplishment for them.

Mavs - Not with their team as it is now.  Maybe if they trade Josh Howard for somebody good and play good defense consistently.
Nuggets - I doubt it; I'm not sure they're better than they were last year.  In fact, I'm fairly confident they aren't.

That's pretty much it, as far as I see it.  Fringe contenders would be San Antonio, who are in pretty much the same boat as us, and Utah, who doesn't really have enough talent or good enough defense for it in my opinion.

Sick.....

Los Angeles Lakers: Default NBA champions two years in a row.

Slogan: "Because there was no one else!"

---------------------

can we just be a completely healthy team for the rest of the year? Seriously? No more injuries. This team was supposed to be nasty. Lately, we kind of suck. Let's PULL IT TOGETHER.

Honestly, I wouldn't be that surprised if the Cavs won it this year.  I really doubted them to start the year but they're coming together.  Which isn't really due to Shaq so much as it's due to LeBron being ridiculously good and the other players doing as well as they can. 

The Cavs have owned the Lakers so far this year, too, so if that were the Finals matchup it might not be so easy for the Lakers to win.

That said, I can't stand LeBron and all of the love he gets, and if (it's more like when) he wins a championship, it'll only get worse.  At least the Kobe lovefest can't really get any worse than it already is.  Can it?

I believe the Cavs are GONNA win it all this year and, man, I can assure you that the Lebron lovefest will be much worse than the Kobe one...

The comparison with Jordan will lead to the conclusion that Lebron is way better because he had no "Pippen" to play alongside, etc...
I can even predict that the NBA will be renamed to LBA (LEBRON BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION) and many other little things that will change the way basketball is played(for example the introduction of the crab dribble...), so that King James can fully enjoy his favorite sport...

omg, I hope 2012 comes as soon as possible, I won't stand this...

[dlpin]

I will ask what I have always asked in these threads:

who are the championship contenders, then?

We are 3 losses out of first.

Now, don't get me wrong. This doesn't mean that we don't have serious issues. We really do. But some seem to think that "contender" has to mean "overwhelming favorites by a wide margin." No. I just has to mean that we have a realistic chance of beating any team on a 7 game series. And we do have a realistic chance.

My biggest hope is that, come playoff time, Doc and the rest of the coaching staff sees enough film of the other teams to preempt these little adjustments that kill us.

[Bahku]

While we certainly have issues and adjustments to make, (as dlpin has said so eloquently - TP), I just don't see all the gloom-and-doom and signs of bad karma that seem to be running amok on the threads these days. KG is not remotely 100%, and I didn't expect him to be at this point.

The chemistry is not what it has been or should be, but why would anyone expect that after the injuries and absences? The defensive concentration has been compromised as well, but again, I don't expect perfection in that department with Ticket having been out so long.

I think we're a bit spoiled here in Boston and we take for granted that we're still, despite all the problems, one of the best teams in the NBA. Every year we go through similar periods, as we did even in our championship year, and I just don't see this as being any more or less impactful as those, or any more troubling.

We need to take a small step backward, take a deep breath, and remember who the players are on this team, who the coaching staff is, and trust that they have the knowledge and experience and desire to make the necessary adjustments required to get back on top.

If this were a week before the playoffs I might feel a bit differently, for timing purposes only, but it's not, and while these losses are always hard to take, most of the other teams in the NBA would be more than happy to trade their win/loss record with us.

[xmuscularghandix]

lol

[jadams5214]

To hear Doc talking about tonight's game is revealing.  He actually agrees with the more observant posters on this board on how the C's should have been up by far more than 11 points at halftime instead of being "positive" about having a small lead relative to the dominance the C's had displayed...


"We deserved it," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "I thought we completely lost our focus. An 11-point lead at halftime, I told them it was a joke. We should've been up by 25 points."

KG was terrible and unable to even move up and down the court.  Pierce made one big shot but was invisible for most of the game.  Matt Barnes of all people shut him down!  Ray Allen was great for much of the night but got hardly any touches in the 4th quarter.   This latest collapse hit the C's hard and it's good to see Doc addressing it instead of hiding behind excuses or cliches as he quite often does...

[dlpin]

To hear Doc talking about tonight's game is revealing.  He actually agrees with the more observant posters on this board on how the C's should have been up by far more than 11 points at halftime instead of being "positive" about having a small lead relative to the dominance the C's had displayed...


"We deserved it," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "I thought we completely lost our focus. An 11-point lead at halftime, I told them it was a joke. We should've been up by 25 points."

KG was terrible and unable to even move up and down the court.  Pierce made one big shot but was invisible for most of the game.  Matt Barnes of all people shut him down!  Ray Allen was great for much of the night but got hardly any touches in the 4th quarter.   This latest collapse hit the C's hard and it's good to see Doc addressing it instead of hiding behind excuses or cliches as he quite often does...

Yes, because anyone who ever sees anything positive in a game is simply not observant, right? And people want to post positive things for it's own sake, right?

We played three solid quarters and were absolutely manhandled in the last. The problem is not that the lead wasn't bigger at the half. The problem is that we sucked in the 4th when Doc and the team didnt adjust to Gortat and Howard on the court.

