Knicks surprise the Spurs.......help us or hurt us?

Well did they soften them up for us in a couple days............or just stir them up?

Spurs are not a lock in the west for a playoff spot and need to win some more games. Spurs in Milwaukee this eve and although the Bucks are only 2-8 in their last 10 still have a good winning record at home.

Spurs are 7th in the west but only 4.5 games up on both NO and OKC both whom are playing better over their last 10 games than the Spurs.

OKC has lost Ibaka too for perhaps the rest of the season. Won't have to deal with him he's a tough matchup. If Bradley and Smart can at least keep Westbrook under some control might get this one in the W column too.

I'd love to at least get a split but gosh 2 would be real nice.

beat

beat wrote:Well did they soften them up for us in a couple days............or just stir them up?

Spurs are not a lock in the west for a playoff spot and need to win some more games. Spurs in Milwaukee this eve and although the Bucks are only 2-8 in their last 10 still have a good winning record at home.

Spurs are 7th in the west but only 4.5 games up on both NO and OKC both whom are playing better over their last 10 games than the Spurs.

OKC has lost Ibaka too for perhaps the rest of the season. Won't have to deal with him he's a tough matchup. If Bradley and Smart can at least keep Westbrook under some control might get this one in the W column too.

I'd love to at least get a split but gosh 2 would be real nice.

beat

beat,

To channel the spirit of Brad Stevens, "right now I'm only thinking about OKC tonight and what we have to do to win that game".

Ibaka is out. Durant is out. You're right about Bradley and Smart, especially Bradley because of Westbrook's speed, holding Westbrook to merely human form.

As far as the Spurs go, they are more likely to laugh off a loss to the miserable Knicks than anything. Also, they play in Milwaukee tonight. That should let them take whatever frustrations out on someone else.


bob


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[quote="beat"]Well did they soften them up for us in a couple days............or just stir them up?

Spurs are not a lock in the west for a playoff spot and need to win some more games. Spurs in Milwaukee this eve and although the Bucks are only 2-8 in their last 10 still have a good winning record at home.

Spurs are 7th in the west but only 4.5 games up on both NO and OKC both whom are playing better over their last 10 games than the Spurs.

OKC has lost Ibaka too for perhaps the rest of the season. Won't have to deal with him he's a tough matchup. If Bradley and Smart can at least keep Westbrook under some control might get this one in the W column too.

I'd love to at least get a split but gosh 2 would be real nice.

beat

Beat

I was contemplating the same thing.

The Bucks game may act as a buffer so perhaps they will take their anger out on them.

Every game from this point on is a big game. I think The Celts have a good shot at beating OKC.. Westbrook has been putting up some serious numbers (averaging a triple double in March) but he is also averaging 6.7 turnovers per game. OKC is ripe for the picking.

The spurs have been a team that is always difficult to beat. But they look old and slow. So I say let's beat them too.

dboss

Isn't it great that, as dboss correctly says, "Every game from this point on is a big game?"  That's the way it should be.

I'm afraid to think what might happen if the Celts were to beat both OKC and the Spurs on the road.  First, this forum might implode.  Next, we'd all have to hire shrinks to help us deal with the euphoria.  Dboss would be "interviewing" everyone in sight.  The UCLA Pep Band would play "Happy Days Are Here Again."  Balloons will drop from the Garden ceiling.  Oh wait, wrong place and wrong decade.

Never mind.

Sam

sam wrote:Isn't it great that, as dboss correctly says, "Every game from this point on is a big game?"  That's the way it should be.

I'm afraid to think what might happen if the Celts were to beat both OKC and the Spurs on the road.  First, this forum might implode.  Next, we'd all have to hire shrinks to help us deal with the euphoria.  Dboss would be "interviewing" everyone in sight.  The UCLA Pep Band would play "Happy Days Are Here Again."  Balloons will drop from the Garden ceiling.  Oh wait, wrong place and wrong decade.

Never mind.

Sam

Sam

As the Celts perfect the pace game they become a team that has a style that can win games against anyone.

They are not there yet but they are getting close. The Pace Game is not just on the offensive side of the ball. The Pace game on defense is best reflected in the reaction time in making defensive rotations.

