Celtics VS Miami: the schedules..

i posted this as part of a thread i began regarding who might end up with a better record at the end of this upcoming season and in doing this lil bit of research, i was shocked to see just how "easy" Miami's schedule really was going to be:

"Miami this year has what might be an even weaker division to face than Boston did that year...

Lets face it, Boston will play vs a very strong division, with only Toronto likely out of the playoff picture. thats 12 games out of an 82 game schedule that will be against teams above .500

Miami will play against 4 rivals consisting of 16 games that very likely wont be playoff teams, with Atlanta likely being the possible exception.

what does that mean? of each teams 16 game interdivision games, Miami will likely win a higher percentage of its games.. heck any loss they have against anyone from their division will be labeled an "upset". Boston meanwhile will likely trade multiple wins with the likes of Philly- new York and possibly new Jersey with only a loss to Tornoto being called an "upset"...

..
The ease of the Heats schedule; the heat have only 15 back to back games all season, Boston will have 21.

a closer look at the heats schedule: after nove 14/15 back to back no more b2b's for the heat till dec 25/26- Boston will have had 9 by then compared to heats 4..

after a nov 17th game @ pheonix the heat return to Miami for the next 17 days till playing Washington on the 4th.. during that time they will play only 4 teams (none back to back) with only 2 maybe being .500 teams. Following the away game to washington they go back home till dec 20th when they visit Dallas. At that time in a 30 day period the Heat will have had 1 away game in a 30 day period- and no back to backs.

they will finnish the month on a 4 game road trip facing Charlote, Detroit, Milwalkie and Orlando.. then back home for 8 days.

In january they will have a single b2b game.

while Feb and march their schedule is much tighter, only april looks to be somewhat difficult with 9 games in 17 days, including 3 b2b's and 4 teams likely to be playoff caliber teams.

By comparision, Boston has a 9 day stand at home, 5 games, 3 teams likely over .500 and an 8 day home stand, 4 games, 2 probably playoff teams.

while the extensive lull in road play during december will mean a busier road schedule as the season goes on, the Heat's lack of back to backs compared to Boston will likely allow them more practice time, or time to rest between games. However during the month of December Miami will have no excuses to lose any games, well rested. Plenty of time to pracice. Add that to the fact that only maybe 4 of the 14 teams they face that entire month will likely be playoff contenders, the Heat might have one of the easist months in NBA history.

im just wondering about two things, am i correct in assuming that The Heats late november/ December has to be one of the easist 30 day periods for a team... EVER??

and secondly, just how much of an impact will the two schedules have on both teams.. with Miami having a single away game in 30 days, there is going to be a lot of time for rest/and or extra practices.. Boston meanwhile will be dealing with a lot more back2back games..

how much of an impact will Miami's weaker division vs Bostons stronger Atlantic have on eventual win/loss record? ( i want to actauly keep track of this for both teams throughout the season)

how about the much easier Heat schedule? how will that impact the eventual win'/loss records?

Im not making excuses for a possible Celtics team with the 2nd best team in the East, heck when we won it all in 08 we had the advantage of beating up on an otherwise very wimpy Atlantic Division.. this yr its the Heats turn. However i do think schedule and strenth of opponets will likley have a stong influence on the outcome in the Race to win the East in the Reguler season.. am i correct?

in nearly every sport- the defending champion is given the toughest schedule in the league the following year.

Now the NBA clearly cant do anything with the fact that the Southeast division is a joke, but the X amount of days at home and lack of back to backs - THAT is BS - no other way to describe it.

In the end, the Heat will likely have the better record than the Celtics. But all of those games vs. a better Atlantic Division - will make the C's battle tested...which will only benefit them in the long run.

No going to get to worked up about this.

it's a long long season.