[Roy Hobbs]

Is it too late to start tanking for a draft pick?  I mean, why even play out the rest of the season, since we're doomed?

 

[Kiorrik]

Is it too late to start tanking for a draft pick?  I mean, why even play out the rest of the season, since we're doomed?

 

[/cosigned]

Btw, another "FACT" (what's with the caps?) that "doesn't lie": apparently there's more people that dislike the negativity in the game threads than people that actually appreciate it.

[Roy Hobbs]

To hear Doc talking about tonight's game is revealing.  He actually agrees with the more observant posters on this board on how the C's should have been up by far more than 11 points at halftime instead of being "positive" about having a small lead relative to the dominance the C's had displayed...


"We deserved it," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "I thought we completely lost our focus. An 11-point lead at halftime, I told them it was a joke. We should've been up by 25 points."

KG was terrible and unable to even move up and down the court.  Pierce made one big shot but was invisible for most of the game.  Matt Barnes of all people shut him down!  Ray Allen was great for much of the night but got hardly any touches in the 4th quarter.   This latest collapse hit the C's hard and it's good to see Doc addressing it instead of hiding behind excuses or cliches as he quite often does...

Yes, because anyone who ever sees anything positive in a game is simply not observant, right? And people want to post positive things for it's own sake, right?

We played three solid quarters and were absolutely manhandled in the last. The problem is not that the lead wasn't bigger at the half. The problem is that we sucked in the 4th when Doc and the team didnt adjust to Gortat and Howard on the court.

Yes, heaven forbid posters actually try to enjoy the game threads and bring a little bit of positivity to them, rather than engage in the constant attacks on the team and the fans that we've seen there lately. 

I get the sense that a minority of fans who post in the game threads are actually rooting for the team to fail, so they can be proven "right".  That, however, is a subject for another time...

[slamtheking]

I'm not thrilled with how this team is playing but here's a positive "fact".

There are 4 really good teams in the Eastern conference, all of which are capable of getting to the finals and the Celtics are one of them.  There is no truly dominant team in the East running away with HCA and creaming everyone they play. 

Another positive "fact". 
When the C's play focussed basketball, nobody beats them.  They outplay the competition.  It's only when they lose focus and play half-heartedly (or with their heads up their keysters) that other teams are able to compete with them.  The C's are their own worst enemies (well, that's not much of a positive other than to say they beat themselves more than the other team beats them).

Are there reasons to be concerned, absolutely.  I certainly am.  True championship teams play with much more focus than this group is playing with currently.  The current group isn't doing that.  They're just sputtering along for whatever reason.  Only they truly know why.  They don't seem to have that drive to prove they're winners that they had 2 years ago (and even last year for that matter).

Bird's teams in the early to mid 80's didn't cough up games after having double-digit leads.  I'm not saying they didn't let teams back into games, because they certainly did, but at some point as the game came to a close, the team got its act together and focussed on doing the necessary things to win the game.  Bird and company didn't care what time of year the game was played--they wanted to win all of them.  That's the way true champions play.

[Drucci]

Sure, it is frustrating to blow out a 16 points lead on the road once again.

But you have to take the good with the bad or vice versa : we did have a 16 point lead at one point and dominated the game for 3 quarters. You will tell me it doesn't matter if you get outscored in the 4th, and you're right, but still, it shows we have all the pieces to win a championship.

I thought coaching was to blame tonight for the most part, in the second half.

[Fan from VT]

To hear Doc talking about tonight's game is revealing.  He actually agrees with the more observant posters on this board on how the C's should have been up by far more than 11 points at halftime instead of being "positive" about having a small lead relative to the dominance the C's had displayed...


"We deserved it," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "I thought we completely lost our focus. An 11-point lead at halftime, I told them it was a joke. We should've been up by 25 points."

KG was terrible and unable to even move up and down the court.  Pierce made one big shot but was invisible for most of the game.  Matt Barnes of all people shut him down!  Ray Allen was great for much of the night but got hardly any touches in the 4th quarter.   This latest collapse hit the C's hard and it's good to see Doc addressing it instead of hiding behind excuses or cliches as he quite often does...

Yes, because anyone who ever sees anything positive in a game is simply not observant, right? And people want to post positive things for it's own sake, right?

We played three solid quarters and were absolutely manhandled in the last. The problem is not that the lead wasn't bigger at the half. The problem is that we sucked in the 4th when Doc and the team didnt adjust to Gortat and Howard on the court.

Yes, heaven forbid posters actually try to enjoy the game threads and bring a little bit of positivity to them, rather than engage in the constant attacks on the team and the fans that we've seen there lately. 

I get the sense that a minority of fans who post in the game threads are actually rooting for the team to fail, so they can be proven "right".  That, however, is a subject for another time...

I think there is a minority that may do that. However, I think far and away most fans want boston to win. I, for one, certainly sound negative when I am kind of smugly told that i don't understand the game enough to know that the Celtics are still a dominant, veteran team that will be favorites in the playoffs.

Sorry, but I'm not so sure. I see a team that consistently gets out hustled, out muscled, and out athleted. I would not bet my life that they'll win it all. I still want them to.