Celtics Standings

[Mr October]

Las Vegas set the o/u on the Celtics at 27.5 wins. Considering our schedule we are right on target.

2 automatics against Philly. Plus 2 more random wins. 6th worst record here we come.

The teams i am really surprised by are Utah and Orlando. Those teams have enough talent to get close to 30 wins, supposedly.

We're getting no more than 1 random win.  There are 8 games against non-Philly teams, but rondo will only play in five of those.  I expect we'll go 1-4 in Rondo games against not Philly, and 0-3 without him.  26 wins, tied for 5th worst record.

I worry that when teams are eliminated from reaching the 8th seed, they are going to pull the tank lever and play with terrible attitudes.

Also Detroit owes Charlotte a top 8 protected draft pick this year. Detroit is 8th worst right now. Even mid lottery team might baton down the hatches on their tanks.

I hope you are right though. I want Atlanta to keep losing so that all those teams eyeing the 8th seed keep trying to win games until the end of the season.

I also hope Washington doesn't rest their starters in that last game. That is my pick for 3rd most winnable game after those Philly games. 

[Boris Badenov]

Here is a quick summary of each team's remaining schedule.

SAC: Tough overall. The one easy game is LAL at home. Next easiest is MIN at home. Other than that, they play 8 game against playoff teams, 5 of which are on the road.

LAL: Also tough. Two games against bad teams (SAC, UTA) but both are on the road. The other 8 games are against playoff teams, though only 2 are on the road.

UTA: Two winnable games (NYK and LAL at home). Seven other games against tough teams, 4 of which are on the road.

BOS: Clearly the easiest. Three games against terrible teams (PHI, PHI, CLE). Two other winnable home games (CHA, WAS), and a possibility of stealing one on the road (WAS, ATL, DET).

I hate to say it but this does not look good for the Celtics. If we go 4-6 we will almost certainly end up with the 7th lottery slot.

I think if we go 2-8 we will end up 5th.

If we go 3-7 I think it's a crapshoot.

I don't know why you're calling Cleveland a terrible team.  They're not good, sure, but they've been playing way better than we have of late.  Too top it off, it's a road game and the second of a back-to-back, so no Rondo.  No way we win that game.  I doubt we win more than one game not against Philly.  Our worst opponent other than Philly is Detroit, but that's also a road game and again the second of a back-to-back, so no Rondo.

I am comfortable saying that 29-45 is "terrible," particularly in the East. If you want to pick some other threshold, go ahead.

Regardless of the semantics, the point I'm trying to make is that IMO we have the easiest schedule among our "competitors" for the 4th-7th slots.