On paper their schedule looks easy but an injury or 2 can change that in a heartbeat as we well know.

beat

Miami will have the proverbial target on their backs. They will get everybody's A game. They have to overcome the high of being champion so that they can face these challenges with enuf of a chip to win the games at hand. That can be a big factor in the final wins total. I expect it to be close and the improved Celtics bench will be the reason. Of course, with all those dayz off, there is the South Beach factor as well. lol

Interesting discussion. Since I don't really care about home court advantage in the playoffs, I like Mrkleen's comment that the Celtics should be more battle-tested than the Heat come playoff time. In some years, being more battle-tested might mean more fatigued. But I'm hoping that won't be the case this season, given the depth of the squad.

Hopefully, that depth will stand them in very good stead when those back-to-backs come along.

Sam

Sam,
im not concerned too much about home court advantage in the playoffs either, though, barring unforseen ciircumstances i expect us to have one of the top 4 records in the league along with Ok, L.a. and Heat meaning worst case scenerio going to the finals we'd NOT have homecourt only 1/2 the time.

in the thread i mentioned i started on the other site, I suggested that, it was very likely the Heat would finnish with the better record, but that, going into the playoffs it didnt mean they were the better team.

The Celtics depth is where i have reason for hope. Last season we went i beleive into the playoffs with the best post all star game record in the east.. after the easy month of December, the Heats schedule does become more difficult and I think as time goes on Boston will, continue to grow..

we may lose well lose homecourt, (maybe not though) but our depth hopefully will carry us past the back2backs and what im hoping for allowing guys to simply take more time to heal from injuries.

Usualy we've had guys playing through injuries when what they needed was rest.. I think we now have the luxery to simply let a guy nurse a injury, even if it means missing a few reguler season games, when, say last year, a guy almost had to be on the floor, just cuz we needed bodies.

The Heat i dont think can afford to keep Wade and Allen out for longer than what is absolutely needed, they will look to win homecourt- i dont think their are mentally tough enough yet to be able to rely on winning sans homecourt when it matters the most..

Yet we're deep enough that we can allow bradley to come back at his own pace, and in situations like those 21 back to backs, I'm pretty sure we could even afford to even further reduce guys like Terry, KG & Peirces minutes..

there is a new articule up @ Reds army that suggests that at this point Doc might consider NOT having a set lineup this season...

so in back 2 back situations we coudl possibly see lineups like this:

jan 22 @ Wizards

KG (30 min)- Darko (11 min)- Wilcox (7 min)
bass (32 min)- sullinger(15 min)- Green (1 min)
Peirce (28 min) Green (18 min)Joshep (2 min)
Bradley (31 min) Lee (15 min) Terry (2 min)
Rondo (35 min) Terry (13 min)

jan 23 vs Orlando

KG (23 min) Darko (15 min) Collins (10 min)
Sullinger (21 min) Bass (22 min) KG (5min)
Peirce (21 min) Green (21 min) Joshep (6 min)
lee (28 min) Bradley (16 min) jET (4 MIN)
Rondo (30 min) JET (11 min) BRADLEY (7 MIN)

the next game we have will be on the 26th, vs again the magic.. but on the road.. followed by a home game vs Indiana

Id actualy be willing to suggest that both the two Orlando and Wizard games could be won with KG- Peirce-JET sitting those games out... or with a lot less minutes played than what i just made up for the above depth charts.

We now have the sort of depth that could allow us to enter these four games well rested for each game, and still face Indiana on our home court 3-0 over our last 3 games and rested to boot. With 20+ back to back games to be played, i find that very encouraging

Devil's advocate here. Do the Heat share their building with any other major league team? The Celtics have to share the Garden with the Bruins. Accommodating both team's schedules means less flexability.

The Spurs have the rodeo to deal with every February and spend most of that month away. They have 9 straight away games from Feb 6-24 (with 2 BTB's). The flip side of that coin is that they only have 2 away games in March.

I guess that there is a flip side to the Celtic's coin as well. With so many BTB's, that means that all the other games have more days between them.

