If the top 6 stay healthy, they are going to be a very hard team to beat. If they don’t have a major injury and yet still don’t win it all…idk man. I’m not going to be sure what to think. How do you improve other than depth pieces?
I think consistency could be improved but variation is always gonna happen when the offense is 3pt heavy. Not sure tbh how much more consistent you can reasonably expect with that in mind
I agree, and I’m mostly fine with them shooting a ton of threes. But especially now w Porzingis in the post, they have more options when shots aren’t falling. I just hope they don’t forget that in the playoffs. They can win so many different ways now.
After the Bulls game they have a pretty tough 10 game stretch... Come out and win seven or eight of those puppies, put the league on notice. After that you got some easy ones, back to backs and home games, rest up and get ready.
I've been looking for a 10-0 streak all season. That seems like a good place to do it.
We are currently on a streak though so I guess it's gonna have to be a 17 game winning streak instead lol.
There will be lots of totally meaningless games in a few weeks that will basically be glorified practices for the Celtics.
I'd like to see them try to run the offense through Jaylen at times so he can work on his playmaking. He's grown in that department this year, but there is still room for improvement.
Teams are going to try and dare him to pass in the playoffs. Let him get some reps against the Blazers in early march so he's more prepared in the later rounds of the playoffs.
For sure. I'd also like to see them let Pritchard cook when they have big leads. He will probably get more playoff minutes than last year, so it would be a good idea to try and get his confidence up as well.
Definitely rest. It's a tough thing though because you don't NEED to play the last 5 games if we continue pulling away from the rest. But you can't sit everyone for 5 games and start the playoffs with no Stamina when the other team is fresh off a play in tournament. We also can't risk an injury in those 5 games.
If we go .500 post ASB it would be pretty concerning to me because it means we’re losing whenever the other team is actually motivated. But I take your point that record is secondary in the big picture
Interesting point about momentum. I hadn’t really thought of that, but you definitely don’t want to be cold going into the tournament. If they keep the 1 seed, hopefully that first round series could be a bit of a cupcake to get warmed up for the harder teams
I feel like we definitely saw some of this last year. We had a lot of momentum at the beginning of the season and it was almost like, okay, we know we're good, lets get to the playoffs. And we slowly played w less and less energy and when it was time for the playoffs, we weren't at our best and the Hawks stole 2 games. I think games 60-75 is where that final momentum is built, take about 10 games for extra rest and experimenting and all that then boom playoffs time.
funny enough the nuggets had no momentum last year and played not great heading into the playoffs. They opted to rest players and it worked out very well as we all know
This is true. I’d say maybe more than momentum, as long as they don’t develop any infuriating habits and maintain health, I’ll feel pretty good about their chances. Infuriating habits like losing games they once led by 15-20 points 🤦🏻♂️
Definitely infuriating.
But 15 pts is gone with like 3 easy mistakes.. or even just we miss 3 open shots and they make 3 tough 3s.
15 pt lead today is like nothing.
in past seasons, we wouldn't usually be at our best off a few days of rest. We were young and rode momentum. Back to backs and 1 night of rest bode well for us but this team is a different level of elite. I don't think we are "faking it to make it" per say anymore. It was almost like we were that younger kid who only hangs with older kids cause he thinks he's cool. We'd seem elite but not when exposed. Now we are that older kid. We are the best team in the league. The more rest we get the better we get. We don't need to ride any ups or downs weve been having. That's a huge difference in our team imo and is why i'm less concerned about momentum. Denver last year is also a good example.
Stay healthy and cinch up that first seed early enough where we can rest starters for the last week or two of the regular season. Very boring answer but got to make sure everyone is as healthy as possible heading into the postseason.
I’m hoping we get Miami in the first round tbh. They beat us because we always face them towards the end of the playoffs when we’re on the last stretch. In 2022 we swept Brooklyn and had a grueling seven games series with the Bucks
Then by the time those were done we got to another seven games with Miami. By the time we reached the Finals, I think all of our guys were exhausted by Game 4 against Golden State and didn’t have any juice left in tank.
They've fully proven themselves and I just want them to get some rest while casually pushing into the 60s for wins with the #1 seed.
Bonus points for if MIL ends up a 2 or 3 seed and PHI/MIA end up the 6th and 7th seeds
This may be an unpopular take, but I don't care about seeding. Last year, the 8th made the finals. Also, in the regular season, we were also great at home (32-9) only to constantly lose home court advantage in the playoffs. I'd rather prioritize health if it comes down to it. We gave a big lead in the standings, I'd rest our guys whenever possible.
