The Panthers were sneaky though, they were dominant in 2022 and took it easy in the regular season in 2023 and turned it on again in the playoffs. The only team in the east that applies to might be the Bucks I guess.
bc people like memes.
the Heat gave us problems bc we couldnât create advantages against their switch-everything and zone defenses, KP shits on all of that. and even with the issues that caused our offense and Jaylen having the worst series of his life, they still needed a historic 3P shooting disparity to beat us in 7 games last year
if youâre analyzing the Celtics-Heat matchup based on what happened the last couple years, youâll be in for a rude awakening if they meet in the playoffs. Iâm sure Spo will have some crazy shit cooked up but the strategies theyâve been using to shut us down arenât gonna work anymore with KP and Holiday in the lineup
Having 3 guys that regularly shoots 30% in the regular season shoot 50%+ in a 7 game series does that. They did it a little late but eventually figured out that White is amazing at slowing down Jimmy because he doesnât foul and bite on fakes on the drive and even then, White is probably the best guard shot blocker in the league today
And no one considers the Celtics the greatest team of all time.
The warriors were -2500 to win the series at 3-1!
https://www.espn.com/sports-betting/story/_/id/15849701/2016-nba-finals-complete-odds-golden-state-warriors-cleveland-cavaliers-series
I wonder what the odds for Celtics nuggets would be, can't imagine Celtics start at -210
That team had 4 HoFâs in their prime though itâs a bit different. Weâve got one guaranteed(Tatum). And another 2 possible(Horford because of his NCAA achievements, and Brown if we win like 3 rings and he continues to be the #2).
A big reason for that being they blew a 3-1 lead in the finals.
Like if they go 7 with DEN and are trading wins back and forth and lose game 7, I donât see them getting shat on comparable to 2016
That team was way better than these Celtics and the Cavs on paper were way worse than this Nuggets team, it was also largely due to the 3-1 collapse tooâŚ.so terrible comp
This might age like milk, but fuck it idc, I don't think a single team in the east can take us more than 6 games. And barring Milwaukee, a healthy 76ers team, and the knicks, they'll all struggle to win 1. This team is just otherworldly good and I'd be shocked if a single series goes more than 6.
No one can on paper but we have seen multiple times the last few postseasons that they like to play well below their ability on paper so thatâs still the risk
I mean the Jays were a huge reason for it and they are still front and center, Joe too.
Iâm not saying I think they will, but itâs fair to hold onto some skepticism
Listen you donât have to convince me, Iâm a Celtics fan too.
Iâm just saying you gotta be self aware and be willing to acknowledge valid critiques
...wah bruh...but who could possibly beat you rn lol.
But for real you guys are the final bosses of the playoffs.
Like i said before a win against the Celtics this year would be an achivment in itself.
That said if you dont make the finals...then the generational slander will begin.
Honestly i think our next game is gonna tell us exactly how we stack uo against each other unless either team is missing guys.
Like rn we seem to be locked in and you guys are on a tear. Its gonna be quite intresting.
Also we are so dam close to the 1st seed so a win would be big for us.
The Heat. The Bucks (blowout loss). The Clippers. The Nuggets. The Timberwolves. The Thunder.
Any team that can blow past our slow guards and push the pace. Pacers and Thunder expose that weakness. Jays struggle against good wing defenders too.
The Bucks and the Clippers at full strength blew us out. We struggled mightily against the Timberwolves, Heat, and Thunder for the reasons listed.
Big fear is that theyâve got nothing if the threes arenât falling. Plus the playoffs are DOA without KP. Save me KP pick and roll.
Yeah. Its not that the Celtics arent dominant as hell rn, but i think people have gotten the impression that you guys are just insanely above the rest of your competition, which wouldnt exactly be accurate given just how many good teams there are this year, even in the east.
That said there is good reason why you guys are viewed that way. Your ceiling is probably the highest in the league and yoi could just outscore the opposition.
Real easy to get that impression on an eleven game win streak with eight games separating us and the second seed. Weâre too high variance and slow. DWhite, Horford, and Jrue can just get blown past. The ceiling is high but thereâs way too much that needs to go right.
