POST GAME TORONTO - HOME

Happy for the win. Beat the top team in the conference, and even fought off their rally in the 4th.

Props to Leonard. Dude is incredible.

Stats are very unique in that they can be used to draw conclusions about somethings and at the same time cast reasonable doubt on those same conclusions.

For example

Tom Westerholm @Tom_NBA
yesterday
The Celtics are 6-3 against the 76ers, Pacers, Bucks and Raptors.

This is the best record of the top 5 teams in the east vs each other.  Maybe we're just built for the playoffs?  That would make the Brooklyn and Miami losses less than footnotes.

Mark Murphy @Murf56
yesterday

If you dig a little deeper into their 6-3 record against the top teams teams in the East you will find that Boston played 6  out those 9 games at home and went 6-0.  On the road they went 0-3.  They have no more games remaining at home against the Raptors, Bucks, Pacers and Philly,  They do however still have 6 road games against those teams.

The Celtics have been a very good home team this year but not better than the top 4.  

The problem is mainly on the road where Boston is 10-13 .  As a matter of fact the Celtics have just 1  win against a quality team on the road all year (OKC)

The Celtics have a tough schedule in front of them.  They have 38 games left and when I look at the schedule there are very few games remaining where the Celtics should definitely win them.

Take a look at the schedule and other than Cleveland, Atlanta, Memphis, NYK and Chicago the rest of the teams are either playoff bound or within a game or 2 of making the playoffs.  There are still a lot of questions to be answered mainly can they win on the road against quality opponents?   Can they play up to their abilities against teams that they should be able to beat?  Is the season long chemistry issue resolved?

In general stats only seem to leave you with more questions if you are inclined to validate them.

There are a lot of balls in the air.  This teams has been hurt greatly by injuries, role changes and declining productivity in a key area.  Now that they have a full deck and assuming there are no more impactful loss man hours, can they step into their pre-season billing and win?  

My gut feeling tells me no.  I think that they have farted around all year and dug themselves a deep whole.  I think that there is no substitute for a quality frontline and that we do not have.  I could be wrong.  I hope I am wrong because it has been a decade since Boston raised a banner.  Maybe you can walk me back from the edge because my expectations about how good this team is and can be this year have changed.  It is not just about how good the Celtics are but how good so many other teams are as well.  Boston would need to go out there and play winning basketball.  A .750 win percentage the remainder of the way including winning quality games on the road in the process may alter my perception..  28-10 in that stretch and 54-28 for the regular season.

Rick Flair said it best. If you wanna be the best, you've gotta beat the best. Here it comes. Let's really find out if we've got it or not so we're not hoping against hop when the playoffs start and get swept inexplicably in the first round. (Also, this will be the best 4 weeks for PHI to settle into 5th given their next 12 game on the schedule.)

db