Pre-Game Suns

It's time for the Suns to shine in Boston. As I look back over my 59 years, the Suns have been around as long as I can remember. 1968 to be exact. They've been close a couple, three times but never got the ring. They are kind of like the Buffalo Bills of the NBA in that with their three trips to the Finals they ran into three buzzsaw, 1976-well, we know all about that one. 1993 - Jordan Bulls and 2021 - Giannis and Co. Close but no cigar.

The effects of their recent playoff shellacking at the expense of a G7 at home game vs DAL is still hanging over the Suns into this current season like a black cloud that just won't go away. PHX had high hopes of showing up in the Finals last season but bowed out humiliatingly too early with a beatdown quite similar to the one Boston just administered to BKN but without the playoff implications. Both games were over in the first 5 minutes and there was nothing you could do but run the clock down and get the heck out of there before the building collapsed.

The question for Celtic fans and team after a performance like that is, as always, can we follow up what we did against BKN B2B or will tonight be another 19% 3-point shooting night taking 75% of our from downtown and saving all out timeouts for the next game in which we've all become accustom to seeing?

In addition, the trade deadline is looming like the elephant in the room. I'm sure Brad's cellphone is low on batteries. Unfortunately whether he does anything or not, we will not know whether that (non)decision panned out or was the difference needed to hoist the trophy until we either win the last game of the playoffs or we lose a fourth game in a series.

For us on this site, the magnifying glass with the sun behind us (no pun intended) is laser focused on every word, every action, every play as it pertains to the Celtics. Not to mention because no one else does outside of this site cares or would even know that MS will probably be out until after the ASG. We know we can play and win for short stints without MS, but it quickly becomes fools gold and a very slippery slope. That he is the glue holding everything together becomes very noticeable sooner rather than later, like maybe 3-4 games in. Can we make it to the ASG without crapping the bed again with yet another 3-game skid or worse?

Schedule-checking through the month of February we pay DET and PHI (2/8 & 2/25) twice both home and away, CHAR and MEM (2/12) at home, @ NYK (2/27), @ IND and @ MIL (2/14). That's a pretty good mix of +/-.500. If my math is right, and it is, that's 11 games in February including BKN game already played. Let's keep track of that and see how this month goes. 9 of those games are/were nationally televised, League Pass be damned!! (ESPN, ABC and TNT) I'll have to give the networks credit. I have been seeing a ton more games when Boston is playing at home than I ever recall before. Usually they would put Boston on the road more than home which looked like a set up by the networks to put Boston in the best position to lose against anybody. I know, I'm a conspiracy theorist. Help me out and set me straight here, Ktron!

Ok. Enjoy tonight's game. BOS (-9.5). Dang! No one say the "T" word and jinx it!!

db