The schedule giveth and the schedule taketh away (I guess?)

gyso wrote:Devil's advocate here. Do the Heat share their building with any other major league team? The Celtics have to share the Garden with the Bruins. Accommodating both team's schedules means less flexability.

The Florida Panthers hockey team also shares the AA Arena with the Heat. But the NHL is on strike at the moment, and have historically had different nights when they play (Celtics usually play home games on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday - Bruins play home games Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)

But you guys are right, much ado about nothing.....lets just get the games going.

I believe gyso's point about more time between games is important. I'd gladly trade more back-to-backs for more full practices. Given the number of new players on the team, and injuries (including Bradley's and maybe even Wilcox') can always cause discontinuity, the more practices the better throughout the season.

Sam

mrkleen09 wrote:

gyso wrote:Devil's advocate here. Do the Heat share their building with any other major league team? The Celtics have to share the Garden with the Bruins. Accommodating both team's schedules means less flexability.

The Florida Panthers hockey team also shares the AA Arena with the Heat. But the NHL is on strike at the moment, and have historically had different nights when they play (Celtics usually play home games on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday - Bruins play home games Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)

But you guys are right, much ado about nothing.....lets just get the games going.

mrkleen,

Thanks for the info about the Panthers. I had no idea since I gave up following hockey during the last labor dispute. Your comments do bring something else to light. I have often wondered why almost none of the Celtic's BTB's are Home-Home. Now I know. The Bruins are often in the building on the odd nights.

gyso

Stern likely had final approval on the schedule and he wants both Miami & LA to have the best chance to shine as his choice for the collective face (s) of the NBA. With the Celtics at full strength that would be less of a factor but it is important that good use is made of the practice time that is available so everyone can get on & be on the same page. If Wilcox can put his back problems in the past & Bradley can return by say late December/early January Doc can begin developing combinations that can be most effective against any team the Celtics will face. Getting younger and longer should increase point production via fast breaks & second chance put backs. I look for the Celts to be the fly (not Williams, or Super) in Stern's ointment.

MD!

Out of curiosity checked which teams have both NHL and NBA teams using the same arena. Here is the list: (don't think I missed any)

Staples Center-LA Lakers(NBA),LA Clippers and LA Kings(NHL),
American Airlines Center-Dallas Mavericks(NBA) and Dallas Stars(NHL),
Wachovia Center-Philadelphia 76ers(NBA)and Philadelpiha Flyers,
MadisonSquareGarden- NY Knicks and NY Rangers ,
Verizon Center-Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals,
Philips Arena-Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Thrashers,
Pepsi Center-Denver Nuggets(NBA) and Colorado Avalanche,
TD Banknorth Garden-Boston Celtics(NBA) and Boston Bruins(NHL),
United Center-Chicago Bulls(NBA) and Chicago Blackhawks,
Air Canada Center-Toronto Raptors(NBA) and Toronto Maple Leafs(NHL)

note the Lakers have to share with 2 other teams.

Also not sure whom gets the pick of the available dates first the NBA or NHL teams in the various cities.

With concerts and circus's ect I'm sure many of these arena's are going almost every night with something.

beat

mrkleen,

After looking at beat's list and seeing the Heat and Panthers missing from it, I looked online to see the why of it.

The Heat play in the American Airlines Arena, in Miami.

The Panthers play in the BankAtlantic Center, a little north of Miami, near Ft. Lauderdale.

So I guess they do not have a scheduling issue with two teams there. The WNBA Miami Sol did play there, but they are long gone.

gyso

gyso wrote:mrkleen,

After looking at beat's list and seeing the Heat and Panthers missing from it, I looked online to see the why of it.

The Heat play in the American Airlines Arena, in Miami.

The Panthers play in the BankAtlantic Center, a little north of Miami, near Ft. Lauderdale.

So I guess they do not have a scheduling issue with two teams there. The WNBA Miami Sol did play there, but they are long gone.

gyso

Did not know that GYSO. Guess I dont follow hockey much