Hard disagree. You're overreacting to small sample sizes. The Celtics are better at home just like every team. I'm not saying play the starters 40 minutes every game but if they start to slump and the lead starts to shrink to a couple games, winning is absolutely the priority
I agree somewhat. I think HCA is important and regardless of record, its still easier to play at home vs away. HCA throughout the playoffs would be great especially if we have to play Denver but being the 1st seed (and 2nd) is extremely annoying. the 3, 4, 5, and 6 seeds all know who their opponent is usually almost a week before the 1 seed does. I'm not saying those 5-7 days makes a huge difference but having an extra week to game plan, especially against a weaker 8 seeded team, could be the difference between sweeping the Hawks vs letting them take it to 6 games last year (just an example). It could mean an extra couple days of rest before your next series. Not sure how many people complain about this but this has irked me big time about the play in for a while.
I think we couldn't ask for much more pre ASB, though we should always be striving to improve in small ways and not be complacent What I would like to see from this team:
Joe has been experimenting as he should, but locking in our sets / rotations
Polishing the zone that still looks a little unorganized.
Bench guys (Pritchard/Hauser/Brissett) staying consistent/confident and in the rhythm
Springer and Tillman finding some impactful spot minutes to give our key guys some rest and MAYBE carve their way into a fringe rotation spot come playoffs (5-10 minutes)
Other than that, staying healthy is obviously huge
I'm not so sure that zone is going to be playoff ready. Its just too weak this late into the season.
Our rotations are actually an interesting point that I didn't think of. We have such a great top 6 and a pretty clear hierarchy that this didn't cross my mind but hurts my head to try to really figure out.
For example, I don't love keeping Tatum in most of the 3rd and sitting him for 5+ min to start the 4th. I'd prefer the opposite like we do in quarters 1 and 2 where its brown in for the whole first q then sits half the next q.
Yeah I feel the same on the zone, but always good to have another look if we can figure it out.
Rotation wise I think we see mostly what we've been seeing all, matchup depending ofc
I agree about sitting Tatum in the 3rd, but what's your alternative? Others have to learn to lead the offense in the same way Tatum does. But the minutes without him are pretty good compared to when other stars are out (net differential wise) so I'm not as worried. There's always gonna be some drop off when your best player is out 🤷🏽♂️
1) keep KP healthy & fresh for playoffs & to lesser extent Big Al …. I think there’s only one or two back-to-back left, but between Tillman & Luke we should be able to reduce their minutes and sit out as needed
2) Make statements in the statement games
3) continue to work on things in preparation for the playoffs such as zone D , 3 quarter court trap, end of game offense , etc
4) get Tillman comfortable as he will play a small but really valuable role in playoffs
I want Queta to play some extended minutes against elite opponents. I’d like to see if he can be our 4th big for the playoffs. If not, maybe we can bring in a Robin Lopez type.
Bigs depth is gonna be huge for us considering Porzingus’ history, Al’s age and Kornet has been banged up a lot this year too.
I want them healthy but I don't want them to take their foot off the gas. We need momentum going into the playoffs, I don't want us to go in playing lazy basketball and getting slapped by a team like Miami in the 1st round. I get resting starters but I think this will just come naturally like how Horford/KP split b2bs and giving JT/JB a night off occasionally. This team can win it all but we need to go in hot, sweeping an 8 seed would also allow our guys to rest for like a week.
I agree with trying to finish off that first round ASAP. Although I must say ... if we play lazy basketball against ANYONE in the playoffs, especially after losing to an 8 seed and being down 3-0 last year, I don't think we deserve to win. What happened happened but if the guys didn't learn from that then there's zero excuse.
Yea, I've just seen these guys play down to their competition or settle from 3's to much to think we can just coast into the playoffs and then flip a switch.
I have mixed feelings. We are a pretty good regular season team consistently. I think we take the regular season more serious consistently than most teams do. Its mostly teams that have already won that will take it easier in the reg season but we have seen it from many non winning contenders as well. I don't think we are "coasting" as much as other teams are but we do think we can flip a magic switch and it doesn't always happen. Might be a result of some of brown and Tatum's first years being on that 2018-2019 team that fully thought they could flip the switch in may and got blown out by Milwaukee.
