If the Celtics lose to Miami is their regular season a failure?

[thirstyboots18]

Results are promised to no one.  The best you can do is to put yourself in a position to win, and keep repositioning yourself to win. So far the Celtics have done that. The Celtics have had a few setbacks along the road, but anyone with a goal has a few failures...otherwise the goal is not high enough.  Winning or losing any particular game is not the goal.  Until the Celtics are out of the playoffs, I don't think you can call them, or the season, a failure.  

(I am still miffed that they did not win 60 games this year...and even madder at myself for making that losing bet!  I will never learn, though, and will be betting all my TPs again this year...and I am counting on happier results!)

[Prof. Clutch]

I'm a little confused...does the OP mean if we lose to Miami tomorrow night or in the playoffs. 

Either way, this season won't be a "failure" to me no matter what.  I got to watch a whole season of entertaining basketball by one of the best teams in basketball, and cheer them on for a legitimate run at an NBA Championship...how could that ever be considered a "failure?"

[Tai]

Are we just saying the Heat because we very well may have to play them in the 2nd round? Cause we could beat the Heat, lose to the Wizards and Knicks, and in that matter lose HCA to the Heat.

So, is the real question "If the Celtics don't finish ahead of the Heat for HCA, is the regular season a failure"? To that question even, I'd have to say no, considering we'd probably have, at absolute worst, the 6th best record out of 30 teams in the regular season. In the end, the Celtics still need to show up for the playoffs, plain and simple.

[manbehindtheman]

yes the season is a failure if it does not produce a championship.

[thirstyboots18]

The question was "If the Celtics lose to Miami in the REGULAR SEASON...."   I maintain that lessons can be learned from losses that are not learned from wins, and can be used later.  I hope Miami does not learn that....

[Mike-Dub]

They already met my preseason prediction of 55 wins.

[tyrone biggums]

Didn't you know? This season is a massive failure because of "The Trade"!

Seriously, its middle of the road this team wasn't designed to be the top team in the NBA during the regular season. Lots of people had them as the 2nd or 3rd seed anyways, so I would classify them as living up to realistic expectations.

[Redz]

yes the season is a failure if it does not produce a championship.

"It's all about 18"

[Vermont Green]

with question marks about our identity

Others have thrown this out as well and I honestly don't get this.  Who exactly (Besides Bill Simmonds) is questioning our identity and even if our "identity" is somehow not clear to someone, how does that change winning or loosing games?

I believe that to the extent that team identity is real, it would be defined first and foremost by the coach and then by the best players.  LA, Phil and Kobe.  Chicago, Thibs and Rose.  Miami, Lebron and Wade (alright, maybe the coach isn't always a key factor).  But for the Celtics, our team identity was defined by Perk?

For the record, I don't think the Celtics have an identity problem nor should they be worring about it.  This is about basketball.  Doc, KG, PP etc don't need Perk to show them how to play basketball the right way.  They have years of proving that before Perk was even in the league.  If anything, Perk got his basketball "identity" from Doc, Pierce, and KG, certainly not the other way around.

[Roy H.]

with question marks about our identity

Others have thrown this out as well and I honestly don't get this.  Who exactly (Besides Bill Simmonds) is questioning our identity and even if our "identity" is somehow not clear to someone, how does that change winning or loosing games?

Doc is among those questioning the identity:

Rivers said typically the team has a sense of its identity going into the playoffs. Asked if that sense was missing, Rivers said, “I would say that’s true, yeah.’’

The deadline trade that sent Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson to Oklahoma City for Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic is one of the obvious reasons.

“We made all the moves,’’ he said. “So it’s tough to know who you are. We knew that when we decided to do this, but we’ll discover that.’’

Link.

[thirstyboots18]

with question marks about our identity

Others have thrown this out as well and I honestly don't get this.  Who exactly (Besides Bill Simmonds) is questioning our identity and even if our "identity" is somehow not clear to someone, how does that change winning or loosing games?

I believe that to the extent that team identity is real, it would be defined first and foremost by the coach and then by the best players.  LA, Phil and Kobe.  Chicago, Thibs and Rose.  Miami, Lebron and Wade (alright, maybe the coach isn't always a key factor).  But for the Celtics, our team identity was defined by Perk?

For the record, I don't think the Celtics have an identity problem nor should they be worring about it.  This is about basketball.  Doc, KG, PP etc don't need Perk to show them how to play basketball the right way.  They have years of proving that before Perk was even in the league.  If anything, Perk got his basketball "identity" from Doc, Pierce, and KG, certainly not the other way around.

I agree, and TP.  When things get rough it is only natural to question  yourself, but Doc is a good coach and the players are all professionals who want another ring.  They all know what happens when teamwork fails, and they will put the pieces  together to make a single entity...a team.

[LB3533]

Good news, over the last 10 season, only 2 times has the eventual NBA Champs owned the best regular season record: Boston 07-08 & San Antonio 02-03

[mgent]

Considering we're 2nd in minutes missed and 3rd in games missed, I don't think the 3rd record in the East would be a huge failure.

Not like Miami has any chance of passing us though.

[Tai]

Considering we're 2nd in minutes missed and 3rd in games missed, I don't think the 3rd record in the East would be a huge failure.

Not like Miami has any chance of passing us though.

Minutes missed and games missed? What do you mean?

[BballTim]

Considering we're 2nd in minutes missed and 3rd in games missed, I don't think the 3rd record in the East would be a huge failure.

Not like Miami has any chance of passing us though.

Minutes missed and games missed? What do you mean?

  I'm guessing injuries.