Celtics Stat of the Day, 12/30/09

Just for the heck of it, I've devised a little true/false quiz.

1. The Lakers play in a weaker conference than the Celtics and Cavs...true or false?

False...at least as defined by won-lost records. The Western Conference boasts 8 teams with records of .500 or higher versus 5 in the Eastern Conference. Conversely, there are only 2 so-called "weak sisters" (which I defined as having records below.400) in the Western Conference versus 7 in the Eastern Conference.

Need more convincing on this one? Head-to-head so far this season: East 70 (or .405), West 103 (or .595)

2. So far this season, the Celtics have enjoyed home cooking less than the Lakers and Cavs...true or false?

Half true and half false. The Cavs have played more games (33) than either the Celts and Lakers and lead the other two teams in away games played: Cavs 19, Celtics 16, Lakers 11.

3. The Celtics have played more quality teams than either the Lakers or Cavs...true or false.

False. In terms of opponents with records of .500 or higher: 13 for the Cavs, 12 for the Lakers, 7 for the Celts.

4. When weighted by quality of the competition, the Cavs' winning record is superior to those of the Celtics and Lakers...true of false?

True. I tried an exercise in which I (a) added the winning percentages of the opposition for all games won by the three teams and (b) subtracted the winning percentages of the opposition for all games lost by the three teams. I then divided the net total of weighted pluses and weighted minuses by the number of games played: The results: The "weighted wins" exceeded the "weighted losses" by the following averages: Cavs .235, Lakers .223, Celtics .206.

I submit this quiz not because we need another downer at this particular moment but simply in the interest of being realistic. Of the three teams, the Cavs seem to have the mounted the greatest momentum against the toughest schedule at the moment. What all of this means to me is simply that the Celtics have a lot more gelling to do so as to be performing at their peak (in terms of chemistry, physical execution, and mental execution) come playoff time. That will make for a very exciting remainder of the regular season.

I probably should have included the Magic, Hawks and Dallas (all with records over .700) in this exercise, but these calculations took long enough as it was.

Sam

Celtics stat of the day: This year's Celtics team is shooting three-pointers (.348) even worse than the awful 24-58 team of 06-07 which shot them at a .367 clip. In their championship season they were a fine .381 and last year a terrific .397. We have potentially great three-point shooters who have been significantly off where they should be (Ray, Eddie) and decent shooters (Rasheed) who have been terrible. Only Paul Pierce has had a good season shooting them.

I know this is Sam's thread but I thought I'd co-opt it with this little tidbit. And it's not worth a thread of its own.

Steve

Think this years team is bad from downtown............

the 1984 Championship Celtic team shot .24 % from three!

beat

beat - Back then people thought that was good!

steve

500 years ago people thought the world was flat too.

Anyway went back and looked at the entire league that year 1984

5 teams shot less than 20% Houston, Portland and Seattle all were 19% Clipperes were 18% and the worst was Chicago 17%

Only 3 teams shot 30% or better and all were in the same division.
Denver and San Antonio shot just 30% and Utah shot 31%

10 teams shot better than us 11 shot worse.

Noticed that the numberof attempts were about 1/4 of what teams shoot now too.

beat

And back then people were leading the league shooting them not much better than 35%. Today they're leading the lead shooting them close to 50%.