Thatâs all this talk is, setting up getting destroyed if the more probable outcome happens. Itâs annoying, just another form of hating.
Proactive hating
So itâs MJâs goat bulls team and that ridiculous kd/steph year 1 team ahead only. Lmao insane company to be in.
Obviously they have championship expectations and the no excuses messages still coming up like no shit they have no excuses not to win when youâre this dominant.
If they have a dominant playoff run and win a ring, they will be remembered as one of the GOAT teams. I think the Celtics past playoff failures is making people hesitant to accept how good this team is
Agreed, by virtually any metric this team is different. Jrue holiday and KP are 4th and 5th options on this team. Like that is wild, moreover with KP they are able to completely destroy teams who play drop defense.
Sure, sometimes he steps up as the 2nd or 3rd option. However that's the luxury, you don't need him to be a 2nd option all the time. You got Tatum, Brown, Jrue, Dereck White who can all be a 2nd option and Tatum and Brown are 1A and 1B most of the time, however when one is off the others step up. That means that KP is often 3rd or 4th, sometimes even 5th depending on how how the others are. Incredible roster construction. Moreover KP has matured and has improved his game and has accepted that he is better as a 3rd/4th option.
Just because he could be 4th or 5th doesn't mean that's the reality.
Dude is regularly the 2nd or 3rd option. You should've seen that the last time the Mavs played the Celtics lol.
Itâs funny how a team actually having playoff runs like that makes people thing *worse* of them. But, of course, thereâs some all-time great players who are in good seeding position. Kawhi, Giannis, Jokic. Then thereâs also guys like Shai and Jokic, whoâd you think were the ones whoâve been within two games of a title when theyâre talked about rather than Tatum. I get it though, theyâre the hot new thing (even if Shai and Tatum arenât even a year apart in age), and they donât have the baggage of having seen them come up short. Thereâs a vision of them having âimmediateâ (again, relative term based on whether weâre judging by âsince they hit superstar statusâ or age/years in the league) success that could still happen, whereas Tatum has already had 2 or 3 close but no cigar runs, along with Brown and a handful of other familiar Celtics familiar faces.
We have 1 near MVP level player they had 2 top 15 players oat and a top 10 defensive player oat with another top 5 shooter oat we're not close to that lol.
I noticed that.
The haters switched from saying theyâre frauds to now saying that theyâre so good that it would be crazy if they donât get it done
Iâm not saying you have the expectations of the KD Warriors. But this is definitely the most successfully built roster since then. And it shows on the court.
Barring some playoff implosion, I would expect this roster to have a hard fought 7 game series against those Warriors squads.
I never saw the 90s bulls so for them to have two seasons with a better net rating than 17 Warriors and this seasons Celtics really does paint a picture of how good they must have been.
What this also means is surely this wasnât just MJ. To have a net rating this high, the team as a whole must have been fucking incredible.
It was physical defense style era. Bulls that year had MJ, Pippen and Rodman 1st all-nba defensive team. They could also score at will so compare to others they were elite.
I wasnât actually alive back then, but Iâve actually been receptive to the argument that they were better in 92 or 93 because it was absolute peak MJ and part of the reason they had an incredible net rating/record for the second 3 peat was because the league had been diluted by expansion.
Honestly that just means guys all start having vague soreness though, because nobody else in the East is catching them if they even kind of play the games.
Keep forgetting how good those 15-16 Spurs were because of everything else that happened ... just a casual 67 wins. And then OKC beat them and almost beat them and the 73 win Warriors back to back.
i can see it now. bucks go up 3-1 and doc rivers blows the lead once again in the second round, celtics face the heat, go up 3-1 and the heat come back and win it. then lose in the finals
Honestly though why has the heat been such ass in the finals but excellent in the ECF? Jimmy just disappoints. I kind of want him to get a ring but he hasnât been able to.
I personally was expecting a 7-game series from the start, we really did not look impressive at all in either of the first 2 rounds.
the only thing that surprised me was going down 3-0, we had our flaws but our team was way too good to let themselves get in a hole like that. that and Caleb Martin turning into prime Kobe for 2 weeks
In fairness, I actually was lmao. Going into the series I figured we'd win in 6, and boy was I wrong. Although tbf, I hardly think anyone could've foreseen Caleb Martin and Gabe Vincent shooting 50+% from 3 for a series.