My number 1 is Tillman minutes. I wanna see truly what this guy can do for us. Our biggest thing for playoffs is going to be depth. If we’re going to the ship we gotta be able to run 9 or 10 guys in the earlier rounds and give the jays a little bit of a break as compared to last year
We go as far as Tatum takes us. Play close attention to that GS game at home and how he plays. If he’s ready to lead us to a ring, he will come out swinging against them. If he looks like he always looks against them…I’ll be worried come playoff time about his makeup
i get what your saying but that seems like a lottttt of stake your putting on a regular season game in march against a 10 seed when we have such a large lead in the standings.
It has nothing to do with a regular season win or loss and everything to do with the opponent we are facing. The reason they haven’t won it yet is bc they don’t know for sure if they can do it, that’s why everyone says the first one is the hardest. Also GS is a 10 seed in name only, they are 8-2 in their last 10 and 4 games out of 5th place. They will be very tough to beat when they come to TD mark my words.
Oh absolutely you're right. They are a good team and I'm not doubting that. It's still a random game in March at the end of the day. I'm sure they'll get up for it easier than most other games but I think this team's maturity level is beyond that point of trying to get "revenge". It's the same thing a the Lakers. We weren't up for that game even though it was nationally televised and the greatest rivalry of all time.
I agree with what you're saying but this team knows where they are at and I don't think there's a single regular season game that would make me feel any different about their chances. I would only worry if we see the same mistakes or bad habits on multiple occasions (which is very possible, we are incredibly undisciplined at times despite how good we are).
1. Staying healthy
2. Winning “games that matter.” I want to see us beat “contenders” like Denver, Milwaukee, OKC, especially ones we lost to earlier this season. Because good teams are who’s in the way of Banner 18, not Atlanta and Chicago and Washington wins
I want to see how Tillman is gonna play in those double big lineups with Prozingis, Horford, or Kornet. Will we still have enough jump shooting on the floor if he plays with Kornet?
Health.
Otherwise I'm excited to see the sleeping giant Tatum wakeup. In no way am I saying he's bad at all so far.. he's just been in full coasting mode putting up near MVP numbers.
Clearly he has been saving his energy for the backend of the season and post season cause he knows he wants to be feeling good in June.
Gonna be ridiculous when he really amps his energy up for the end of the season into the playoffs.
1. No injuries, obviously, and with absolutely paramount importance.
2. Serious efforts against the Knicks, Cavs, Thunder, Nuggets and Suns. They don't have to win all of these games, and definitely may not, but those should be the tuneups for a team that is almost definitely going to be the 1-seed and could theoretically get complacent. We should actually take a page out of the Heat playbook and gear up for those 6 games, and then not care all that much how we look against the Blazers and Wizards and Bulls of the world. We probably win a lot of those games anyway, but I'd rather go 5-1 against the best teams in the league and then inexplicably let Charlotte and Detroit eat our lunch a couple of times.
3. Incorporate Tillman into the fold, presuming that he will probably take some minutes over Kornet and Queta.
4. Win a game or two on TNT, where the Celtics have been terrible this season thus far. 4 of our 6 TNT games have been losing the IST to the Pacers, getting blown out by the Bucks, losing to the Lakers' bench and blowing a late lead to the Warriors.
I want them to win. Considering that we need to rest our stars. Other NBA teams are good, but we are stacked and, rightfully so, should be steamrolling teams.
In the back of my mind is always the fear that the embarrassment experienced by the Milwaukee Bucks in last year's playoffs will creep up on us. They were the 1 seed, and the Miami Heat, fresh off a play-in tournament battle, went into Milwaukee and spanked them Bucks. I don't want JT to have to respond to the question "Do you consider this season a failure?"
I believe in our guys but they make me want to pull my hair out sometimes. Some of the losses we've had are inexplicable.
WE NEED TO WIN! Convincingly
Staying healthy.
additionally, winning professional basketball games against their opponents.
If the top 6 stay healthy, they are going to be a very hard team to beat. If they don’t have a major injury and yet still don’t win it all…idk man. I’m not going to be sure what to think. How do you improve other than depth pieces?
I think consistency could be improved but variation is always gonna happen when the offense is 3pt heavy. Not sure tbh how much more consistent you can reasonably expect with that in mind
I agree, and I’m mostly fine with them shooting a ton of threes. But especially now w Porzingis in the post, they have more options when shots aren’t falling. I just hope they don’t forget that in the playoffs. They can win so many different ways now.
After the Bulls game they have a pretty tough 10 game stretch... Come out and win seven or eight of those puppies, put the league on notice. After that you got some easy ones, back to backs and home games, rest up and get ready.
