Pre-Week 4-Game Sets vs. CLE & ORL

Well if there ever was an opportunity to show ourselves, this week would be it. As the league continues to adopt new ideas, scheduling was the next obvious target. In an effort to reduce travel costs and create possible playoff matchup stints in the middle of the season, we see what we have before us this week. Fortunately, all our games are at home, usually not something to which we are accustomed.

For Vegas, there are 5 possible outcomes, we go 0-4, 1-3, 2-2, 3-1 or clearly the most preferable 4-0! Well, unless dboss comes on and says 4-0 is a lock, I'm a little squeamish about this 4-game run and neither the two opponents nor the format bring me much solace.

There is a small chance we go 0-4. The media would love it. Everything wrong with the Celtics, and they are legion, has FINALLY caught up with them. Thank God!! Geez! What are we 20 games in the season! Come on!! For the love of God can we get back to the Lakers??!!!! Something like that.

Given ORL is in this mix, I don't see us going 2-0 against them even at home unless we figure a lot of things out that we didn't a few weeks ago on the road. CLE is coming off a beatdown by ORL themselves and on a B2B tonight. The could go 0-3 this week. But I don't see them doing that either. Maybe.

What I saw last night between those two teams is they both appear pathetic. We should sweep them both. But everybody gets up for the big target Celtics.

The home win streak is clearly on the line. It will have its toughest test by far this week.

I'm going with the following:

We go...

0-4 - 12% chance
1-3 - 18% chance
2-2 - 31% chance
3-1 - 21% chance
4-0 - 18% chance

That's pretty safe. If we go 4-0, then we can increase the chatter about challenging the 1986 home record.

Place your bets, lady and gentlemen!

db

db

The Celtics have a great opportunity to make some hay with 4 straight games at home.

They begin with a game vs the Cavs tonight who were beat by the Magic last night in Orlando.  PF Mosley was still out with a bad knee and Caris Levert is still out.   The Cavs are playing without a starting SF.   The Cavs are a poorly constructed team.  As long as Boston shoots the 3 ball well and defends at a high level against Mitchell, Garland and Straus, they should win both games.

The Magic come in on Friday and they should be well rested.  As you may recall our first meeting with them did not go well  We lost on the road by 17 points.  Too many turnovers and a god awful job on the glass doomed us.  I guess I should also mention our poor shooting from deep (only 7-29...24.1%)  we only took 76 FGA to 85 for them.

The Magic are an up and coming team.  The Celtics should be well motivated to show up.  The Celtics can ill afford to sleepwalk through the 2 matchups.  Jrue Holiday who missed the first game should have something to say about that.

I see a 4-0 sweep because the Cavs are not healthy and the Magic have already embarrassed us and we are at home for all 4 games.

Did you know that during our 2007-08 season that ended up with banner #17 the Celtics split with the Cavs 2-2 and lost to the Magic 1-2.  Both were playoff teams.

The 07-08 team went 66-16 during the regular season.  The overwhelming aspect of those 66 wins was the sheer dominance of the Celtics against teams below .500 where they went 42-2.  However that teams records against the .500 and above teams was 24-14.  Clearly they did not dominate the better teams during the regular season.

Last years Celtics team went 33-15 against the good teams but only 24-10 against the bad ones. At the end of the day, a 66 win season topped off by a championship, (16-10)  was a  very special season in Celtics history.

The Celtics are off to a really solid start this season by going 10-4 against the iron and 6-1 against the tin.

Alright, dboss. 4-0 it is!! Excellent, convincing analysis!

db

dbrown4 wrote:Alright, dboss.  4-0 it is!!  Excellent, convincing analysis!

db

The guy does make some convincing arguments. Probably what made him a successful insurance executive. Hmmm... maybe Brad should send dboss to talk with a couple of FA bigs.

The tricky part of going 4-0 is because AH does not play B2B game and we have a game tonight and on Friday.

I do not see the Celtics deviating.  If they play him tonight he will have to sit on Friday vs the Magic.  

if he plays tonight that would give him 3 days rest for Sunday's game.  In our first meeting with Orlando AH logged 33 minutes and only scored 3 points with 5 rebounds.  I think you play him tonight and sit him tomorrow.  In the Magic game, Kornet had his best showing of the year overall with 12 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks and 2 steals.    And Jrue did not play in the Magic game.

I was surprised that the Cavs took so many 3 pointers (45) and made 19 of them.  That is not who they are (average 33 3PA per game)  The Celtics can take those shots away from them if they blitz those high screens more and limit the number of open looks.  That would provide the Celtics with a layer of insurance to indemnify themselves against the risk of loss due to the peril of too many 3 point shots by the Cavs.

dboss wrote:That would provide the Celtics with a layer of insurance to indemnify themselves against the risk of loss due to the peril of too many 3 point shots by the Cavs.

Quote of the day.

This is a tough stretch for us. If you look beyond the weekend, we head out West for a Tuesday/Wednesday B2B vs. GSW and SAC respectively. dboss, you want to extend your previous 4-0 prediction to include these next two games?!

db

OK, dboss sits at 3-0. Anyone want to bet against him?! He knows what he's talkin' 'bout, Jack!

Today's game is a mid-day afternooner. This tends to mess up routines but clearly ABC doesn't give a rat's ass about that. There have been many Celtic classics over the ages on Sunday afternoons. Many called that because we won of course!

Celtics on Friday came back swinging with Fool Me Once...ORL was administered the hammer to the kneecaps. Let's see who wins the rubber match today for/at this point of the season. Only Banton and Kornet on the injured list. LK out. Banton due back today per ESPN.

Oddsmakers getting a little loose with us at BOS (-8.5) as of 8:16am today. Alright. We'll see. I hope we see more of what we saw Friday. That's about as close to perfect basketball unless you want to include the 70's Harlem Globetrotters! Enjoy!!

db

dbrown4 wrote:OK, dboss sits at 3-0.  Anyone want to bet against him?!  He knows what he's talkin' 'bout, Jack!  

Today's game is a mid-day afternooner.  This tends to mess up routines but clearly ABC doesn't give a rat's ass about that.  There have been many Celtic classics over the ages on Sunday afternoons.  Many called that because we won of course!

Celtics on Friday came back swinging with Fool Me Once...ORL was administered the hammer to the kneecaps.  Let's see who wins the rubber match today for/at this point of the season.  Only Banton and Kornet on the injured list.  LK out.  Banton due back today per ESPN.  

Oddsmakers getting a little loose with us at BOS (-8.5) as of 8:16am today.  Alright.  We'll see.  I hope we see more of what we saw Friday.  That's about as close to perfect basketball unless you want to include the 70's Harlem Globetrotters!  Enjoy!!

db    

Should be interesting DB

I wonder if Stevens or Brissett get any run with Zinger and Horford back?