I don't want to be a downer but

[j804]

The Celtics are fine.  Only Chicago and Miami can beat them in the playoffs.  Both of these teams have severe limitations that don't necessarily show up in the regular season, but become obvious in the playoffs.  Chicago goes through bigger offensive droughts than even the Celtics do, and the Heat have no bigs.  The Celtics surely will take advantage of those two shortcomings in the playoffs.

Seriously though, they just need their depth back.  They're occasionally going to lose leads this year, but that's NOTHING compared to last year's regular season nightmare!  When the playoffs roll around, we'll have our centers, Shaq, JO, and Semih togetha...in addition to Nate/Delonte/Wafer.  Marquis is our x variable here...maybe a trade will be had, but I'm willing to bet it may be a halfway pleasant one at the very least...i.e. josh howard, etc.

There is a very good chance the Heat will rock it in Boston tomorrow and steal a game away, but by no means does that mean they have anything upon the Celtics...it'll just be like the Lakers game Thursday.  In other words, if those guys DON"T beat the Celtics at this point in the year (with injuries etc...), then they're realllly in trouble!

Don't worry!  The C's are golden.  They'll run off a big slew of wins after the all star break.

Chicago can't!  And I don't think Miami can either. 

IMHO no one can beat us in the playoffs, especially in the East.

with our current squad

yup we can be beaten

Yup we need Scal back....

[guava_wrench]

We will have a better chance with home court advantage.

We will have a better chance if healthy.

Even the strongest team in the league in any given year can lose a 7 game series. Corollary: No matter what our squad is, we can be beaten.

Ultimately, we never know how things will play out until they do.

[Tgro]

The one thing I take solace in when the chips have been down this year (as they certainly are now) is (correct me if I'm wrong)....but I only recall one game where we really wasn't in it and that was the Phoenix game and that came at the hands of a traveling back to back into different time zones. Also I think over half our loses have come on the 2nd half of back to backs. Every other loss, I believe we had legitimate shots to come back and win. We were within striking distance until the very end and maybe at the end we let a couple get away but generally we have had legitimate shots to win a lot of our loses. Sometimes I think we could be about 44-8 right now if we had a couple bounces go our way when it mattered. Therefore, I think the Celtics are a really excellent team. Even at 38-14, we are still one of the very few elite.

I think when the playoffs comes the focus will reappear and we'll turn it on like last year. I'm worried about a couple of teams, but I clearly think we're better than all of them and I feel that will show up when it matters the most.