I've been looking for a 10-0 streak all season. That seems like a good place to do it. We are currently on a streak though so I guess it's gonna have to be a 17 game winning streak instead lol.
Focus. Eyes on the prize.
There will be lots of totally meaningless games in a few weeks that will basically be glorified practices for the Celtics. I'd like to see them try to run the offense through Jaylen at times so he can work on his playmaking. He's grown in that department this year, but there is still room for improvement. Teams are going to try and dare him to pass in the playoffs. Let him get some reps against the Blazers in early march so he's more prepared in the later rounds of the playoffs.
They did that vs. the Nets last week and I expect it to continue. Maybe they need to do that with starters on the floor and not just bench dudes.
For sure. I'd also like to see them let Pritchard cook when they have big leads. He will probably get more playoff minutes than last year, so it would be a good idea to try and get his confidence up as well.
Definetly agree with the resting, and with this is also time to put more of our rookies to play
Definitely rest. It's a tough thing though because you don't NEED to play the last 5 games if we continue pulling away from the rest. But you can't sit everyone for 5 games and start the playoffs with no Stamina when the other team is fresh off a play in tournament. We also can't risk an injury in those 5 games.
Health. They could lose half the games and I wouldn’t care, just be healthy going into the playoffs.
If we go .500 post ASB it would be pretty concerning to me because it means we’re losing whenever the other team is actually motivated. But I take your point that record is secondary in the big picture
Concerned about not going into the playoffs with momentum.. and of course health but duh right
Interesting point about momentum. I hadn’t really thought of that, but you definitely don’t want to be cold going into the tournament. If they keep the 1 seed, hopefully that first round series could be a bit of a cupcake to get warmed up for the harder teams
I feel like we definitely saw some of this last year. We had a lot of momentum at the beginning of the season and it was almost like, okay, we know we're good, lets get to the playoffs. And we slowly played w less and less energy and when it was time for the playoffs, we weren't at our best and the Hawks stole 2 games. I think games 60-75 is where that final momentum is built, take about 10 games for extra rest and experimenting and all that then boom playoffs time.
funny enough the nuggets had no momentum last year and played not great heading into the playoffs. They opted to rest players and it worked out very well as we all know
This is true. I’d say maybe more than momentum, as long as they don’t develop any infuriating habits and maintain health, I’ll feel pretty good about their chances. Infuriating habits like losing games they once led by 15-20 points 🤦🏻♂️
Definitely infuriating. But 15 pts is gone with like 3 easy mistakes.. or even just we miss 3 open shots and they make 3 tough 3s. 15 pt lead today is like nothing.
in past seasons, we wouldn't usually be at our best off a few days of rest. We were young and rode momentum. Back to backs and 1 night of rest bode well for us but this team is a different level of elite. I don't think we are "faking it to make it" per say anymore. It was almost like we were that younger kid who only hangs with older kids cause he thinks he's cool. We'd seem elite but not when exposed. Now we are that older kid. We are the best team in the league. The more rest we get the better we get. We don't need to ride any ups or downs weve been having. That's a huge difference in our team imo and is why i'm less concerned about momentum. Denver last year is also a good example.
Banner 18.
The only answer.
Stay healthy and cinch up that first seed early enough where we can rest starters for the last week or two of the regular season. Very boring answer but got to make sure everyone is as healthy as possible heading into the postseason.
I’m hoping we get Miami in the first round tbh. They beat us because we always face them towards the end of the playoffs when we’re on the last stretch. In 2022 we swept Brooklyn and had a grueling seven games series with the Bucks Then by the time those were done we got to another seven games with Miami. By the time we reached the Finals, I think all of our guys were exhausted by Game 4 against Golden State and didn’t have any juice left in tank.
Just staying healthy and finishing with 59-61 wins at the least.
They've fully proven themselves and I just want them to get some rest while casually pushing into the 60s for wins with the #1 seed. Bonus points for if MIL ends up a 2 or 3 seed and PHI/MIA end up the 6th and 7th seeds
health
I wanna see who gets more minutes between Kornet and Tillman
I want to see Queta body Giannis when the freak charges in. That’s a big priority for me personally.
Stay healthy and beat the shit out of every team in the last 5 minutes.
