Fellow C's fans: be wary of short memory

[ballin]

The Celtics start the season off ON FIRE. By the second half of the season, everyone forgets about it and concludes that the Celtics are more of a lottery team than a contender.

Fast forward to the playoffs. The Celtics start to pull together a string of great wins, and now the same fans who were lamenting the greatly exaggerated demise of the Celtics are now saying "I can't believe the experts aren't picking us to beat the Cavs in 6! We don't get any respect!"

There's a reason why so much hyperbole is abound on these forums. Most fans seem to forget the entirety of the season and instead formulate their ENTIRE opinion of the C's based on the last 3~7 games. If everybody were to actually consider the entire season, and use all of the knowledge available to them, I believe we'd get much less hyperbole and far more reasoned comments.

The point of my post is that this team is NOT the team of the last 7 games alone (who have been amazing), nor is it the team of the last 4 months alone (who were awful). This is a team forged through the entire season, and should be analyzed as such.

It shouldn't be a surprise that we're competing with the Cavs when we went 2-2 against them (I think) in the regular season.

Just keep that in mind when/if we play the Magic, whom we were 1-3 against, before posting any "C's simply aren't trying!" comments after losses or "Why don't the experts pick us to win in 4 games?" after any wins.

[Roy Hobbs]

Most years, I would agree with you.  Not this season, though.  The past ten games have been light and day from the regular season, at least post-Christmas.  They're different teams, and need to be evaluated as such.

I've never been a believer in walking through the regular season and attempting to "flip the switch" heading into the playoffs, but it certainly looks like this year's squad is pulling it off.

I think this team played hard at the beginning of the year, and after the injuries started, they decided it wasn't worth it.  The team you're seeing now isn't much different than the team that led the league in point differential by a very wide margin at the beginning of the year.

Could the team fall back into bad habits?  It's possible, but I don't think it will happen.

[Birdbrain]

The Celtics start the season off ON FIRE. By the second half of the season, everyone forgets about it and concludes that the Celtics are more of a lottery team than a contender.

Fast forward to the playoffs. The Celtics start to pull together a string of great wins, and now the same fans who were lamenting the greatly exaggerated demise of the Celtics are now saying "I can't believe the experts aren't picking us to beat the Cavs in 6! We don't get any respect!"

There's a reason why so much hyperbole is abound on these forums. Most fans seem to forget the entirety of the season and instead formulate their ENTIRE opinion of the C's based on the last 3~7 games. If everybody were to actually consider the entire season, and use all of the knowledge available to them, I believe we'd get much less hyperbole and far more reasoned comments.

The point of my post is that this team is NOT the team of the last 7 games alone (who have been amazing), nor is it the team of the last 4 months alone (who were awful). This is a team forged through the entire season, and should be analyzed as such.

It shouldn't be a surprise that we're competing with the Cavs when we went 2-2 against them (I think) in the regular season.

Just keep that in mind when/if we play the Magic, whom we were 1-3 against, before posting any "C's simply aren't trying!" comments after losses or "Why don't the experts pick us to win in 4 games?" after any wins.

There is no rational explanation for the Cavs in 4 prediction.  Except not having a clue.

[BballTim]

The Celtics start the season off ON FIRE. By the second half of the season, everyone forgets about it and concludes that the Celtics are more of a lottery team than a contender.

Fast forward to the playoffs. The Celtics start to pull together a string of great wins, and now the same fans who were lamenting the greatly exaggerated demise of the Celtics are now saying "I can't believe the experts aren't picking us to beat the Cavs in 6! We don't get any respect!"

There's a reason why so much hyperbole is abound on these forums. Most fans seem to forget the entirety of the season and instead formulate their ENTIRE opinion of the C's based on the last 3~7 games. If everybody were to actually consider the entire season, and use all of the knowledge available to them, I believe we'd get much less hyperbole and far more reasoned comments.

The point of my post is that this team is NOT the team of the last 7 games alone (who have been amazing), nor is it the team of the last 4 months alone (who were awful). This is a team forged through the entire season, and should be analyzed as such.

It shouldn't be a surprise that we're competing with the Cavs when we went 2-2 against them (I think) in the regular season.

Just keep that in mind when/if we play the Magic, whom we were 1-3 against, before posting any "C's simply aren't trying!" comments after losses or "Why don't the experts pick us to win in 4 games?" after any wins.

  I don't fit into you category as I've been saying steadily "when we're healthy, nobody in the league is better" since before Xmas. However, I'd say that your play over the last 7 games should also be factored into how you think the team will perform.

[incoherent]

The best indication of how we will play is how we have played so far in the playoffs only. 

[PosImpos]

Like Roy said, I think in this case we really are looking at a different team.

I didn't believe that this team could turn it on either, but it really does seem like when this team is healthy and the chemistry is good they can beat anybody.

[Mr October]

The switch has been flipped, my friend.

The team was clearly in some sort of coast mode - I think it was a combination of injuries, focus, a desire to conserve the body for the playoffs (shooting way to many jumpshots, not diving for loose balls, etc).

The playoffs are a whole different animal. And with an older team, that is the goal - play for the playoffs.

[FallGuy]

Most years, I would agree with you.  Not this season, though.  The past ten games have been light and day from the regular season, at least post-Christmas.  They're different teams, and need to be evaluated as such.

I've never been a believer in walking through the regular season and attempting to "flip the switch" heading into the playoffs, but it certainly looks like this year's squad is pulling it off.

I think this team played hard at the beginning of the year, and after the injuries started, they decided it wasn't worth it.  The team you're seeing now isn't much different than the team that led the league in point differential by a very wide margin at the beginning of the year.

Could the team fall back into bad habits?  It's possible, but I don't think it will happen.

I think we're all almost believers. If they can slay the home court dragon tonight, in a closeout game of this magnitude - I think it eliminates any final doubts.

[Q_FBE]

I don't know, I take it one possestion at a time and make a temporary evaluation which will only be good for a few minutes.

[Change]

No my friend. You seem to forget the difference between regular season and playoffs. This Celtics squad were build for the playoffs and to compete for championships. At this time of the year, Regular season means nothing.

Can't lose focus now. 9 additional wins Celtics get #18

[celticinorlando]

i just need to see james' jumper. once i see that i can tell you what will happen