Around The League 2023-2024 Season

I stand corrected.

Here's the way to solve all the problems of the ASG. Have two sets of votes, one set of votes for your favorite offensive player(s) and one set of votes for your favorite, known for their defensive prowess, defensive players. Defensive players never make it to the ASG. You'll have 15 offensive and 15 defensive players in the mix. The ultimate prize(s) would be those in the middle, ala a Jrue Holiday, that would be one of your most sought after players because he is both. Or have the best offensive players go up against the best defensive players. The ultimate answer is somewhere in between there.

Also, just have the ASG. Get rid of everything else. Nobody cares anymore.

Next. You heard it here first.

Love Always,

db

Short fuse Nets fire Vaughn. Now we're just firing coaches in the middle of the season. So far, this shake up tactic doesn't work very well. BKN's going to the crapper for sure. Bucks may not be very far behind if they stumble out of the gate this Friday @MIN.

db

The Knicks, Sixers, and Bucks may lose more ground due to injuries.

The Cavs are finally healthy with both Mobley and Garland healthy.  They have had a really good run even with key injuries.  They are in 2nd place and I expect them to remain there for the remainder of the season.  

The Heat took a few hits with both Rosier and Richardson getting injured.  Rosier should not miss too many games but Richardson could be out for a while.  They picked on Delon Wright.  The Heat will still struggle to put points on the board but they are a defensive team 1st.  They have an easy remaining schedule.  I expect them to move up.  I think the Heat could get all the way up to 4th.

The Knicks have lost 4 straight and will continue to lose more games than they win until they get Randle back.  Also, OG is still out and will likely miss another 5-6 games after having surgery on his elbow.  Their remaining schedule puts them at 14th.  I can see the Knicks dropping down from 4th to 6th or 7th.

Without  Embid, the Sixers play really bad.  They will be very reluctant to bring him back too soon after having surgery for his meniscus.   They are 5th and could easily drop down to 7th or 8th in the East.

Poor Khris Middleton.  His ankle needs to heal.  The Bucks can still generate points without him.  However that is not the real problem.  They lost their defensive identity and there is not much that they can do to get it back.  They have the 3rd most difficult schedule the rest of the way.   Maybe the drop down to 5th. By the way they have a losing record on the road this season at (12-14)

The Pacers moved Buddy for Doug McDermott.  Their biggest issue is not  offense and they have done nothing to quell the surrender of 122 PPG.  I think they tread water and stay about where they are.

Not a lot of chatter about the Magic.  They are only 1/2 game out of 6th place but they will need to play a lot better on the road (12-17)  Lucky for them, they have the easiest remaining schedule with 12 road games and 15 at home.  They could have used a guy like buddy Hield.

I think we are going to see movement 4th through 8th.  Teams likely to stumble are the ones with injuries to key players.

As far as the Celtics are concerned, I look for them to stretch the standings out.   I am hoping for an 8 to 10 game cushion in the loss column.

https://theathletic.com/5283050/2024/02/19/nba-scoring-offense-defense-balance/?source=freedailyemail&campaign=601983&userId=13921316



NBA’s scoring binge requires a small but necessary recalibration to find balance


David Aldridge

Feb 19, 2024


INDIANAPOLIS — The 2023 NBA All-Star Game should have been a bonanza.

There were 3-pointers and dunks galore, as the game’s best players tomahawked and double-clutched and lobbed to one another, unabated, for 48 minutes in Salt Lake City. Boston’s Jayson Tatum set an All-Star Game record with 55 points and won MVP in leading Team Giannis — the 12 players picked by team captain Giannis Antetokounmpo — over Team LeBron, headed, of course, by LeBron James. The two teams were picked right before the game by the two captains, the latest innovation from a league dedicated to consistently goose fan interest and engagement.

Offense, front and center!

And the game … cratered on TV, producing the lowest ratings for the event, ever.

To be fair, Stephen Curry, out with injury, didn’t play. Antetokounmpo, who had a bad wrist, played just a few minutes, as did James. But the game still featured most of today’s superstars. And it was the logical conclusion of where the NBA has gone in the last decade — all offense, all the time, with no one even pretending to play defense for a single possession.

It felt, and looked, awful.

And that is a major challenge to this NBA, even as Curry returned for this year’s game and Giannis and LeBron were, again, relatively healthy. (James, rehabbing a sprained ankle, played sparingly in Sunday’s game, by design.)

