This year's C's the most frustrating team since last year's C's

[Jeff]

marathon > sprint

Cake > Pie

eating it too > having cake

[nba is the worst]

The C's are on pace for ~60 wins.  I can handle a game like this, against a good team, on the road, on the second night of a back-to-back, with no bigs.

I guess what also bothers me is the NBA's scheduling. The season is still young and Boston's already had three back-to-backs, if my memory is correct. And there's the Lakers coasting with a cupcake schedule so far. Maybe everything will balance out in the end, but I don't know, will it? Does every team end up playing the same number of back-to-backs?

http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2010/11/unnecessarily-comprehensive-and-overdue.html
links to a
A bunch of spreadsheets and such on the schedule this year

the celtics play 13 back to backs this year but no 4 in 5 nights

13 seems like on the lower end, 15 seems to be the most common number. Also learned a new acronym SEGABABA SEcond GAme of a BAck to BAck

Thanks for posting this, TP. Hard to understand at first glance but this guy did a nice job on the details.

Column F is the raw # of B2Bs for a team regardless of the opponent's B2B status or home/away. Lakers have the least at 15, Celtics have 19, and the Hawks, Bulls, and Bucks have 23.

Column G is when your team has a B2B and the opponent is rested; Column I is when your team is rested and the opponent is on the B2B.

Seems amazing the huge difference between the numbers for when your team is rested but your opponent is on the 2nd day of the B2B:
Suns 20, Celtics 14, LA 9, Knicks just 6 (a factor of -3.3X).

Celtics actually have one 4 games in 5 nights stretch this season according to column L, but have 4 opponents on the 4 in 5, to lead the league in 4-in-5 margin...

Interesting also is the B2B margin (how many B2B's your team has vs your opponents) - the Celtics have 1 more, but the differences are again significant with the most being +7 for the Suns and Thunder and the Knicks at -8.

Knicks appear to have the toughest schedule.

[CelticsWhat35]

Its one game.

Congrats. You're the first one (besides me) to say it. But seriously, these guys seem to play hard, and play smart, for only about a quarter of each game. That makes it quite frustrating for me and other fans.

No need to be rudely sarcastic, I was just pointing out how BBD ended up on Dirk. Again its one game, I'm also a fan I know how it goes.

I apologize, Fafnir. I let frustration get the best of me.

Hey no worries, I'm pretty ticked too.

Everyone gets more leeway after a crappy loss. I just take it out on the refs  .

Speaking of the refs...

I didn't get to see the game, but in reviewing the ft disparity (20-7 Mavs; 47-42 rebs, 38-32 points in the paint Celtics) appeared to be the key difference in scoring.

Then, at the bottom of the box score, I saw that Bill Kennedy was the lead official.

Looks like it could have been one of those "NBA is the worst" kind of games...

Thoughts, anyone who saw the game?

Overall, I didn't think the refs did a horrible job.  There were some horrible calls, and some cheap calls that made you scratch your head considering they were letting the teams play early on, but the refs didn't cost us the game.  However, 7 free throw attempts (and 12 fouls) in a 48 minute basketball game is rare.

But the Mavs aren't a hard-nosed basketball team.  The Celtics settled too much for jump shots.  I'm sure Chandler being in the game contributed to that, but still, the C's needed to attack the basket more.

[footey]

I like this squad more than last year's. And a lot more when Delonte comes into the fold.

[dark_lord]

what were people's expectations for this regualr season?!   for me personally, after seeing what happened last year, i expected the same exact thing, which is a veteran/old team that that will be vastly inconsistent during the regular season and then "turn it on" for the postseason. 

[mmbaby]

After last night's game, I'm wondering if Shaq could shut down Dirk. It was clear BBD and KG could not. I wonder if anyone can. He's just a huge guy and very physical.

[Assassin70]

what were people's expectations for this regualr season?!   for me personally, after seeing what happened last year, i expected the same exact thing, which is a veteran/old team that that will be vastly inconsistent during the regular season and then "turn it on" for the postseason. 

