It is easy to predict good things when things are going well and to complain when things are going poorly. Or said another way, it is easy to yell "buy" when the market is going up and "sell" when it is going down. But it takes a special kind of talent (read: luck) to guess when the market has bottomed out or topped off.
I'm making a few bold and contrarian predictions right now. The Celtics will win at least 5 games in a row starting Sunday night against the Knicks. They will also lose at most 3 of the 14 games before meeting the Magic again on Christmas (so that's at least an 11-3 run).
Despite the team's recent woes, I feel pretty confident in these predictions for a few reasons. For one thing, the competition isn't all that great over the next few weeks. The Knicks, 76ers, and Raps don't exactly strike fear into anyone. Sure, on any given night any team can beat anyone and the C's have already lost to the Pacers, but the Celtics should at least be favored in the majority of these games. The Spurs are the best team on paper in that stretch and they are struggling worse than we are right now.
For another thing there aren't many back to backs in that stretch. Of course the bad news is that there are two road trips in that stretch but I don't think that will be too much of a problem.
This team has been humbled. They know what they need to do. They just have to go out and do it. They have a chance to get back on track against some of the lesser teams in the league and once they start rolling, they'll pick up momentum and start rounding into form.
At least that's what I think is going to happen. So feel free to bookmark this and come back in a few weeks and remind me of it. I'll either be a genius or exposed as a pathetically blind homer. Which is cool with me either way.
So how about you? Are you on board with this prediction?
The next 5 games should go a lot better than the last 5. I guaranSheed it.