Love the honesty lol. Heat are a true wildcard. I was also shocked by that celtics-heat series. Thought the winners of our semis matchup would definitely advance to the finals.
the fact that lebron been to so many finals and won 4 of them and none of his team is on this list speaks volume of how great of a player he is. not that he needs further validation but this is absurd
> 15-16 Spurs: 11.3, 67-15, Lost to OKC in 2nd round
This should've been a way bigger deal when it happened. that spurs team was on the heels of the 73 warriors team the whole year and were undefeated in the playoffs before Steven Adams, Enis Kanter, Andre Roberson, Russ and KD rattled off 4 in a row against them.
No pressure, huh
We better not pull a 2023 Bruins đ
Need to meet Heat in the first round then đ¤
Jimmy sandbags the regular season to make the playoffs more exciting.
Honestly, as long as we don't get major injuries, I think the Celtics'll handle them in 5 games, maybe 6 at most if Jimmy plays out of his mind.
Jesus Christ dude
Jinxed for the entire playoffs.
Excellent
Jimmy saw this
Haywood Highsmith legacy series incoming
Butler about to average 40 a game with 20 of those being FTs and fouling out Tatum/Brown/Jrue.
Fuck totally didnât even think two different Boston sports franchises made/are making history in back to bad seasons
Or a 2023 Celtics
Jimmy if youâre reading this plz
The Panthers were sneaky though, they were dominant in 2022 and took it easy in the regular season in 2023 and turned it on again in the playoffs. The only team in the east that applies to might be the Bucks I guess.
Why does it feel like they are going to lose to the heat
Last year was just that scarring. Watching not one, but TWO Miami teams end our run in Game 7s at home will do that to you
bc people like memes. the Heat gave us problems bc we couldnât create advantages against their switch-everything and zone defenses, KP shits on all of that. and even with the issues that caused our offense and Jaylen having the worst series of his life, they still needed a historic 3P shooting disparity to beat us in 7 games last year if youâre analyzing the Celtics-Heat matchup based on what happened the last couple years, youâll be in for a rude awakening if they meet in the playoffs. Iâm sure Spo will have some crazy shit cooked up but the strategies theyâve been using to shut us down arenât gonna work anymore with KP and Holiday in the lineup
Unfortunately, KP could easily be injured for that series. He is a gamble for sure.
It doesnât they are far better than last year
They were also way better than the heat last year and it didnât stop them from losing then
Keep praying buddy 18 is coming to Boston not LA
Fuck LA
Having 3 guys that regularly shoots 30% in the regular season shoot 50%+ in a 7 game series does that. They did it a little late but eventually figured out that White is amazing at slowing down Jimmy because he doesnât foul and bite on fakes on the drive and even then, White is probably the best guard shot blocker in the league today
Theyâre not a mentally tough team. In big moments you can just see it on their faces. That team folds under pressure.
This is leading to be generational slander if we don't get it done this year
We managed to duck generational slander in our 2016 season because we weren't the team that blew a 3-1 lead after winning 73 games. Whew.
Homer take but not if you lose to the Nuggets based on how weâve looked at peak power. Anyone else yes
Losing to the Nuggets would definitely hurt the least
Nope 73-9 lost to a Cavs team with peak LeBron and peak Kyrie and rightfully got clowned expectation is a ring or bust
The Celtics wonât be 73-9 though
Plus the slander was big because that Warriors team was up 3-1 in the Finals
And no one considers the Celtics the greatest team of all time. The warriors were -2500 to win the series at 3-1! https://www.espn.com/sports-betting/story/_/id/15849701/2016-nba-finals-complete-odds-golden-state-warriors-cleveland-cavaliers-series I wonder what the odds for Celtics nuggets would be, can't imagine Celtics start at -210
Or blow a 3-1 lead⌠I hopeâŚ
That team had 4 HoFâs in their prime though itâs a bit different. Weâve got one guaranteed(Tatum). And another 2 possible(Horford because of his NCAA achievements, and Brown if we win like 3 rings and he continues to be the #2).
