I'm using pretty pessimistic, but I gotta say that as long as KG and Pierce are healthy... we should knock off the Knicks in 5 or 6.
This is our 6th season with KG. The team knows what they are at this point... a playoff team. We knew going into this season that we had two simple priorities:
#1 - Make the playoffs. Boston has proven that seeding doesn't matter. Atlanta had home court against us last year and we still owned them. In 2010, we beat both Cleveland and Orlando despite them having home court.
#2 - Be healthy. Last year we gave Miami heart palpitations on their way to a championship and this was in spite of having half our team injured (Bradley, JO, Wilcox, Green) and Pierce and Ray playing with significant injuries. We should have repeated as champions in 2009 if KG hadn't been hurt.
... That's it. Make the playoffs and be healthy. I guess it could be argued that avoiding Miami in Round 1 was an optional objective. Check mark on all 3.
So you knew this regular season was going to be crap. We started it off lackadaisical and unmotivated. We essentially locked up the playoffs in Mid-March and effectively took the final month of the season off.
The only stretch of the season that mattered was Post-Rondo. Here's why...
The Post-Rondo stretch marked the only part of the season where Boston actually had something to play for. The team had something to prove. They needed to prove to themselves that they could still be a competitive team without their 3rd best player. They needed to prove that a free-flowing ball-sharing offense (as opposed to a restrictive Rondo-centric offense) could still result in points.
Rondo's last game was on 1/25/13... the last game of a 6 game losing streak.
From 1/26/13 to 3/16/13 we went 16-6.
Some notes about that stretch:
-We beat Miami, Lakers, Denver, Chicago, Golden State, Indiana and Atlanta. All playoff teams.
-Barbosa got hurt on 2/11 in a loss vs the Bobcats. I was absolutely adamant at the time that this was as big a deal as losing Rondo. Not because Barbosa was as good as Rondo... but because in the absence of Rondo, Barbosa was absolutely key to what we were doing offensively... dropping double digits off the bench and allowing us to have an effective 4 guard rotation (two being defense and two being offense). We lost again on 2/19 and 2/20 without him... and then signed Jordan Crawford to be his replacement. Crawford has his worst game of the season on 2/24 (a scoreless loss against Portland) and then we proceeded to get back on track and win 5 in a row. I technically don't even count those 4 losses...
- We got trashed by the Bobcats 100-74 on 3/12. Easy explanation: The guy who has been key to our offense for a decade, Paul Pierce, missed the game. That's what happens when your 2nd best player has a rare DNP.
... So if you're scoring at home... I don't count the 4 losses during the Barbosa/Crawford transition and I don't count the loss to the Bobcats on 3/12. That leaves us as 16-1 during that stretch... our only loss coming to the Thunder. I'll take it.
...
Our MVP, Kevin Garnett, played in the majority of those games. When necessary his minutes were increased (45 vs Miami and 47 vs Denver in OT games). As you know, on 3/18 we lost a heartbreaker to Miami by 2 points... Jeff Green dropped 43. KG didn't play in that game.
As far as I'm concerned, the regular season officially ended for us at that point. We had nothing left to prove. We had nothing left to play for. Our spot in the playoffs was all but cemented. We proved we could beat anyone who mattered (sans OKC), we beat Miami once and nearly beat them again even without KG. At that point, we packed it in and took a month off waiting for the playoffs. I haven't watched a single game since then.
Over that past month, KG (by far our most important player) has only played in 5 games... and never once played over 30 minutes. I look at those as purely maintenance games. It's like having an old car sitting in your garage and taking it out for a spin around the block every couple weeks to make sure it still works.
Note that KG typically plays 31 minutes during the regular season (29 minutes this year) ... and come playoff time we boost his minutes to 37. It's already been proven with endless stats that Boston goes from one of the league's best defensive teams with KG on the floor... to one of the league's worst with him sitting. Last year, KG managed to averaged 20, 10 and 2 during the playoffs when his minutes were boosted to 37.
Additionally, Paul Pierce (by far our best offensive weapon even when Rondo was dishing out passes), usually boosts his minutes up to 39 during the playoffs. He averaged a career low 33.4 during the regular season this year. Last year, despite playing with a sprained MCL, Pierce still played 39 a night.
So... do not by fooled by our garbage 41-40 record. Yes, it wouldn't have been enough to even make the playoffs in the Western Conference. But we always knew the regular season would be irrelevant for Boston. We already proved we could hang with any team in the league. Now that the playoffs have started... you'll see that team once again.
One last note: Boston tends to excel when they can focus on one team and then build a strategy against them. We're an intelligent veteran team that knows how to adapt to our opponent. I wouldn't be surprised to see us lose this first game... and then win the next 4. That's just the way we are.
GO BOSTON!
Topic: Celtics are better than the Knicks. We should own them. (Read 21696 times)