of course we need to rest or stars. the challenge for doc is to get the feel of the game and have the big 2 in the game at the right times. good luck doc.

“I feel as though nobody thinks we would have won last year without home court. I completely disagree with that. The best team almost always wins in the NBA, and we were clearly the best team last year”

Well said, I’m in complete agreement. It’s like we won a championship and still are afraid to call ourselves the best team from last year. I have to wonder if this is a Boston thing… If we hadn’t had home court advantage, we would have won on the road! How can you look at a team with KG, paul pierce and ray allen and not think its better than any other team in the league??

And yet he gon come all up in here and try to Juuuuudge him? Callahan, please.

I think the question itself is faulty. I don’t think they need homecourt to win, but I don’ t think the answer is to concede second, take the foot off the gas, and just count on a full and healthy roster being enough. As soon as the team starts to pursue things other than winning the game in front of them, things can get murky. As fans, we have the luxury of looking into our crystal ball and “choosing” which scenario works best. I think the team, whomever plays, has to go out and execute and try to win each time it takes the floor, for its own collective psyche.

As soon as they approach a game, and see their coach approach a game, as if winning it is not the #1 priority, something suffers from that. In the end, if the Celts do get healthy, which is not a guarantee whether PP or RA scale back 5-10 min of playing time a game or not, then yes, a full healthy squad is preferable to a banged up one. But in the meantime, they can’t purposefully treat the rest of the slate as a glorified exhibition tune-up for playoffs, rest guys as a winnable game goes up in smoke. Going .500 to the finish, but having everyone back, does not ensure anything. There has to be some positive momentum.

Many teams with such injuries never get back all the way, so it is important they keep pursuing things in the meantime as a championship club, and let the return of players sort itself out. Many a team has lost its edge “waiting” on the return of a star, only to fall short when that return does not solve all the problems. It is a delicate balance in trying not to burn out the remaining studs, but at the same time, keep up the intensity that will be needed. Too often, the idea is contrasted as an all or nothing proposition which it is not.

Keep trying to play for the best record possible, and try to get the team healthy, they are not mutually exclusive options.

These next few days/weeks will display how strong and determined this team really is. I don’t doubt they’ve already displayed their heart during KG’s absence, but now they’re basically being plagued with injuries to an almost laughable degree. The fact that they haven’t already collapsed shows a lot of character.

Just another reporter for a “used to be ok” newspaper who needs a “blogger’s” help order to fill up his column. To be perfectly honest, Jeff, I haven’t read the Globe or the Herald in 10 years. Your opinion is much more important to me than a newspaper’s (you know what you are talking about, whether I agree with you or not) . The newspaper reporters today aren’t even knowledgeable enough to credit ideas directly…and this one wouldn’t even have taken any research time….

That’s the bottom line. The league will bend over backwards for a Cavs victory, and there is no way the Celtics can win a playoff series playing five against eight at the Quicken Loans Arena.

I’m saying the players on the court should always play to win the game but the fans should be prepared to let a few games slip and not hit the panic button.

Isn’t it time to “Break the glass”, not hit the panic button?

http://www.celticsblog.com/2009/2/11/755585/in-case-of-emergency

You can get to the playoffs healthy and in good form, while not conceding HCA. We’re too close now, there’s time to reassess the situation and rest people in a week or so. During KG/Rondo absence, I would try to do whatever it takes to win the games; then we’d see what to do.

I think it’s very important to keep winning every game, especially with Orlando still very close. Historically, how many teams went through 3 series without HCA and won the NBA title? I’d say very, very few, no?

That said, it’s always annoying when MSM writers make references to the blogosphere like that one – anonymous, no link…. They’ll never learn…

I echo Radja’s sentiment. If I said what Callahan and Dennis said about Metco students I’d be out of job. Callahan is a pompous, bombastic Rush-light.

…it may be tricky for the Herald to mention CelticsBlog by name because their main newspaper rival stole that name for their blog.

Anyway, as everyone else is saying, this question isn’t a zero-sum game. Playing the kids more in the Orlando game and resting PP and Ray a few more minutes might have given the vets that extra bit of gas left in the tank to pull off the comeback at the end.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the NBA playoffs from the Spurs, its that you don’t have the same streak effect as the NFL. In the NFL, getting hot in time for the playoffs is extremely important. Look at the Giants last year ago or Pittsburgh this year.

In the NBA a veteran team with championship experience and the right mindset can and often does turn the switch off and on effectively. I’m not saying that we should intentionally throw games but we shouldn’t kill ourselves to win them either. The NBA playoffs are long enough that you can play yourself into shape which is exactly what happened last year as well.

