Celtics Are 3-4 Heading Into "One Of The Greatest Sporting Events Ever" Pt 2 Against Lebron Friday Night
Is it even a selfie if your not wearing hipster glasses and indoor beanies?
Through 7 games the Boston Celtics have a modest 3-4 record. They have played some exciting, explosive basketball (6 of 7 games have gone over the total) but have struggled keeping it together for a full 4 quarters, blowing leads against Toronto and a Durant/Westbrook – less Oklahoma City team that was on the tail end of a back to back. They beat the Eastern Conference favorite Bulls despite not having Rondo and Marcus Smart and mounted a furious 2nd half comeback against the Mavericks, almost erasing a 25 point halftime deficit before ultimately losing by 5 . Friday nights game against Lebron and and co. should be a good test for Brad Stevens and this young Celtics team. Coming off by far there worst loss of the season Wednesday night, expect the C’s to come out firing and try to make a statement to the rest of the Eastern Conference that they’re not the doormat everyone thinks they are .
Other Celtics news and notes,
Rajon Rondo Isn’t Going Anywhere
(love that he went back to rocking his headband upside-down even though the NBA banned it back in 2010 )
In my season preview I asked the question “will Rondo accept his leadership role with a young inexperienced Celtics team or will he alienate himself and demand a trade by midseason?” Through 7 games that question has been answered as Rondo has been playing arguably the best basketball of his career, leading the league in assists and has been a triple double threat every game he has played. He also stated in a recent interview that “Regardless of what’s going on with the season, my position hasn’t changed, I love being a Celtic.” which means at the very least, if Rondo were to get traded mid season it wasn’t because he demanded it but because Danny Ainge saw an opportunity to improve the future of the organization. I honestly don’t think hes going anywhere until the seasons over if that but hey, that’s why we watch right.
Marcus Smart played well before ankle injury sidelined him for 2-3 weeks
One of the most exciting parts of the first 5 games was the play of rookie Marcus Smart, who impressed critics with his defense and offensive confidence before going down against Toronto with an ankle injury that looked WAY worse than it actually turned out to be
Luckily he’s only out for 2-3 more weeks but when I saw it I thought he might be done for the season. Kind of crazy coming from Smart who has never exaggerated or embellished anything in his life.
His return should give the Celtics a much needed boost on the offensive defensive end and I look forward to seeing how him and Avery Bradley continue to gel on the defensive side of the basketball going forward.
Kelly Olynyk is the most prolific scorer of the NBA’s sophmore class
As crazy as that headline is its true, as the Jay Mewes doppleganger has silently averaged a very solid 13.5 points and 6 boards and is arguably the Celtics most efficient scorer, with a field goal average at 60%. With the ability to explode to the rim at any given moment its hard not to get excited to watch Olynyk progress throughout the rest of the season
.
Overall I still feel confident about the teams chances to sneak into one of the last spots of the playoffs. The problems they have, turnovers, field goal %, etc. are easily fixable and will get better as the season progresses and I would not be shocked to see them come out and smack the Cavs tonight who are still finding there identity and have had some turmoil early on in the season (Celtics +5.5 easy $).
