Its Gonna Be A Long Year

This year in particular is going to be a long one. These last two games that the Celtics have played have made me exhausted (and the last two games were the first two of the season). This team that has predicated itself on defense and playing a half court game of posessions and not fast breaks have played into their opponents game plans. These past coupke of games the Celtics have allowed both teams to score in the 60's by half time and have allowed more rebounds to the other team than they should. I recognize that size is the issue but its not the whole problem. I recognize that age is the issue but its not the whole problem. I recognize that Pierce has been out but its not the whole problem. The problem is that they aloow teams to storm on them very early in the game which ends up turning into a game where they are down by a lot and have to push back. The problem is turnovers early, they allow their opponents to be physical and aggressive and create turnovers early which in Miamis case turns into a ton of fast break points.

This Celtics team has looked completely and utterly complacent and undisciplined with the ball in their hands and have been sloppy early on in games. This is nothing to worry about, its ok in a condensed season to lose the first two to opponents like New York and Miami, but what its gonna come down to is can they win those games that they have to win this season. Can they beat the Nets and Hornets of the world? Will they be able to beat the same Pacers team that gave the Bulls a run for their money in the playoffs last year? Will they be able to put together enough wins to be an 8 seed? Yea thats right you heard it and 8 seed.

The Celtics need to be focused on making the playoffs not wining the Conference this year. Can they rely on their bench so they can rest their starters considerably enough to make some noise in the postseason? That is key for me, what can they do to put themselves in a postion to win and still have enough energy to do something in the playoffs?

This team is a long way off from where they were in 08 and to be honest with you should have won one more to make it "worth it." They were close two years later, but since have not put themselves in position to bring another one home to Boston. I like this team better than last years team, but that unfortunately is not saying a whole lot. The addition of the likes of Bass and Dooling and Pietrus are good moves for the Celtics. Bass is clearly an upgrade from Big Baby and Dooling's game is very similar to that of Eddie House and we all know how well that worked out here. Pietrus if he can stay healthy can be just as athletic as Green but better defensively. Not a ton of point, but can be that guy off of the bench to give Pierce relief and score 10 points over the course of the game.

This team has proven that their not terrible, they dug themsleves out of huge holes to two teams that have clearly gotten a lot better and are a lot more athletic than we are. This team has fight and grit and refuse to give up. I like that about this years team, because that was not the case last year. My hope is that they are done dealing pieces because they need more size underneath the net unless their gonna start playing that huge foreign white guy...whats his name again?

-Pickalicous

Plenty of that where that came from...?