60 Game Exhibition Schedule

[William_Ayers]

In 1987 the Lakers made it clear from the start that they were the team to beat. The Celtics were beset by injuries, and talk of repeating ended in January.

But as Bill Walton rounded himself into shape, all of Celticdom began to perk up. Once Walton officially returned to the line-up, Bob Ryan wrote a piece calling the preceding  60 games "an exhibition schedule," meaningless games that were just a tease to the real thing.

In a sense he was right. Of course, Walton reinjured himself. Then Bird, McHale, and Parish got injured, too, and the Celtics  were but a shadow of their 1986 selves.

Still, they came within 2 games of repeating.

So Ryan's point remains.

It's a long way until March.

There's no point in getting too worked up until, oh, I don't know, a couple weeks before the trade deadline.

[QuinielaBox]

Nice post and welcome to the board, William.

The regular season, though, does establish longterm trends and determines which 8 teams from each conference make the playoffs and who gets the valuable homecourt advantage.

And almost always, the teams that are in playoff positions by 4 or more games over the 9th place in the conference by New Years Day are going to make the playoffs. So getting off to a good start is critical for a successful season.