Women and Children First! (A little perspective)

Send out a S.O.S!  Throw out the life preservers and lower the lifeboats!  Women and children first!

Perspective is always a useful tool to utilize when you need to battle the onset of mania following a post-championship, two-game  losing streak.  This perspective stuff is particularly valuable when those two losses have come to the “this is our championship game on Christmas Day” Lakers and the now 9-22 Warriors.  Did I mention that Golden State was without multiple starters?

These are currently the darkest days of the 2008-2009 Boston Celtics’ season.  Can you imagine that?  What now stands as a two-game losing streak has shaken a large faction of Celtics fans because we now live in a world where the Celtics are the reigning champs, have set an NBA record with the best start to a season with only two losses, and had just won 19 games in a row.  It is hard to be pessimistic in the face of those accomplishments but there still seems to be doubts surfacing.

The Celtics are now 27-4 and still hold the best record in the NBA (Cleveland has a lower win % with their 25-4 record).  At this point last season, the Big 3 plus James Posey were 28-3, however, they were just about to lose three of their next five games.  Two of those losses would come to Washington and the other was at the hands of the lowly Charlotte Bobcats.  This just goes to illustrate that even great teams struggle and can lose games that they should win on paper.

A little bit more perspective to help you break out of these post-holiday and two-game losing streak doldrums is the fact that the 1986 Celtics, who are widely considered one of the greatest teams of all-time, were only 24-7 after 31 games.  That team was bulletproof and we currently have three more wins than they had at this point in their championship season.

You also have to take into account that the Celtics may just be a bit tired.  They have played 31 games to this point in the season and only Utah and Golden State have played as many games as the Champs.  The C’s have also played seven back-to-back games this season and none of them have been back-to-back home games.  The Celtics have been able to sweep all but two of those back-to-back sets.  The Cleveland LeBrons have also been able to sweep five of their seven back-to-back sets, so the Celtics are keeping up the pace in this area with the other top team in the Eastern Conference.

This year’s Celtics team has also proven that they can win on the road.  They, along with the Orlando Magic, have the best road winning marks and currently stand with a road 10-3 record.  The Lakers and Cavaliers have each lost four games on the road to this point.  One of Cleveland’s losses was the 90-85 loss to the Celtics on opening night at the Boston Garden. 

Despite these last two road losses, this iteration of the Boston Celtics have been pretty spectacular.  Both of these losses were blown in the 4th quarter and could have been won if the Celtics had made one or two more plays. 

This team, rightfully so, has s target on their back and are walking into haymakers each and every time they step on the court.  Every team in the NBA is lining up to take their best shot at the 2008 NBA Champions and the Celtics have been able to send the contender to the mat 0.871% of the time this season.  If the Celtics can maintain that winning percentage this season, then we will have won more games than the 2008 and 1986 championship teams.

How is that for some perspective?

Things to watch out for:   

Paul Pierce is 733 points away from passing Robert Parish on the all-time Celtics’ scoring list.  If Pierce keeps up his current scoring average, he is due to pass The Chief midway through the second half of the season.  That would put Pierce behind only John Havlicek and Larry Bird on that list.  Pierce currently only sits behind Bird’s 24.29 ppg on the all-time Celtics’ scoring list with his career 22.95 ppg.  That is some lofty company to be sitting in.

Keep the Faith,

DRJMAN