Have You Enjoyed Watching This Team?

One question that has not been asked this season is: Have you enjoyed watching this team? You may gather from my previous posts that I have not enjoyed this season, and you would be right. Whatever they do in the playoffs, this season has been one of the most disappointing seasons I can remember. Why? Because of the style of basketball they play, the lack of consistent effort, and because I feel the basketball !Q (professionalism) deteriorated this year.

In December I surmised the Celtics wanted to get to the playoffs in January. On this board I stated that very fact in that time frame. Sure enough, all Celtics, including Ray Allen, have said they were guilty of just "wanting to get the playoffs started". In December.

One of the reasons I am so disappointed with this team is I was present at more than a few Dave Cowens games. Regular season games. I saw John Havlicek run his ass off until he retired. Regular season or not. Bird and the boys lost 1 home game one season. I find it difficult to warm up to a team who doesn't come to play each night; a team that found it difficult to play for 48 minutes even on its good nights.

I will cheer this Celtic team on this playoff season, but honestly, my heart just isn't in it like in years past. I am more than ready for some infusion of "want to" in this club. A team that plays aggressively, with energy doesn't have to win a championship to get my blood rising. Just play with the enthusiasm the fans support this team with.

Go Celtics!

I always love Celtic basketball good or bad. However my step is not as brisk the next morning and you kind of wake up as though you slept on the wrong side of the bed after a bad loss. That has been life in Celtic nation this year. I hope they put a good run in for the next 2 months so as to give all of us a good summer and the thought of "See you in September"!

Go Celtics 112288

Good post as usual SD. I thought at the beginning of this year that this would not just be a good team, it would be a GREAT team. On the nights that they played with fire and intensity they were a pleasure to watch. The talent was clearly there to have challenged for a ring and for the best record. On other nights they looked like they were sleepwalking, losing to the lowly Nets at home, repeatedly blowing second half leads and so forth. I have no idea what happened to this club.....did we over-rate them? Complacency? Chemistry? No, I would not say that they were always a joy to watch this year. I can handle bad teams that come out every night and try their best to compete much more easily than good teams that don't seem to care on some nights. I think that professional sports teams, regardless of their talent level, owe that much to their fans.
I am with you in being ready for an infusion of heart and desire into this lineup. I can't see that happening next year due to salary constraints, but maybe the year after that. Like you, I will always wish the best for the Celtics. I want another ring too. But this year's team does not deserve a ring, and most likely, they will not get one. Its too bad; they did have the talent, IMO, to win one.
This team let us down with inconsistent effort this year. All of us deserve better.

Those games where we had the game at our pace and in control,then just collapsed in the 2nd half were the most frustrating for me,there were too many of those.And way too many games we were just flat,Nets,Knicks etc just brutal.These playoffs everyone is playing for their jobs next year,hope thats Dannys attitude.

It was a joy to watch them compile a 23-5 record (or whatever it was). It was not a joy to watch the wholesale lack of continuity caused by an escalation of injuries. It was not a joy to watch the starters' offense sputter when they were finally able to play together. It was not a joy to see their defensive intensity undermined very largely by the frustration I believe they felt with their own offense...because getting stops and not being able to capitalize on them is frustrating and draining.

It was a joy to watch the moments when they were obviously feeling the synergy, as was the case of Sheed, KG, Finley, Ray and Rondo late in the season. It was not a joy to have a lurking feeling that there's something going on behind the scenes that is making this team's challenges tougher than they need to be. (I personally feel it had something to do with Rondo's assumption of the mantle of leadership and Paul Pierce's relinquishing some of that leadership; but, whatever may have been going on certainly didn't result in joy.)

There was great joy in seeing Bob Cousy present the Red Auerbach award to Rajon Rondo. There was joy in seeing Ray Allen taking people aside to acquaint them better with how the big boys do it.

There was joy in having 82 games over which to dissect the action and to share analytical thoughts with so many people on this board.

So there have been times of joy and times if disappointment. But the main thing is that any real appraisal of joy relating to the Celtics is not complete until the season is over. And that hasn't occurred yet. Here's hoping the Celtics furnish us with many more joyful moments before they're through playing the 2009-10 season. And, whatever comes to pass, there's joy in knowing that (hopefully) they and we will do it all over again next season.

Sam

That tug and pull between Rondo and Pierce is becoming old. The name of the game is basketball, the object is to put the ball in the hole with as much ease as possible. The way Pierce handles the ball at the end of games is wrong, however, Rondo didn't do a much better job at games end. Where to go from here? Something has to give, and I think it is going to have to be Pierce.

I, too, watched many former Celtic teams play their heart and soul out game in and game out over the years. It has been sickening to watch these guys at times this year. Everyone wanted to be a hero. It just doesn't work that way!

I, too, hope that these final games will bring some of the joy back to the Celtic fans who have so long been die hard fans. I bet Havlicek could still
out run half of these younger guys!!

I like basketball. I go to college games, I go to high school games, I go to AAU games, I watch the Boston Shootout, I took time off a few years ago to attend the NBA summer league at UMass Boston.

My favorite team in my favorite sport is the Boston Celtics.

I have watched nearly every game for 35 straight years - and 50 wins is a better year than most during that stretch - so I am happy with the team this year. I wish they were playing to their full potential. But heck, I wish I was married to a model and hit the lottery too. I take the good with the bad, and will enjoy watching my team till the day they plant me in a hole in the ground.

I'd have to say I always look forward to watching each and every game. Some seasons and some teams are more enjoyable, however.

I'll add that a championship isn't mandatory to make the season enjoyable. Certainly '74, '84 and '86 were fun, as was the '08 team and other championship squads. For me the overachieving '02 team was among the most entertaining even though the season ended with the conference finals. They became one of the best defensive teams in the league shutting opponents down while generating what offense they could from beyond the arc with a very soft inside game. They went farther than anyone expected.

The book isn't closed on this year so it's too soon to say, but the regular season has been somewhat of a letdown. To me there has been a lack of determination on this team, too many egos and too many players that seem to be underachievers. Watching the decline of one or two great players has been difficult as well.

I'm hopeful the playoffs will lift my opinion. I'm expecting a great playoff run because we have several key players that should be looking at this as their last shot and therefore should sacrifice everything in an all-out effort. If the team should fall short yet give everything they've got in the playoff effort, I'll call it a fairly good season.

Regardless of my level of enjoyment this year compared to others, I am and always will be a fan.

Hi,
I did enjoy the season. Sure, there were quite a few disappointments but there were many glimmers, too.
Finally we are 9 hours away from the time when we'd be able to see if many of those theories are right or wrong. Let's see what the Celtics show us: regular season or playoffs, lethargy or fire. I hope for latter!

AK

Go to the Boston Globe Sports page and read the story by Jackie MacMullen on Kevin Garnett. It breaks your heart! What will happen this year and in the future is a big question mark. However, I will never give up on them. I have sat through some dark days in Boston Celtic history, and all of a sudden the sun comes out. I do not believe the Heat will beat the Celtics, that is it, period.
What happens after that, who knows???? But read that story, it is the most candid he has been since he got injured.