24-15 Team...how good are the playoffs looking?

[MikeB12]

After starting 16-2, the Celtics are 24-15 since.   How good is this team?  Can we really expect the Celtics to make a run in the playoffs this year?

As a life-long Celtics fan going back to the Russell days, I'm not getting a good feeling this team can make the NBA East finals again.   Frankly, I think Toronto has the best chance to make the NBA finals.

I just hope the "new" Cavs don't even get to the East finals. 

Still rooting for the Celtics to surprise me but the recent losses to the Raptors and Pacers are making me wonder.

MikeB

[DefenseWinsChamps]

By way of note, the 24-15 over the last 39 games is a 62% winning percentage. That winning percentage would be good for 5th in the NBA right now and still 2nd in the East.

[Moranis]

Boston was also 22-4 at one point this season and is just 18-13 since (and is just 6-7 in the last 13).  I think that 18-13 is more representative of the actual ability of this team without Hayward (that is a 48 win pace).  Thus, I wouldn't be overly surprised if it lost in the first round (depending on matchup) and think this team pretty clearly loses to both Toronto and Cleveland and thus has to hope it avoids both of them until the ECF.

[Big333223]

Holding onto the 1st seed so the Celtics would only have to play one of Cleveland and Toronto would be huge. I don't worry about anyone else in the East right now but those two.

[SparzWizard]

Holding onto the 1st seed so the Celtics would only have to play one of Cleveland and Toronto would be huge. I don't worry about anyone else in the East right now but those two.

Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Washington Wizards would like to have a word with you.

They play very physical with the Celtics. I think those teams scare me more than the Cavs and Raptors. At least for now.

[SparzWizard]

They need to find their offense.

Or else, this team looks like a first-round/second-round fodder. Sign Tyreke Evans with Greg Monroe and this team would come out of the East and get bounced in the Finals by the Rockets/Warriors.

We miss Hayward so much.

[Big333223]

Holding onto the 1st seed so the Celtics would only have to play one of Cleveland and Toronto would be huge. I don't worry about anyone else in the East right now but those two.

Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Washington Wizards would like to have a word with you.

They play very physical with the Celtics. I think those teams scare me more than the Cavs and Raptors. At least for now.

I can't imagine why, both the Cavs and Raptors are much better than any of those teams and not really in the same class the them and the Celtics.

[KGs Knee]

I'm sure if you looked at various segments of a season you could make most teams look better or worse than they actually are.

The bottom line is the team is tops in the east right now and are favorites to make the conference finals, at minimum.

I expect they'll be in the finals.

[mctyson]

Boston was also 22-4 at one point this season and is just 18-13 since (and is just 6-7 in the last 13).  I think that 18-13 is more representative of the actual ability of this team without Hayward (that is a 48 win pace).  Thus, I wouldn't be overly surprised if it lost in the first round (depending on matchup) and think this team pretty clearly loses to both Toronto and Cleveland and thus has to hope it avoids both of them until the ECF.

Not sure I agree with this.  They are still the best defensive team, by rating, in the league.  Their offense has really struggled in part because Tatum came back to earth. 

Honestly if you just flipped a few of those awful home losses after the London trip, the near term record would not be as bad.  They have also blown some winnable home games in the 4th over the past month (New Orleans, Indiana).

I said that they may be "broken" after the Utah loss and that was more of comment about the offense and how it affects they defense when Stevens goes small.  I would rather this team stink on offense and still put their best defensive lineups out there (Baynes) then the tinkering that Stevens does to get some points on the board.

Defense wins championships.

[celticinorlando]

They have overachieved without Hayward. No one really thought they would be first in the east this late without him.

Next year is the year. I expect them to get to the ECF though

[footey]

Boston was also 22-4 at one point this season and is just 18-13 since (and is just 6-7 in the last 13).  I think that 18-13 is more representative of the actual ability of this team without Hayward (that is a 48 win pace).  Thus, I wouldn't be overly surprised if it lost in the first round (depending on matchup) and think this team pretty clearly loses to both Toronto and Cleveland and thus has to hope it avoids both of them until the ECF.

Sadly, I agree with this projection/prediction. I’m particularly worried about the lack of ball movement on offense. We are becoming too dependent on Kyrie creating something out of nothing. Once in a while okay. Feel Brad has to get on these guys more. Toronto, Indiana, even Cleveland has better ball movement. I don’t feel confident vs any team we might face in 1st round, particularly Indiana or even Philly.

[jambr380]

Man, I sure hope the Cs crush the Cavs today. For some reason, we get to totally excuse the Cavs poor play up to this point just because they shuffled out some pretty good players for some other pretty good players. Now they are apparently 'clearly' better than the Cs.

I agree with others that it would be great to avoid Cleveland and Toronto until the ECF, but I don't think we are a definite underdog against either of them. Bring back Smart and Hayward and we become the clear favorites.

[celticinorlando]

I expect we see one of the Cavs best efforts today.

[droopdog7]

So why are we discounting the good stretches?  All those games counted and we are where we are.

[saltlover]

So why are we discounting the good stretches?  All those games counted and we are where we are.

Because people have an ax to grind for some reason.  And are unable to admit that 24-15 since the streak ended is the 4th best record in the NBA during that span.  So then they find even shorter stretches to go look at, throwing sample size to the wind.

The Celtics could beat the Warriors in a thrilling 7-game series and some would complain that we didn’t win in 6.