Make no mistake: The NBA is not a broken league. It is not a damaged product. Franchise valuations, across the board, have never been higher. The league is poised for a monster media-rights deal in the next year with its current partners, and almost certainly will add new ones. Expansion is likely within the next decade. Teams in the league’s biggest markets, New York and Los Angeles, have winning, fun teams to watch in the Knicks and Clippers. And so do teams in smaller markets — Oklahoma City and Cleveland, Minnesota and Orlando, New Orleans and Phoenix.

You can marvel at any number of young superstars: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards, Paolo Banchero. Tyrese Maxey and De’Aaron Fox and Scottie Barnes are on the launch pad. Nikola Jokić, Joel Embiid, Luka Dončić and Giannis are the game’s present; Victor Wembanyama’s future seems limitless.

“It’s just insane how dominant he’s going to be as he gets more comfortable in the game,” Kevin Durant said Saturday of Wembanyama. “Luckily, I’m on my way out, so I won’t have to deal with it too much.”

But the game nonetheless feels out of balance, with higher and higher scoring records and totals a nightly occurrence. Dončić scored an almost easy 73 points in a Dallas Mavericks win in Atlanta in January. That came just days after Embiid bully-balled his way to a 70-point night against Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. The same night Embiid went for 70, Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns dropped 62 in a Timberwolves loss to the Charlotte Hornets.

Points are erupting, everywhere. On Jan. 3, five teams — Utah, Detroit, Indiana, Atlanta and Cleveland — each scored 140 or more points in a game. And 10 teams in total scored at least 130 that night. Per StatMuse, NBA teams have already scored 130 points in a game 224 times this season; the single-season record is 266, set … last season.

Last season, there were 203 40-point games by 57 different players — which, per NBA.com’s John Schuhmann, crushed the previous single-season record of 142 40-point games, set in the 1961-62 season, and the previous record of 47 players, set in 2020-21. (And: In that 1961-62 season, Wilt Chamberlain accounted for 63 of those 142 40-point games! Sixty-three 40-point games! In an 80-game season! That included a stretch where Chamberlain scored at least 44 points in 14 straight games. That season, Wilt had the 100-point game, a 78-point game, two 67-point games, two 65-point games and three 62-point games.)

So far this season?

As of this weekend, All-Star Weekend, per RealGM, there have already been 119 40-point games, by … 44 different players!


2023-24 NBA 40-Point Scorers

Player...............................# 40-point games.........Season High
Luka Dončić......................10...............................73
Joel Embiid.......................9.................................70
Giannis Antetokounmpo......7................................64
Stephen Curry...................6.................................60
De'Aaron Fox....................6.................................41
Devin Booker....................5.................................62
Jalen Brunson...................5.................................50
Donovan Mitchell..............5..................................45
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.....5.................................43
Trae Young.......................4.................................45
Kevin Durant....................4..................................43
Tyrese Maxey...................3...................................51
Jayson Tatum...................3...................................45
Mikal Bridges...................3...................................45
Cam Thomas...................3....................................45
Karl-Anthony Towns..........2...................................62
Miles Bridges...................2...................................45
Damian Lillard.................2....................................45
Kyrie Irving.....................2...................................44
Anthony Edwards.............2....................................44
Jaren Jackson Jr...............2...................................44
Tyrese Haliburton.............2...................................44
Paolo Banchero................2...................................43
Cade Cunningham............2...................................43
Anthony Davis.................2...................................41
Brandon Ingram..............2....................................41
Anfernee Simons.............2...................................41
Zach LaVine....................1....................................51
Desmond Bane................1...................................49
Jerami Grant...................1...................................49
Keegan Murray................1....................................47
Deni Avdija.....................1....................................43
Bradley Beal...................1....................................43
PJ Washington................1....................................43
Nikola Jokić....................1....................................42
Terry Rozier....................1....................................42
Tim Hardaway Jr.............1....................................41
DeMar DeRozan..............1....................................41
Kawhi Leonard................1....................................41
Julius Randle..................1....................................41
Dejounte Murray.............1....................................41
Jaylen Brown..................1....................................40
LeBron James.................1....................................40
Bojan Bogdanović............1...................................40
(Credit: RealGM)


Yes, 40 is an arbitrary number. So is hitting .300 in baseball or scoring 50 goals in a season in hockey. There is, in every sport, a baseline for excellence. Cross it, and you are among the elite. And that’s the point. The standard for “elite” in the NBA is being stretched beyond all meaning. Or, more simply: If everybody can score 40, what’s the value in anybody scoring 40?

