Not Time to Panic About the Celtics

A few nights later, the Celtics played at Golden State.  The Warriors drew the largest crowd in franchise history for the game, and according to the team, it was the largest crowd ever to watch a basketball game in the state of California.  Golden State is a good basketball team, and they are fun to watch no question—but that crowd was there to see the Celtics. 

Not only was the crowd excited, but it was obvious this game meant a little more to the Warriors than many of their other games.  Watching the game on the NBA Package, I was able to listen to the Golden State commentators.  They pointed out that the Golden State bench stood for almost the entirety of the game.  After Al Harrington had a steal and a dunk, they said that they haven’t seen that type of energy out of Harrington at both ends of the court in a long time.   

Then the Celtics went to Phoenix, a title contender, arguably the best team in the league a year ago before losing to the Spurs in the playoffs, due, at least in part, to circumstances out of their control.  The fans and the team were into that game as if it were a playoff game.  No doubt the Suns always have good crowds, and that some of the excitement was due to it being Shaq’s second game.  But the fact this was their chance to see the Celtics had a lot to do with the great atmosphere in the arena that night.  

A sign, at least to me, that these teams put a little extra into their effort to play the Celtics is what happened to each team the next game they played—the Nuggets went to Chicago and lost by 14; the Warriors hosted Atlanta and got beat by seven; and the Suns suffered their worst loss of the season, losing by 30 to the Pistons.   

The Celtics have 12 losses this season—seven times the team that beat Boston lost the next game—losing those games by an average of 17.1 points. 

Maybe that is all a coincidence.  But for years I have been on the other end of this—when the Celtics would play the best teams and the best players, suddenly more people cared, the home crowds would be a little bigger and a little more into the game.    

This season, it is the Celtics who are one of the hunted teams. 

The games against the Celtics are the ones that opposing fans are circling on their calendar, making sure if they can’t make it in person, they are watching the game on TV. 

Those games against the Celtics are ones, as stated by Allen Iverson, that teams are using to judge themselves.  

Expectations remain high for this Celtics team, but I understand it is a long season, and there are still nearly 30 games to play.  With the playoff experience of the Detroit Pistons, the level that LeBron has taken his game to—combined with the Cavs deadline trade acquisitions, the road to the NBA finals out of the Eastern conference will be very difficult.   

But over the last 14 seasons, there has been very little to be excited about as a Celtic fan, and even less that interested anyone outside of the real die hard fans. 

A brief three-game skid to talented teams on the road is not going to make me forget anything about why I have loved this season, nor will it take away from the fact that for the first time since at least 1992, the Celtics are a legit contender for the NBA title.  At the end of the day, that is really all you can ask for as a fan.   

Now just beat the Clippers tonight. 

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