They look down on the Celtics

[LGC88]

Apparently it is a trend with the Cs. If you go and check other team fans, no one believes in the Cs, mostly think the Cs will get out in the first round.

That reminds me when my wife and I decided to watch nba again in 2007. My wife was a Kobe fan and ask me to watch Lakers game. While watching them in the playoff I was bored to death. I decided to check other games and was suddenly very interested by this Boston team. The team execution, and most importantly the fighting spirit, the grit, the pride of the jersey. I could feel everything, it was overwhelming. I ask my wife to watch Boston with me and she get caught by the same feeling as well. She became an instant PP fan, she's still talking about him now even though she's not watching nba anymore.
When Boston and LA were in the finales, my wife wanted Boston to win, she was a big fan of the team already.
I remember during that time, most of the people had the Lakers winning vs Boston. I was shocked. I was telling myself "what am I missing?" Turn out they were wrong, Boston was a far superior team defense and they won rather easily their series.

Long story short, I don't pretend a similarity between 2007 and 2017 playoff. But one thing for sure. This Boston team is 1st in the east. This is not by luck or health roster issue (we had our share as well). I'm not pretending Boston is favorite in the east, but they should be feared (nobody realize how good they are with a 100% AB on both end).

Right now, they aren't feared at all.
For that reason, I predict a Boston vs Toronto ECF.

[iadera]

I believe we are accapable of competing with all these teams in East, but now, in playoffs, we need to find one thing. Consistancy. Especially in winning, of course, but also during the game, our focus needs to be 100% on both sides of the floor; better shooting, better rebounding, better defense.
Now we have to show what we are made of. I believe we still didn't. Everybody's sure if IT will be stoped that we are helpless. I actually think this is a great trap that we can set. It's just that our other players need to step up and show best of them.

[LGC88]

I believe we are accapable of competing with all these teams in East, but now, in playoffs, we need to find one thing. Consistancy. Especially in winning, of course, but also during the game, our focus needs to be 100% on both sides of the floor; better shooting, better rebounding, better defense.
Now we have to show what we are made of. I believe we still didn't. Everybody's sure if IT will be stoped that we are helpless. I actually think this is a great trap that we can set. It's just that our other players need to step up and show best of them.

What did other teams have shown? None are on par with GS and SA execution and consistency.
So why look down on the Cs? There is no logic.
Again we have won more games than any other eastern teams. If they are superior, why they didn't finish 1st then?
And I'm sorry, they all think they can shut down IT. Yeah right... everybody are bling. Nobody saw how much IT improved compare to the last season. And pardon me, but did the Hawks shut down IT in 2016, not at all. They won because we didn't have enough perimeter shooter and defense (AB big time missing).
Don't be blind, IT can score any time he wants now, he added so many new moves and middle range jump shot, he's unstoppable. During the season, some team tried to put 3 players on him. It ends up IT pass the ball to a wide open 3s or a simple cut in the paint. This is not 2015 IT playoff where Cavs managed to stop IT. Wake up!!!!

[Celtics4ever]

I think we can win one series, probably two but the third one gets much harder.  My heart would love to see it but my mind tells me otherwise.

[Clench123]

We aren't the number 1 seed by sheer talent either.  It's due to luck, due to other team's unfortunate situations, and a lot of things going our way.

"Look down" isn't necessarily the phrase i'd use but that no one believes in the Celtics hype.  I don't either and if one is realistic and reasonable, this lack of believe isn't wrong.

We haven't been consistent all season and we've only played handful games, if that, where we played 48 minutes of good hustle basketball.  Not having the talents is one thing, playing hard is another.  We've seen that when teams raise their game against us, we don't.  We come out lazy in games and often go through the motions.  And this is how teams will play in the playoffs.  Every teams will raise their game.  The question is...is there another level to take ours?

Expect teams to shut down IT.  Can the rest of the guys step up?  I believe they can.  Will they step up?  I don't know and that's what i'm afraid of.

Our rebounding issue is the most concerning in my opinion.  If we don't fix this either by bringing in a rebounder in time for the playoffs (i wouldn't really advise it because of what it could do to our chemistry) or have this team dedicate themselves to rebounding the ball and learning how to box out.

The key to our playoffs success is DEFENSE, REBOUND, hustle basketball, being the aggressor, realizing how precious and how important every possession is, and doing all of it for 48 minutes every playoffs game.

[2short]

Fourth best win % in league.  Who cares what anyone thinks.