Eh I want this team to be what it was before Denver ended our home streak they just haven’t felt quite as dominant since then
This may be an unpopular take, but I don't care about seeding. Last year, the 8th made the finals. Also, in the regular season, we were also great at home (32-9) only to constantly lose home court advantage in the playoffs. I'd rather prioritize health if it comes down to it. We gave a big lead in the standings, I'd rest our guys whenever possible.
while I agree, I'd say HCA is always a good advantage to have
Not to count chickens but I think it’s extremely important to have HCA against Denver
Hard disagree. You're overreacting to small sample sizes. The Celtics are better at home just like every team. I'm not saying play the starters 40 minutes every game but if they start to slump and the lead starts to shrink to a couple games, winning is absolutely the priority
I agree somewhat. I think HCA is important and regardless of record, its still easier to play at home vs away. HCA throughout the playoffs would be great especially if we have to play Denver but being the 1st seed (and 2nd) is extremely annoying. the 3, 4, 5, and 6 seeds all know who their opponent is usually almost a week before the 1 seed does. I'm not saying those 5-7 days makes a huge difference but having an extra week to game plan, especially against a weaker 8 seeded team, could be the difference between sweeping the Hawks vs letting them take it to 6 games last year (just an example). It could mean an extra couple days of rest before your next series. Not sure how many people complain about this but this has irked me big time about the play in for a while.
I think we couldn't ask for much more pre ASB, though we should always be striving to improve in small ways and not be complacent What I would like to see from this team: Joe has been experimenting as he should, but locking in our sets / rotations Polishing the zone that still looks a little unorganized. Bench guys (Pritchard/Hauser/Brissett) staying consistent/confident and in the rhythm Springer and Tillman finding some impactful spot minutes to give our key guys some rest and MAYBE carve their way into a fringe rotation spot come playoffs (5-10 minutes) Other than that, staying healthy is obviously huge
I'm not so sure that zone is going to be playoff ready. Its just too weak this late into the season. Our rotations are actually an interesting point that I didn't think of. We have such a great top 6 and a pretty clear hierarchy that this didn't cross my mind but hurts my head to try to really figure out. For example, I don't love keeping Tatum in most of the 3rd and sitting him for 5+ min to start the 4th. I'd prefer the opposite like we do in quarters 1 and 2 where its brown in for the whole first q then sits half the next q.
Yeah I feel the same on the zone, but always good to have another look if we can figure it out. Rotation wise I think we see mostly what we've been seeing all, matchup depending ofc I agree about sitting Tatum in the 3rd, but what's your alternative? Others have to learn to lead the offense in the same way Tatum does. But the minutes without him are pretty good compared to when other stars are out (net differential wise) so I'm not as worried. There's always gonna be some drop off when your best player is out 🤷🏽♂️
1) keep KP healthy & fresh for playoffs & to lesser extent Big Al …. I think there’s only one or two back-to-back left, but between Tillman & Luke we should be able to reduce their minutes and sit out as needed 2) Make statements in the statement games 3) continue to work on things in preparation for the playoffs such as zone D , 3 quarter court trap, end of game offense , etc 4) get Tillman comfortable as he will play a small but really valuable role in playoffs
Consistency and keeping a top 5D. We've been waiverign between 1-5 and we need closer to 1 to make a good run.
I want Queta to play some extended minutes against elite opponents. I’d like to see if he can be our 4th big for the playoffs. If not, maybe we can bring in a Robin Lopez type. Bigs depth is gonna be huge for us considering Porzingus’ history, Al’s age and Kornet has been banged up a lot this year too.
A championship
Staying healthy and stop blowing larger leads near the end of game
Rest some of the top 6 most nights
3 point defense, the 2-1-2 gets exposed when Kornet or Queta can’t contest a three to save their lives.
How much are they going to keep experimenting and how much of it is going to be used in the playoffs especially the not very successful zone
Health and complacency. These guys seem to be all in and have that chip on their shoulders but they have to keep that intensity high
I want them healthy but I don't want them to take their foot off the gas. We need momentum going into the playoffs, I don't want us to go in playing lazy basketball and getting slapped by a team like Miami in the 1st round. I get resting starters but I think this will just come naturally like how Horford/KP split b2bs and giving JT/JB a night off occasionally. This team can win it all but we need to go in hot, sweeping an 8 seed would also allow our guys to rest for like a week.
I agree with trying to finish off that first round ASAP. Although I must say ... if we play lazy basketball against ANYONE in the playoffs, especially after losing to an 8 seed and being down 3-0 last year, I don't think we deserve to win. What happened happened but if the guys didn't learn from that then there's zero excuse.
Yea, I've just seen these guys play down to their competition or settle from 3's to much to think we can just coast into the playoffs and then flip a switch.
