Boston Celtics: Loss to New Orleans Hornets Is a Sign of Things to Come

If you watched the Celtics at all last season, you would have noticed two things: their poor play in the second of back-to-back games and their poor play against lesser opponents. Eleven of the Celtics' 26 losses last season were the second games of back-to-backs.

Unfortunately, after last night's 97-78 loss to the Chris Paul-less Hornets, it seems that this trend will continue this season.

It makes sense that the older Celtics play poorly in back-to-back games. For example, after the hard-fought loss against the Heat the other night, the Celtics got right on a plane to New Orleans, and with less than 24 hours of rest, they had to play another game.

That kind of schedule is hard on any NBA player, especially the older players that have more mileage on their legs.

As for losing to lesser teams, it is a little less excusable but still makes sense. After playing teams like the Heat and the Knicks close, the Celtics thought they finally had an easy game in the Hornets and got complacent.

But in the NBA, you can never be complacent.

Last night's game was painfully reminiscent of many games last season. It was a game the Celtics should have easily won, but the combination of it being the second of a back-to-back and against a lesser opponent resulted in a very poor showing by the Celtics.

It has come to the point where the Celtics are a completely different team in the second of back-to-back games, a team of which little can be expected. They say that there are two certainties in life, but I would argue that there are three: death, taxes and the Celtics playing poorly in the second game of back-to-backs.

The worst part is, in this shortened 66-game season, 19 of those games for the Celtics will be the second of back-to-back games. That is 19 games in which the Celtics will play poorly and will most likely lose, and in a season with only 66 games in it, that many losses can't be afforded in order to get a good playoff seed.

The silver lining for this Celtics team that plays poorly in the second of back-to-back games and against lesser opponents is that neither of these obstacles will be present come playoff time.

Let's just hope that the Celtics can survive in one piece until then, and that they will still be able to get a good seed despite many potential losses.

And for the rest of the regular season, we will just have to suffer through countless poorly played second of back-to-back games and lackluster games played against lesser opponents.