The All-Star Game is an exhibition, for fun. It is not to be taken literally. Yet even its history provides context to why things feel a bit askew.

For generations, there was an unwritten, understood rule about the game: For the first three quarters, you could do whatever you wanted with the ball, and no one would really try to stop you. But in the fourth quarter, if the game was at all close, both teams would hunker down and put forth All-Star defensive effort. They’d play defense for real and try to win the game. That led to moments like the fourth quarter of the 2001 game in Washington, D.C., when Dikembe Mutombo blocked everything in sight in the last 12 minutes, Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury went to work in the passing lanes, and the East team erased a 21-point deficit to roar back for the win in front of an excited, engaged crowd.

Two decades later, offense has overwhelmed the game. The NBA has become oversaturated, points on top of points.

The explosion in shooting skill means teams relentlessly hunt 3-pointers. The analytics of this choice are obvious; the practical result is that defenders, with almost no ability to use their hands or bodies to keep opposing players from going where they want to go, now have to cover far much more ground on the court, leaving gaping, chasm-like spaces for ballhandlers to penetrate. This forces defenses into crazy-long rotations, which leads to more wide-open 3s, which increases scoring. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. And, so, it should come as no surprise that the NBA’s scoring averages have exploded since 2000.

In 2000-01, teams averaged 94.8 points per game. At the All-Star break this season, that average is 115.5 points a game. The offensive rating in 2000-01 was 103; today, it’s 115.9. And, of course, that would be the highest-recorded single season offensive rating in league history.

“I just think that you have to give the defense a little more advantages, as much as you do offense. You have to give the defenses a chance,” Hall of Fame forward Dominque Wilkins said on Friday.

“People ask me all the time, ‘What would you average in today’s league?,'” Wilkins said. “And I say, ‘Under those circumstances?’ The 60s and 70s (point games), you don’t think we’d be scoring them? Because we loved physical contact. So the physicality was easy for us. Our bodies were conditioned to take it. So, now, a guy can’t touch me? I said, I don’t know what I’d average, but I can tell you it would be over 35 a game.”

The league, naturally, sees it differently.

“I want to dispel any notion that the league feels or that the league office necessarily feels that high-scoring games in the abstract are good,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in his annual All-Star news conference Saturday. “I think what we want are competitive games. That’s what’s most important to us, and that’s what we hear from our fans, as well. I think there’s a lot happening here, and I’ve talked to a lot of coaches and a lot of players about it. … I disagree with people who feel that teams aren’t playing defense. … The defensive intensity is there.”

There are disparate issues here.

There is the skill level of today’s players. This is not debatable: More players are more skilled today than at any time in the game’s history. More players can handle the ball expertly, able to break down defenses at will. Kyrie Irving is the Pied Piper of this craft, but he has many, many acolytes. More players can shoot from greater distances. Whether it’s Curry or Sabrina Ionescu, or Damian Lillard or Caitlin Clark, logo 3s are a regular part of the game now, a shot that is encouraged because so many can make it.

But the awesome skill level of today’s players does not, then, automatically mean the game, itself, is better. And, please: This is not about “wokeness” or any other canard some would use for gratuitous strays at the league or its players. This is about the game — five people trying to score, or prevent scoring, together. That’s what’s out of kilter.

At its best, basketball is a worthy tug-of-war, between one group of people determined to put the ball in the basket and another group equally determined to use their skills to stop them. In today’s game, though, that second group is at a clear and obvious disadvantage, every night. The tools used a generation ago to impede offenses — hand-checking on the perimeter, bumping people cutting through the lane, taking hard fouls in the paint to make people think twice about driving to the rim — have all been legislated out of the game.

Yes, this brings me to the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s. But not to Michael Jordan.

Jordan was an incredible defender, especially earlier in his career. But this isn’t another hosanna to MJ.

I’m thinking about Scottie Pippen.