If we win Thursday nights game I can forget the 2 losses up to that point in the season.

But having said that I agree regular season is irrelevant.  The ONLY thing that matters is the C's are healthy and playing great basketball when the post season starts (and they are in it of course).  I don't care what our record is as long as that is the case.

[fairweatherfan]

After last night's game, I'm wondering if Shaq could shut down Dirk. It was clear BBD and KG could not. I wonder if anyone can. He's just a huge guy and very physical.

Dirk is maybe the most underrated in terms of strength in the league.  Mostly because he doesn't throw it around on defense or bully guys.  But the guy's a beast - on his last few drives we had multiple guys with a body on him and it didn't nudge him off-balance at all.

[pearljammer10]

The Celtics got beat by a good championship contending Dallas team. They played poorly in the first half but then regained their composure to make it an exciting game. They couldnt execute in the last 17 seconds. Davis played fairly ok defense on that last shot by Nowitzki. What lost the game was Allen not contending Terry's 3 pointer, and not coming up with a decent play after 2 timeouts at the end.

Overall Im really not too frustrated with this loss. We aren't going to win every game. Its not like we rolled over and died and let them win, we sparked our fire had a shot and just got beat. Simple enough. To call this loss "unacceptable"? I mean, that's just childish to me.

[greenpride32]

I'm okay with this loss; back to back on the road against tougher teams. 

Let's face it, the C's played poorly by their standards and still almost won the game.  We're also still missing SON D-West and had JON for one half. 

I am starting to get concerned with JON's health.  We really need him to be reliable and not in and out at random times.

Regarding the C's schedule, after a tough FEB, it's going to be a fairly easy schedule for the last 25 games or so.

[Jon Niednagel]

Don't get me wrong. It hurts to lose no matter what; however, I'm more okay losing this type of game than, say, losing to the T-Wolves at the Garden. Five games in seven nights, backend of a back-to-back, on the road, a tough opponent, and essentially only three semi-healthy bigs. You can't win them all, and it is usually this type of situation where good teams get the occasional loss through the season.

[fairweatherfan]

It's a shame we couldn't close it out but as others are saying - a back-to-back road game against a fringe title contender, our bigs are banged up, and we fell behind and came roaring back but couldn't seal the deal in the end.  That's not too bad as far as losses go. 

[Atzar]

After last night's game, I'm wondering if Shaq could shut down Dirk. It was clear BBD and KG could not. I wonder if anyone can. He's just a huge guy and very physical.

Dirk would have a lot more trouble with KG if JO were in the paint instead of Baby.  Davis is a lot of things, but a shotblocker is not one of them.  Dirk isn't so quick to drive on KG if he knows he has JO waiting in the weeds.  Also, Dallas wouldn't be forcing switches to get JO on Dirk like they did with BBD - he wouldn't be able to shoot over O'Neal.

Dirk is clutch, but I think last night's fourth quarter performance by him was more because of our decimated front line than because he has our defense's number or anything like that.  Make no mistake, though:  Dirk is one of the most gifted scorers in our league, and he's nearly impossible to stop when his jumpshot is falling.  Shutting him down is a team effort in the same way that dealing with LeBron or Wade is a team effort.

[nba is the worst]

what were people's expectations for this regualr season?!   for me personally, after seeing what happened last year, i expected the same exact thing, which is a veteran/old team that that will be vastly inconsistent during the regular season and then "turn it on" for the postseason. 

To me, it all comes down to KG's health (and that of the 5 spot to a lesser extent) and Rondo's shooting.

If KG can play at this level all season and Rondo's jumper/fts improve, they will contend for best record.

If not, 50-55 wins is realistic.

[Fafnir]

Rondo's jumper this year has been good so far. He's shooting around 42% on his long twos and has only take 5 threes (and made 2)

Now a higher percentage of those long 2s are wide open compared to league average, but 42% is about the rate a guy like KG makes those shots.

Now the foul shooting has been bad and its still early. Overall Rondo has looked fantastic.