1987 was a bad year in Celticland.
Very bad, indeed. At least for me.
I've touched on it before, and someday I'll try to exorcise all of my deamons from that season.
For now, what stands out is this:
1) Running the starters into the ground.
2) Negligible productivity from the bench.
3) Inability to win on the road.
After posting a 50-1 record at home the previous year (including the playoffs), the Celtics posted a 39-2 record in 1987. The problem was the 1987 Celtics were 20-21 on the road. As stellar as they played at home, few Celtic fans could stand to watch them on the road. To do so usually required an elephant tranquilizer.
Barring injury or a tectonic shift of the earth's plates, this team won't repeat that team's misery on the road. But the bench does appear vulnerable, unpredictable, and not very reliable--just like 1987.
And don't get too comfortable with our play on the road either. One reason the Celtics jumped to a 27-2 start was that they didn't play too many teams with winning records. Quality of opponent aside, another reason they played so well is that they had Cleveland and Los Angeles breathing down their necks.
Why would this motivate the Cs to win?
Home court in the playoffs.
Despite their success on the road, this team seems wedded to the idea that there chances for another banner this year depend on home court.
I don't like this. It reminds me of 1987, and anything that reminds me of 1987 gives me the willies.
The road win in Atlanta was good. Now we need some bigger road wins--Cleveland, Orlando, New Orleans, and Portland come to mind. If I had to focus on two, it would be the first two.
Let's see how the team comes out tonight. We'll find out how scared they are of losing home court (and how much acid neutralizer I'll need to buy over the rest of the season).
4 comments:
All the top 5 teams haven't had such tough schedules so I'd wait until the season is halfway through to see if the Celts pull away from the rest of the pack.
Homecourt is great but great teams still win without it. They won the postseason games they absolutely had to win. Games 7s Game 3 in Detroit Game 4 in LA. Last season they had a great road record. Bench is clearly a problem but I think the Celtics deserve some time to work on their problems. I'm more interested in seeing if they can stay focused in the Cleveland game because as bad as I thought the officiating was in LA the Wizards absolutely got shafted.
All true.
But I'm not sure the past will be our guide for this year.
As you say, we need to see how we do during the next 25 games.
You're probably reaching for your acid neutralizer right now. I agree its probably going to be tougher for them this year because everyone gets up to play them especially on the road. I don't know if they'll burn out by the postseason by matching other team's intensity every night. The defense was slipping the past few games so I hope they'll get some practice time and work on that. If they end this trip 4-0 I'll agree it might be time to worry.
Yup, the bleeding continues.
So much for "circling all the games on the calendar."
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