Watching them fast break in the 4th quarter the other night where the ball did not touch the floor was the real deal.

dboss

dboss wrote:

sam wrote:Isn't it great that, as dboss correctly says, "Every game from this point on is a big game?"  That's the way it should be.

I'm afraid to think what might happen if the Celts were to beat both OKC and the Spurs on the road.  First, this forum might implode.  Next, we'd all have to hire shrinks to help us deal with the euphoria.  Dboss would be "interviewing" everyone in sight.  The UCLA Pep Band would play "Happy Days Are Here Again."  Balloons will drop from the Garden ceiling.  Oh wait, wrong place and wrong decade.

Never mind.

Sam

Sam

As the Celts perfect the pace game they become a team that has a style that can win games against anyone.

They are not there yet but they are getting close.  The Pace Game is not just on the offensive side of the ball.  The Pace game on defense is best reflected in the reaction time in making defensive rotations.

Watching them fast break in the 4th quarter the other night where the ball did not touch the floor was the real deal.

dboss

dboss,

We've come a long, long way from that January 14th beat down by the Hawks.  I don't know what our overall record was in mid-January but it was pretty dismal.  We were 3-8 out of our previous 11 going into that game, lost that game and the next 2 against Chicago and LAC too.  3 wins out of the previous 14 games.  Pretty damn ugly.  Then the worm started to turn.  We won on the road in Portland and Denver.  We lost a competitive one by 3 points against GSW in GSW.  We seesawed up and down a bit, looking good at times and then like crap other times, until around the all-star game.

Speaking for myself here, I had confidence in Brad.  I didn't think he was a great coach then but I could see his intelligence and open-mindedness to "doing what works" and saw the glimmer there.  I had no doubt that, if "The Butler Way" didn't work he'd adapt.  He has that kind of mind.  But not even I, wearing my greenest of green goggles, thought he'd blossom as quickly as he has and would be able to apply that in a matter of weeks to a finally stable roster.

I've been preaching patience, pointing out that we are less than 2 years into a 3-5 year rebuild (minimum).  We have pieces that need to be upgraded, mostly in the starters, but man oh man what a difference a year makes.  

When we started this year most pundits predicted 28-30 wins, and that was based upon the assumption that our two top players, Rondo and Green, would still be here and healthy.  Some of us here predicted a few more, also with the same assumptions.  I thought we had a shot at 35 and, if we were there in the crappy EC, we might have a shot at the playoffs.  Most thought I was crazy.  Well, I am, but in a harmless way.

We have 30 wins already and have 16 more games to play.  Going 5-11 the rest of the way isn't too hard to imagine and that would give us those 35 wins.  Adding 10 wins onto a season while gutting it of star players in a player's league and playing the NBA roster version of a shell game is spectacular production.  Major kudos to Brad, to the players for buying into Brad and to Danny for bringing in players that bought into Brad and provided some talent and energy.

And major kudos to us too.  This past year and a half has not been much fun, certainly not by the bar I set for defining 'fun', but it's fun now and we all deserve credit for hanging in there.  Miami Heat fans we are not, oh no, we are True Believers.

Go Celtics!


bob



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Bob

I certainly did not anticipate that Boston would be playing this well.

Although I view Stevens as an inexperienced coach that is still learning he has more than exceeded my expectations.

When the game of basketball is played in what I think of as a pure style of basketball, the players become more of a single entity.  Each component meshed together in a pattern that creates opportunities to score the basketball and stop the other team from scoring.

Although Boston may finish below .500 their play over the past 2 months has been amazing.  This is best reveled in how the team plays when there are injuries.  A team that depends on a floor general or a go to guy cannot sustain itself through injuries.  This team is playing well even when what we think of as a key guy, is not playing.

That's pretty damn impressive.

dboss

As time passes, IF the Celtics continue along the current trend, I assume we'll hear from many people who, like the 500,000 people who were among 10,000 who were present for Ted Williams' last at-bat homer, knew it all the time.  I'm not talking about you, Bob, because I recall everything you say.  And I put myself on the "pleasantly surprised" list; but if I had had really strong confidence, I would have been advising people to "See me in April"—a line that has been conspicuously missing from my repertoire this season.

Sam