Pippen, to me, was the difference-maker defensively for those championship Bulls teams, just as Michael Cooper was the secret sauce that fueled Magic Johnson’s Lakers to five NBA championships in the ’80s. As Cooper harassed Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas and others, so Pippen disrupted offenses for Chicago. The Hall of Fame forward was the lead dog in what Bulls assistant coach Johnny Bach famously coined the Bulls’ “Dobermans” defense — Pippen, Jordan and Horace Grant. The threesome would trap, recover and contest shot after shot, usually without fouling.

Exhibit A here.

Pippen used everything — his feet, his core, his chest, his long arms, his hands and his sense of anticipation — in a frenetic assault on ballhandlers, never letting them relax. His defense on Johnson, picking up the Hall of Fame guard 94 feet on multiple occasions, turned the 1991 NBA Finals in Chicago’s favor. And Pippen didn’t play dirty. He didn’t undercut people. He didn’t grab jerseys or knock opponents to the ground. He just defended the hell out of everyone. And it was beautiful to watch, just as Magic’s full-court passes were beautiful or Isiah’s shotgun dribbles or Bird’s electrifying 3s or Kareem’s skyhooks. There was balance in the game, that tug-of-war between offense and defense a core element of the league’s character.

Of course, coaches grouse about the inability of defenders to slow down the offensive onslaught. But, sometimes, they have a point.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr made his feelings plain in December, after Jokić got to the foul line 18 times in the Nuggets’ Christmas Day win over Golden State. Kerr did not criticize the officiating in the game; he criticized the way the NBA teaches its officials and what he termed the Nuggets and other teams “baiting” officials into making foul calls on defenders who, in Kerr’s view, are in legal guarding position.

“I have no problem with the officials themselves,” Kerr said. “All across the league we have really good officials. I have a problem with the way we are legislating defense out of the game. That’s what we’re doing in the NBA. The way we are teaching the officials, we are enabling players to BS their way to the foul line.”

Notably, though Kerr said it was “disgusting to watch,” the NBA did not fine him for his comments.

The reason many people think the league has its thumb on the scale today when it comes to wanting more offense in the game is that every rule change in the last 40 years, and almost every re-interpretation of a rule in a given season, has favored the offense. Adopting the 3-pointer, putting in illegal (zone) defense guidelines, eliminating hand-checking in the backcourt, first to the free-throw line (1995) and then altogether (2004). Introducing defensive three-second rules. Eliminating “re-routing” of opposing players coming through the lane or off screens. And on and on.

But, there is no question, most people who play the game today like the way the game is played today.

“I like the brand of basketball because everybody who is out there can put the ball on the floor, for the most part, can, like I said, be a threat to shoot,” Curry said Saturday. “You’re going to see a sway toward higher scoring, but I think the cycle of the league, it will reset itself at this point. I don’t know how quickly that will happen or what rules will change this summer and the following summer, but I personally like the brand of basketball that’s being played because it highlights the amount of talent that we have around the league.”

To be sure, also, there are teams that do more than pay lip service to defense. There are players who understand the scouting report can provide a roadmap for the best ways to try and take away a team’s pet offensive actions.

“Every team is different,” James said before the game Sunday. “Every team’s portfolio is different of how they attack the game. If you do your scouting, if you do your research, you know players’ tendencies, you can be proactive more than reactive. You’re absolutely right, the game that’s definitely got to, because of analytics, when that tapped into our game, it’s more just like layups, dunks, free throws, 3s. A lot of teams are trying to shy away from the midrange. A lot of teams are trying to shy away from a lot of other things that, when I came into the league, that was very important.

“Depending on the teams that you’re playing, you know the teams that want to shoot 40, 50 3s a game. You know the teams that want to shoot 25 to 30. You just have to do your scouting and be prepared for it.”

Are there fixes? Yes.

• What if the NBA again allowed defenders to hand check the opposing ballhandler in the backcourt? This would cut down some — some — on transition opportunities but not eliminate them. And it would give defenses a few more possessions per game where they could fully set their half court defenses.

• What if the league put in new guidelines that no longer reward players for drawing fouls like this, where the offensive player is not at all a part of the play, but just creates contact to draw a whistle?

• And, what if the league allowed individual players seven fouls per game instead of six? Yes, you run the risk of slowing the game down with 12 additional fouls per team per game. I grant you that. But you also would incentivize defenders to take more chances with four or five second-half fouls, rather than having to sit back passively to stay in the game. And: Don’t we want the best players to stay in game as long as possible and play at their best?

Balance. Just balance. To allow this game’s best players to do what they do best — at all times and everywhere on the court.