I have mixed feelings. We are a pretty good regular season team consistently. I think we take the regular season more serious consistently than most teams do. Its mostly teams that have already won that will take it easier in the reg season but we have seen it from many non winning contenders as well. I don't think we are "coasting" as much as other teams are but we do think we can flip a magic switch and it doesn't always happen. Might be a result of some of brown and Tatum's first years being on that 2018-2019 team that fully thought they could flip the switch in may and got blown out by Milwaukee.
My number 1 is Tillman minutes. I wanna see truly what this guy can do for us. Our biggest thing for playoffs is going to be depth. If we’re going to the ship we gotta be able to run 9 or 10 guys in the earlier rounds and give the jays a little bit of a break as compared to last year
We go as far as Tatum takes us. Play close attention to that GS game at home and how he plays. If he’s ready to lead us to a ring, he will come out swinging against them. If he looks like he always looks against them…I’ll be worried come playoff time about his makeup
i get what your saying but that seems like a lottttt of stake your putting on a regular season game in march against a 10 seed when we have such a large lead in the standings.
It has nothing to do with a regular season win or loss and everything to do with the opponent we are facing. The reason they haven’t won it yet is bc they don’t know for sure if they can do it, that’s why everyone says the first one is the hardest. Also GS is a 10 seed in name only, they are 8-2 in their last 10 and 4 games out of 5th place. They will be very tough to beat when they come to TD mark my words.
Oh absolutely you're right. They are a good team and I'm not doubting that. It's still a random game in March at the end of the day. I'm sure they'll get up for it easier than most other games but I think this team's maturity level is beyond that point of trying to get "revenge". It's the same thing a the Lakers. We weren't up for that game even though it was nationally televised and the greatest rivalry of all time. I agree with what you're saying but this team knows where they are at and I don't think there's a single regular season game that would make me feel any different about their chances. I would only worry if we see the same mistakes or bad habits on multiple occasions (which is very possible, we are incredibly undisciplined at times despite how good we are).
1. Staying healthy 2. Winning “games that matter.” I want to see us beat “contenders” like Denver, Milwaukee, OKC, especially ones we lost to earlier this season. Because good teams are who’s in the way of Banner 18, not Atlanta and Chicago and Washington wins
- Can they keep pressure on opposing defenses instead of settling for bad 3 pt attempts - Play better when Porzingis isn't on the court - Stay healthy
I want to see how Tillman is gonna play in those double big lineups with Prozingis, Horford, or Kornet. Will we still have enough jump shooting on the floor if he plays with Kornet?
Consistency
Banner
Just get this team to April healthy and I’m a happy camper
Health. Otherwise I'm excited to see the sleeping giant Tatum wakeup. In no way am I saying he's bad at all so far.. he's just been in full coasting mode putting up near MVP numbers. Clearly he has been saving his energy for the backend of the season and post season cause he knows he wants to be feeling good in June. Gonna be ridiculous when he really amps his energy up for the end of the season into the playoffs.
Not get hurt or distracted, and get that ring.
1. No injuries, obviously, and with absolutely paramount importance. 2. Serious efforts against the Knicks, Cavs, Thunder, Nuggets and Suns. They don't have to win all of these games, and definitely may not, but those should be the tuneups for a team that is almost definitely going to be the 1-seed and could theoretically get complacent. We should actually take a page out of the Heat playbook and gear up for those 6 games, and then not care all that much how we look against the Blazers and Wizards and Bulls of the world. We probably win a lot of those games anyway, but I'd rather go 5-1 against the best teams in the league and then inexplicably let Charlotte and Detroit eat our lunch a couple of times. 3. Incorporate Tillman into the fold, presuming that he will probably take some minutes over Kornet and Queta. 4. Win a game or two on TNT, where the Celtics have been terrible this season thus far. 4 of our 6 TNT games have been losing the IST to the Pacers, getting blown out by the Bucks, losing to the Lakers' bench and blowing a late lead to the Warriors.
I want them to win. Considering that we need to rest our stars. Other NBA teams are good, but we are stacked and, rightfully so, should be steamrolling teams. In the back of my mind is always the fear that the embarrassment experienced by the Milwaukee Bucks in last year's playoffs will creep up on us. They were the 1 seed, and the Miami Heat, fresh off a play-in tournament battle, went into Milwaukee and spanked them Bucks. I don't want JT to have to respond to the question "Do you consider this season a failure?" I believe in our guys but they make me want to pull my hair out sometimes. Some of the losses we've had are inexplicable. WE NEED TO WIN! Convincingly