On an endnote, there’s been a lot of talk that the 1 seed’s path to the finals is easier than the 2 seed because you don’t have to play Orlando int he conference semis. This assumes that Orlando even makes it there. Detroit, which is Orlando’s matchup in the first round if the playoffs were to start today, could very well win that series. Also, from last year, the Celtics probably had it much tougher than Detroit in getting to the conference finals but they still won.

So to recap, winning all 18 of these last games and getting the 1 seed is really not all that important in the larger sense. Good NBA teams play at their best in the playoffs and I think that’s exactly what the Celtics are gonna do this year.

With all these injuries, catching the Cavs may just be too much right now. Save PP’s and RA’s legs for the playoffs.

Re: the characterization of CB as a “fan blog,” I guess it is technically accurate, but it also tells me Jerry is a little out of touch. For many Celtics fans—I have to imagine thousands of us—this is our primary source of Celtics news and commentary. I really feel bad about what’s happening to newspapers, but I don’t think newspaper writers help their business by thinking of blogs as a “fan thing.” We readers are just fans, sure, but the people behind this site approach it like pros and put together a professional-grade product.

A team with vets who’ve experience the playoffs had more trouble than teams of inexperienced role players with one all star. Not only that, but these inexperienced role player teams had just as much experience playing together as the Celtics did. So was it a mental thing? Delonte, Sasha, Wally, etc. were mentally stronger than KG, Allen, Pierce? It’s strange.

Going into the playoffs, you’d think a team with that many elite vets would be fine on the road during the playoffs and inexperienced role players would be more fragile.

What set the rest of the teams apart mentally from the Celtics last year? Have they overcome whatever that was? These are the things people need to look at when assessing how the Celtics will fair on the road this upcoming playoffs.

I don’t want to be a stickler but the Cavs have had their entire starting lineup on the floor exactly once since January 2. They are by no means healthy. They are healthier than they have been in 2 months, but its looking like they won’t have all 5 starters on the floor until the very end of the regular season.

We need our guys healthy, so we’re gonna have to find a way to get HCA without them.

Winning in Cleveland on April 12th is becoming the most important game of the season. A win on the road would be a huge mental edge for us. And if we can stay within one game of them, we control our own destiny in a way and could clinch with that win.

There is a lot of basketball left to be played and I don’t expect Cleveland to win all of their remaining games. We have a lot of home games over the last 3 weeks of the season and we are not out of this yet.

Keep the faith. This is what UBUNTU is all about.

Is being Healthy at full strength and playing away more important than being injuries-plagued at less than half strength and playing home shouldn’t even be a question to wonder about for any fan in any sport !!!
BOS vs CLE is the only reason why this discussion is coming on our fan base..
We could not have home-court advantage last year and still beat the best of the West and the highly experienced second best of the East… So much for home-court…
I can even state here that we wont need home-court to raise banner 18 if everybody is heathly and we play at full strength! Mark my word and pray for no more injuries…

Obviously he had to suggest that it would be impossible for the Celtics to beat the Cavs without homecourt advantage. Otherwise people might forget what a girly-voiced, sensationalizing little homo he is.

What amazed me about the article was that he forgot to talk about how Manny is the scum of the earth and how he’d like to spit in the faces of Pedro’s children.

I like Gerry – he says what he thinks and his opinions are always well thought out even if you don’t agree with him. As for saying he knows nothing about BBall – you are a clown with no idea of his history if you think that.

At any rate the newspaper columnist is a dying thing – I think newspapers as an aggregator of news will thrive on, but distribution (hello Kindle 2) is going to change. Clearly they should have at least have provided the URL to the blog in the online version of the story. (Space constraints might trump form in print.)

Is that bellyaching downer machine back for good?

Hey Brick? where were you all these months? When the Celtics won it all were you in such negativity-fueled denial that you had to go and hide in the plains of siberia until you could find a new reason to guarantee failure? Did your brain just short-circuit with disbelief and your family had to send you to the nuthouse until KG got hurt so you could start forecasting doom again?

That’s all we heard for months from you

the KG trade = the Herschel Walker trade
KG is going to make about as much of a difference as Herschel Walker

hahahahahaha. what a dumb thing to say. you’re never gonna live that down.

I never said Callahan knows nothing about basketball…I said I don’t care what he thinks. He appears to me to be a lazy sports reporter (columnist) who steals his columns from the blog (without giving proper credit) instead of finding original information. Will none of the personnel of the Celtics organization talk to him? Even if they won’t, that seems like a line for a column. Who, where, when…..they are avoiding him….

If he wants to blog, let him join and blog. If he wants to write columns he should develop his own material, or give proper credit to credible sources.

http://www.nba.com/history/season/19861987.html

Hopefully history does not repeat. During the 86/87 season injuries hurt the Celtics depth and the Lakers won the championship. The Celtics had the starting 5 but Walton and Wedman were out with injuries. The above NBA article explains it. Health is important.