Bob
MY NOTE: 42 players with at least one 40+ point game this season in a league with < 450 players (30 teams X 15/team, but some teams like us have < 15 players on the roster). That's almost 1 out of 10 for a feat that is supposed to be truly remarkable.

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Great analogy dboss, just want to add amazing how losing one player, Holiday has impacted their defense to such proportions. In hindsight it’s amazing even with him how they overachieved on defense all those years. On paper even with Holiday they don’t seem to have enough hungry young athletes to get after it on defense, yet somehow coach Bud still got them to play very good defense last year. If only they knew after acquiring Lillard, that their biggest rival would be acquiring their best defender; I wonder if they would still do the trade?

What’s even better is Brad has stockpiled a few younger defensive pieces that will only add more punch to our fast aggressive defense in Walsh and Springer and a young dirty work vet in Tillman. Forgot about Queta, another young hard nosed defender that can add to the D. Brad has done a great job finding young pieces still for a long run after this year that fit this team’s identity.

Cow

The article posted by Bobh is very interesting.  Offense is the tail wagging the dog.

If you think about it, the Bucks made a decision to move a defensive force and replace it with an offensive force.    They are scoring more PPG this year but they have also given up more points this year.  The Bucks are about the same this year as last season in terms of point differential. (-0.4 ppg)  They simply did not get better vs the competition.  I also thought that they should have kept Coach Bud.  He took them to their only championship in 50 years.  (1971 and 2021).  Adrian Griffin was given an opportunity to coach but he was not given a full season to coach the team.  Getting fired after posting a 30-13 record is rare.  They are now 5-8 under Doc Rivers.   They shot themselves in the right foot and then said 'what the hell' shoot the left foot too.

Milwaukee is playing in Minnesota tonight.

Go Bucks!!


Bob


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bobheckler wrote:Milwaukee is playing in Minnesota tonight.  

Go Bucks!!


Bob


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On ESPN AT 10PM

Yeah dboss Bob H

I’m watching Bucks vs Timberwolves right now and it’s halftime. Feel sorry for Dame, he is 1-9 and cannot get anything going. There is a big difference being a first option and getting any shot whenever you want on a losing team. Then going on a winning team, he’s never had to play with another superstar and figure out how to fit his game/talents in a winning situation. Whole different process and he looks confused, maybe it’s effecting his play? What stands out is Timberwolves defense, they really swarm the middle and the paint, every shot is contested. Edwards and McDaniels are very good wing defenders and Gobert may be the DPoY again, Reid and Kyle Anderson are very capable defenders and KAT is a load who throws his weight around. Very impressed with Timberwolves.

Wow Dame came thru, hit the clinching shot to push lead up to 5.

Timberwolves made a comeback to make it close, but their offense was all KAT and AE iso, I didn’t like their offense at all during crunch time.

Dang it, MIN!!  You had one effing job last night.  You were to take the newly designed, diamond encrusted 2024 Eastern Conference and O'Brien Finals Trophies, walk them over the the Bucks on their respective gold-encrusted platters and just before handing it to the Giannis, Dame and Doc take it off those platters and smash the ever-loving crap out of it into a gazillion pieces right in front of the whole Bucks team.  Now the Bucks have hope.  Something BOS didn't need to see.  Thanks for nothing!!  Dang it, I'm pissed!!!  

I've seen all I need to see from MIN.  They won't get very far in the playoffs.  Most likely out by the second round.  They may even pull a MIL.  And I'll put it all on this one game.  We all knew this was coming for MIN, but they just made it abundantly clear.  They ain't ready for the big time.  This was egregious.

I'm telling you.  This playoffs season coming up may be the best ever IMHBAO.  In the 80's, we knew it was going to be Lakers and/or Celtics in the Finals all the time.  We knew in 2008, we were going to win it all the whole season after about 20 games in.  I have no clue who's going to make it to the Finals nor who will hoist the O'Brien Trophy.  This is all tighter than a tick.    

