The Celtics are officially championship contenders

[CelticPride2016]

It is time to up the ante and call it what it is. We could easily steal a title this year.

A win is a win is a win.

Golden State and Cleveland are great, but we'd only have to beat them four out of seven. That would be well below our seasonal win percentage.

It is not even halfway. There is one more to go for that and we are seriously competing to be the fifth best team.

I think Houston is shady. I don't exactly trust them as real. Maybe I should take a closer look at their roster. We crushed them one game and then McHale was gone. It makes no sense why McHale and Sanders haven't been signed yet.

Tonight showed how important it is to have good bigs to pair with the proven Horford. Was that Olynyk's best game as a pro? I don't know. I was against changing the starters, but now might be the time to do it. Amir is a center type at this point. No way is he six foot nine. He's lying like KG did. Amir is the obvious choice to back up Al. Olynyk is much more dynamic on offense. Amir and Al are sort of more redundant, if that makes sense.

Rozier had some good moments, but we could have used Bradley.

If we are going to go with offense, then yeah, maybe it's finally time to welcome Olynyk to the NBA big show. He looked clutch tonight. He looked like he'd been there before. The schedule is going to get easy and Kelly has always been the kind to beat up on mediocre teams. Maybe his dinosaur arms hurt on defense, but perhaps they help with his shooting. He was on fire. Feed the pig. This was perhaps the biggest win so far. Atlanta was on a roll. Their fans were chippy. We do have to find a way to better finish off games.

But we have over forty more to put it together. Everything is on schedule.

Jae Crowder was on fire. A lot of guys truly stepped up to the plate.

Gerald Green was on the bad side of streaky.

Maybe send Jaylen to play big minutes in Maine. Get him up to speed on the little things holding him back. He could build some confidence. I'd only do it a few games. He needs practice and experience.

Jerebko had that one great stretch earlier in the season, but now he seems back to merely serviceable.

Smart had a miserable night shooting. Maybe that's where Bradley might have helped.

Stevens went small ball towards the end, but thankfully he didn't stick with it for too long.

Maybe it would have been a good time to give Jordan a try at it. It is painful losing twenty point leads, but that was a clutch shot by Isaiah. Olynyk was pumping his fist as in that was a big win guys, as if he cares.

I'm glad I'm not the Keith Bogans sort of fan, those miserable people.

The fifth best record seems reachable.

5. Raptors 26-13
6. Clippers 27-14
7. Celtics 25-15

as for tankathon:

1. Brooklyn 8-31
2. Miami 11-30

We should root for the Lakers and Philly, so the 76er's won't keep stockpiling top three picks.

But that is some far away tangent.

We could win out the rest of the month. We are that good and the schedule is that easy. We'll want revenge on Houston. That is the only tough game left.

All the Celtics need to do is ignore the trade rumors and keep piling up wins. Horford said it in a preview interview. This team is one that is growing. Bradley, Isaiah and Horford are the middle income man's Big Three and then we have the solid depth of quality hungry players with talent. There are stashes and future Nets' picks. The sun is shining very brightly on Celtics Nation.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Overreaction.  Nice win, but we're not contenders by a long-shot.  Doesn't make being the third best team in the East + two more BKN picks any less enjoyable.

[max215]

We're really good and in an historically enviable long-term position. We are not yet contenders.

[libermaniac]

If you count hoping for injuries to 1) LeBron 2) Durant or Curry, then maybe ;-)

[Ilikesports17]

cmon now, you cant make this post after complaining about knee-jerk negativity after the last loss.

youve gotta recognize the irony there

[tazzmaniac]

A win is a win is a win.

Golden State and Cleveland are great, but we'd only have to beat them four out of seven. That would be well below our seasonal win percentage.

Good lord.  I hope those padded walls are Celtic green. 

[chambers]

We are no where near being contenders.
Even if we swapped Jae for Jimmy Butler we'd still be a solid 2nd behind Cleveland in the East.
I guess it's possible we could win 4 out of 7 games if fully healthy IF we had Jimmy Butler or another go to scorer. Right now we are pretenders.

[LarBrd33]

We are really good, but there's a big gap between teams like the raptors and Warriors/Cavs. 

[guava_wrench]

cmon now, you cant make this post after complaining about knee-jerk negativity after the last loss.

youve gotta recognize the irony there

Ugh. Same poster?

[mr. dee]

Our wins itself is shady. Im glad with the current direction and I don't want any of our core and prospects to be traded, but we're not there yet. They failed to close out against any top 5 team so far. We almost blew the game against the Hawks tonight but they are learning.

Houston would be another good test. If they beat them in our homecourt, I may believe they have a chance. If not, just continue to develop our guys while winning as much as we can.

[saltlover]

Our wins itself is shady. Im glad with the current direction and I don't want any of our core and prospects to be traded, but we're not there yet. They failed to close out against any top 5 team so far. We almost blew the game against the Hawks tonight but they are learning.

Houston would be another good test. If they beat them in our homecourt, I may believe they have a chance. If not, just continue to develop our guys while winning as much as we can.

While true that we've yet to beat a top 5 team, we've only had one game at home against such a team with a full starting lineup (lost to the Spurs).  It'd be nice to be full strength against some of the top teams to see if there's actually a distance between us, or if it's not actually that great.

[ThePaintedArea]

It is time to up the ante and call it what it is. We could easily steal a title this year.

Not so easily as all that. Outside chance.

Golden State and Cleveland are great, but we'd only have to beat them four out of seven. That would be well below our seasonal win percentage.

Wait what

Maybe send Jaylen to play big minutes in Maine. Get him up to speed on the little things holding him back. He could build some confidence. I'd only do it a few games. He needs practice and experience.

He's been getting rotation minutes on a playoff team! He's right where he needs to be.

. Olynyk was pumping his fist as in that was a big win guys, as if he cares.

Oh the cynicism of the Boston Sports Fan.

[Celtics4ever]

Quote
It is time to up the ante and call it what it is. We could easily steal a title this year.

Stop what your doing and go see a psychiatrist.  We are a good team but not a contender.   JK

We are the kid standing first in line to get a toy and looking in the window and seeing the last one bought.  Meaning, we are in a good place but we are not there yet.

I do not think we could beat CLE in a series unless two of their stars got injured.  It could happen but the chances are small.

[iadera]

Usually, after these games people are euphoric and I also kind a like that, but reality says that we are desperately missing the buzzer beaters and generaly the tight games where we come out as winners. We felt very little or nothing of this for years. This game I hope announces that the old times are coming back.

[Surferdad]

Perhaps a look at power rankings would be informative.  This one from CBS Sports and the summaries of each team seems about right to me, though it is a few days old.
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-power-rankings-spurs-and-celtics-rise-memphis-meltdown-costs-warriors/
I looked at a bunch of different power rankings and the C's are anywhere from 4 to 7.