If the c's go though playoffs playing there top notch defense and hit outside shots they can beat anyone.  But outside shots come and go, our defense hasn't been up to level.  I for one would not want to face the celtics in a series, jae, marcus, bradley will wear teams down

[Clench123]

Maybe this is a good thing.  This could be the motivation they need.  We know what this team is like when no one believes in them.  But having the number 1 seed is saying something and i think these guys has bought deeply into their own hype.  But we'll see...

[Vermont Green]

There is no question in my mind that the Celtics are a soft #1 seed.  In the playoffs, I think Cleveland and Toronto will be favored over the Cs if they play and maybe even Washington.  Celtics will have to play well to beat anyone.  Both Atlanta and Milwaukee scare me some but with home court we should be able to beat them.  Neither Indiana or Chicago are going to be easy wins, we are going to have to play well.

This will be a good test for the Celtics.  It should be fun, and then we get the lottery and the draft.  All good.  I actually think Avery Bradley makes a big difference.  Glad to see him back and playing well.

[TheSundanceKid]

Taking my green hat off, I think we're the 3rd best team in the East. Very close to Toronto on a skill level, although the individual matchup is harder.

We will cruise through the first round IMO. The Bulls or Heat won't match up well with us in a series. Both have rebounding big men but we have shown, particularly against the Heat, that our style of play can demolish them.

Second round I'm more scared of Atlanta than Washington. Again I think our style of play is suited to beating Washington. We struggle against Atlanta because tey have our same style but with an elite PF who gives us nightmares.

I do think we'll make the ECF, who knows what happens then. Even that would be a huge achievement for us, a massive step beyond where we've been. What happens in that series may leave a downer but should just show that we have to take another step, hopefully this summer, to compete with the 3 best teams in the NBA.

[chambers]

We can get to the ECF pretty easily if we avoid Toronto in the 2nd round. If we do face Toronto (which is unlikely I believe), then we still have a shot, but we are slight underdogs given our inconsistency vs the Raptors consistency after acquiring Ibaka, Tucker and getting Lowry back.

Whatever happens, I don't really care as long as we take it to Toronto or Cleveland over 6 or 7 games because we have the draft to look forward to and what may happen on draft night.

[mef730]

Okay, call me green-washed, but I truly believe that this team has the ability to beat anyone in a seven-game series, particularly this year. Even the top teams have their share of faults.

Having said that, we have not shown the ability to string several games of huge efforts together. We will have to be at our best for more than a few games to do so. I think ECF is a reasonable goal.

Mike

[fairweatherfan]

I think most fans are evaluating us pretty fairly - we overachieved just a bit to (potentially) get the 1 seed, we're not the caliber of the GS/SA/CLE contenders, maybe around or a bit below the level of a Houston or Toronto.  We should get out of the 1st, will have a tough 2nd round, but are modest favorites to make the ECF.

At that point we're heavy underdogs against the Cavs, but again we deserve to be - they're defending champs, LeBron tends to coast in the regular season and often wins from the 2 seed, and they crushed us last time we played.

All of this seems pretty reasonable. Heck, Vegas had our over/under for wins at 52.5, so this is even consistent with what a lot of people thought before the season even started.

[Somebody]

We aren't the number 1 seed by sheer talent either.  It's due to luck, due to other team's unfortunate situations, and a lot of things going our way.

"Look down" isn't necessarily the phrase i'd use but that no one believes in the Celtics hype.  I don't either and if one is realistic and reasonable, this lack of believe isn't wrong.

We haven't been consistent all season and we've only played handful games, if that, where we played 48 minutes of good hustle basketball.  Not having the talents is one thing, playing hard is another.  We've seen that when teams raise their game against us, we don't.  We come out lazy in games and often go through the motions.  And this is how teams will play in the playoffs.  Every teams will raise their game.  The question is...is there another level to take ours?

Expect teams to shut down IT.  Can the rest of the guys step up?  I believe they can.  Will they step up?  I don't know and that's what i'm afraid of.

Our rebounding issue is the most concerning in my opinion.  If we don't fix this either by bringing in a rebounder in time for the playoffs (i wouldn't really advise it because of what it could do to our chemistry) or have this team dedicate themselves to rebounding the ball and learning how to box out.

The key to our playoffs success is DEFENSE, REBOUND, hustle basketball, being the aggressor, realizing how precious and how important every possession is, and doing all of it for 48 minutes every playoffs game.

Well we play our best when our backs are up against the wall so I think we'll be hustling and grinding when it matters the most.

[GreenEnvy]

OP married a Kobe/Lakers fan?

Perma-ban?

[jaketwice]

Stevens ought to win coach of the year. Other than IT, nobody on the team is in the top ten in any statistical category (Smart is 15th in steals; Horford is 18th in blocks).

What we have is a winning program and I think he gets the credit for that.