But this Boston team has little if no room for error on many levels.  And that starts tonight.  This is all about execution.  This is why we play the games.  

db

Cleveland dropped its 2nd in a row to Philly.  Cleveland is still #2 but they are now 7 games back in the loss column.  Because we own the H2H tiebreaker that means they are really 8 games back and we have 26 games to go.  It's too soon for Magic Numbers, but I don't think I'm crawling that far out on a limb by saying our #1 seed in the East is a done deal.  The only excitement left here is who we play in the playoffs and we won't know that until after the play-ins are finished.  If I understand the play-ins, we would play the winner of the #9 vs #10 matchup, which as of today would be Chicago or Atlanta.  I am VERY confident against either of them.  Miami, who is always a nuisance, is #7, so if they win their play-in vs #8 Orlando they'd play Cleveland.  That's fine with me.


In other good news, the Bucks beat Minny in Minny last night.  Minny and OKC have identical 39-17 records to lead the West.  That puts them both 5 games behind us in the loss column.  We're 1-1 vs Minny, with no more games against them this season, and 0-1 vs OKC with another game vs OKC @ home in Boston on April 3rd.  


Here are the playoff tie-breaker rules:

Tiebreaker Basis – 2 Teams Tied

(-) Tie breaker not needed (better overall winning percentage)
(1) Better winning percentage in games against each other
(2) Division leader wins a tie over a team not leading a division
(3) Division won-lost percentage (only if teams are in same division)
(4) Conference won-lost percentage
(5) Better winning percentage against teams eligible for the playoffs in own
conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff
position)
(6) Better winning percentage against teams eligible for the playoffs in other
conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff
position)
(7) Better net result of total points scored less total points allowed against all
opponents (“point differential”)


Tiebreaker Basis – Three or More Teams Tied

(-) Tie breaker not needed (better overall winning percentage)
(1) Division leader wins tie from team not leading a division (this criterion is
applied regardless of whether the tied teams are in the same division)
(2) Better winning percentage in all games among the tied teams
(3) Division won-lost percentage (only if all teams are in same division)
(4) Conference won-lost percentage
(5) Better winning percentage against teams eligible for the playoffs in own
conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff
position)
(6) Better net result of total points scored less total points allowed against all
opponents (“point differential”)


Conference records, as of 2/24/24:

Team..............................Record............Games Back
Boston............................31-6...............---
Minnesota.......................27-8...............2.5
Cleveland........................24-13.............7
Oklahoma City.................23-13.............7.5


So the team that is closest to us is Minny, because they are 5 games back in the loss column and only 2.5 games back in the Conference tie-breaker.  However, we have played 2 more intra-Conference games than them.  A loss of one of their intra-Conference games would make it very hard for Minny to pass us for the #1 seed.  Cleveland is way behind us in every category, so I'm not really watching them as much anymore.  OKC is only 5 games back in the loss column and could own the H2H tiebreaker if they win in Boston in April.  If not, they're goners too because it would then come down to the Conference records (assuming that they catch us on the regular season record) and they're way back.


Minny hosts Brooklyn tonight.  Minny kills them.

OKC is @ Houston on Sunday.  Let's hope Ime has his troops ready.  OKC hosts Houston on Tuesday.

Memphis @ Minny on Wednesday.

OKC @ San Antonio on Thursday.


We play the Knicks tonight, don't play again until Tuesday vs Philly @ home.  There's 3 days rest. We don't play again after that until Friday vs Dallas @ home. There's another 3 days rest.  Relatively easy schedule for us.  The overhauled Knicks will be a fight, but we should win.  Philly without Embiid is a shell of itself.  Dallas is a good team but we're at home with 3 days rest.


Bob



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Grant Williams sticking his foot in his mouth again

I can’t stand Draymond Green, but have to agree with him on his account of Grant

Minny really looked discombobulated! Lucky there is only one dude in the entire NBA like Giannis. It is he himself. We have a 5 game spread vs them and as long as we maintain our diligence, we will keep them at bay.

The Cavs have now dropped 2 in a row and fell a full 7 games back in the loss column and 8 back in the win column.

Did you know that the Celtics winning percentage since the beginning of this year is .750

The Celtics are determined to secure the top spot in the playoffs. Home Court really matters. Several good things to point to with respect to this edition of the Boston Celtics. Their 26-3 home record is at the top of my list.

Consider 5 home losses last season during the playoffs and 6 home losses during our 2022 championship run. The Celtics home record this year reflects another level of maturity. I see no reason why their dominance at home will not continue during the playoffs. A road game at Boston is the toughest game for any team to play.

With 26 games remaining, hitting the magic 60 win total looks well within reach. Just go 16-10 the rest of the way. I actually can see them winning 62-64 games.

What is going on in this league? Everyone is fighting. Four guys got thrown out of the Miami game, starting with Butler. Grant williams still has not learned that his big mouth and tough guy act scares no one. Watch out tonight, I see some tough guy plays going on from NY. They are of the belief that they can beat the Celtics, so the boys better be on guard and playing their top BB.

Grant why start a ruckus with 8-10 seconds left against some scrub?

When you had a chance to really do some real tough guy mechanisms 2 years ago in the Finals when DG was getting in everyone’s face, then when it could have mattered you did NOTHING!!

Chris Haynes: Jimmy Butler and Naji Marshall have each been suspended one game. Thomas Bryant and Jose Alvarado suspended three games for leaving the bench area during an on-court altercation and fighting. Nikola Jovic suspended one game for leaving the bench area and entering an on-court altercation.


Bob


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As far as MIL goes, it looks like they are beginning to figure things out. It gets back to what I said a few months ago in that the ONLY match-up that matters in the playoffs is Jrue vs. Dame if Boston and the Bucks make it to the ECF. We shut down KD, one of the greatest offensive scorers of all time, making him look like a 3rd graders and that was with Marcus Smart. Dame with his inexperience will never get out of first gear nor even have the opportunity to make any game winning shots for the Bucks as long as Jrue is on the court.

Amen.

db

Prior to the completion of any games today.

Sunday Morning Standings:

Philly dropping like a stone without Embiid.  If an MVP is a player who has the greatest impact upon his team all you need to do is look at their record since he got injured.  They're 4-6 in their last 10 and are now in 5th place in the East.  They are just one game in the loss column ahead of #6 Indiana and one game in the loss column ahead of #7 Miami (Miami has played 1 less game).  If they continue to lose and Miami and Indy rally the Sixers could very easily be in the play-in and that's not good.  

Anyway, enough about the woes of the Sixers.  We need to continue our own winning streak despite an exhausting schedule beginning a week from now.  We're a lock for #1 in the East.  Time to pour it on and lock in our, currently, 26-3 home court advantage through the entire playoffs.


Bob


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Yeah, Bobh, PHI's making a whistling sound on their way down the East standings.  But you're right.  Do we want to see them in the 1st Round with Embiid back?  Hell no!! Let the Bucks deal with that.  We'll still punish them but we don't need a G7 in the first round.  G4 is as far as we need to go whoever we play.  Of course the 2008 team was not stellar in the playoffs.  We played 26 out of a possible 28 games on our way to the title as you may recall.  

db

There is no telling who we get in the first round of the playoffs.

To be honest I really do not care what team it is.  One thing for sure, the only team that every team wants to duck is the Celtics.  

The standing are not set yet however it seems very likely that Boston will finish at the top and will have a 1st round matchup against the 8th seed.

The Bucks, Knicks, Sixers, Pacers, Heat and Magic all want to stay out of the 7th and 8th spot to avoid the due or die play-in elimination rounds.  If there is an assumption that the Bucks are good to go and have righted their ship, think again.  Remember they have a really tough remaining schedule at .525 ranked 7th.  They will have to fight tooth and nail for every inch.   I am just not convince that their defense is good enough.

The Knicks and Sixers are both bitten by the injury bug.  It will be hard for those teams to make up any ground.  There is only a 3 game spread in the loss column between NYK at #4 and the Magic at #8.

The Celtics could end up playing any of the teams that are currently (4 through 10), that finish up in the 8th spot.  

There are way too many possible outcomes to contemplate.

What really should matter, for anyone that has any concerns, is the Celtics dominating Conference Record of 32-6.

As Eddie House said the other night, "no one felt sorry for the Celtics when injuries piled up last year, (i.e. Rob, Brogden) so don't cry to me about injuries" He's right, The entire league is gunning for the Celtics. So, HEALTH is the most important thing in these last 25 plus games before the playoffs. I have no pity for Embid, he is always using the injury complaint. Granted, he is one heck of a player, but did anyone cry for Hayward or Irving when we were fighting for a title???Guess that is the old timer in me, I never felt sorry for anyone when they lost a key player, look at that bandage Russell played with around his thigh the last year he played. Red always said "if you can walk, you can play" I sat across from the Celtics bench in 1967-70. One night Larry Seigfried sat there puking his guts out, and then checked in . Oh well, those were the good old days