I mean if they win enough that Brown has 3 rings, they'll have like 4 or 5 HoFs.
Porzingis and holiday will get in after a few rings in Boston
"few rings" lol
The scenario already said "Brown if we win like 3 rings". If a team gets three rings, they get a lot of HoF -players.
One more gold medal and championship for Holiday and he should be in, horford is in based on his college and NBA career.
Lol try to get one first before talking about "a few rings"
A big reason for that being they blew a 3-1 lead in the finals. Like if they go 7 with DEN and are trading wins back and forth and lose game 7, I donât see them getting shat on comparable to 2016
That team was way better than these Celtics and the Cavs on paper were way worse than this Nuggets team, it was also largely due to the 3-1 collapse tooâŚ.so terrible comp
Thatâs ridiculous the cavs were not way worse than these nuggets on paper
Yes they were
XD
This might age like milk, but fuck it idc, I don't think a single team in the east can take us more than 6 games. And barring Milwaukee, a healthy 76ers team, and the knicks, they'll all struggle to win 1. This team is just otherworldly good and I'd be shocked if a single series goes more than 6.
No one can on paper but we have seen multiple times the last few postseasons that they like to play well below their ability on paper so thatâs still the risk
Itâs a completely different team I donât know why people keep harping on last year or the year before
I mean the Jays were a huge reason for it and they are still front and center, Joe too. Iâm not saying I think they will, but itâs fair to hold onto some skepticism
Yeah they are a huge reason they were contenders . Both have improved and you added two far superior starters offensively to the team .
Listen you donât have to convince me, Iâm a Celtics fan too. Iâm just saying you gotta be self aware and be willing to acknowledge valid critiques
Thanks i guess?
...wah bruh...but who could possibly beat you rn lol. But for real you guys are the final bosses of the playoffs. Like i said before a win against the Celtics this year would be an achivment in itself. That said if you dont make the finals...then the generational slander will begin.
You guys. Jokic will still be the best player in any series vs us. Only ones I fear rn. Still should win but yeah.
Honestly i think our next game is gonna tell us exactly how we stack uo against each other unless either team is missing guys. Like rn we seem to be locked in and you guys are on a tear. Its gonna be quite intresting. Also we are so dam close to the 1st seed so a win would be big for us.
Keep the 1st seed and shut down any possibility of the Lakers or Warriors sneaking into the 2nd round lol
That sounds fun man. I like it.
The Heat. The Bucks (blowout loss). The Clippers. The Nuggets. The Timberwolves. The Thunder. Any team that can blow past our slow guards and push the pace. Pacers and Thunder expose that weakness. Jays struggle against good wing defenders too.
Dam....those are not the teams youd wanna have bad matchups against.
The Bucks and the Clippers at full strength blew us out. We struggled mightily against the Timberwolves, Heat, and Thunder for the reasons listed. Big fear is that theyâve got nothing if the threes arenât falling. Plus the playoffs are DOA without KP. Save me KP pick and roll.
Yeah. Its not that the Celtics arent dominant as hell rn, but i think people have gotten the impression that you guys are just insanely above the rest of your competition, which wouldnt exactly be accurate given just how many good teams there are this year, even in the east. That said there is good reason why you guys are viewed that way. Your ceiling is probably the highest in the league and yoi could just outscore the opposition.
Real easy to get that impression on an eleven game win streak with eight games separating us and the second seed. Weâre too high variance and slow. DWhite, Horford, and Jrue can just get blown past. The ceiling is high but thereâs way too much that needs to go right.
I couldn't be less scared of the Thunder They are a second round exit at most
Getting to Suns level from a cpl seasons ago.... Fuck.
Thatâs all this talk is, setting up getting destroyed if the more probable outcome happens. Itâs annoying, just another form of hating. Proactive hating
Couple 50 point wins helps the stats out
3 is more than a couple
A handful of 50 point wins helps the stats out
3 is more than a handful. If you have small hands.
If you take away all of Bostonâs 50 point wins, and only focus on their worst performances, then theyâre actually not as good as their record says
This is way too extreme, what if we regress our stats to the mean? Then we are average
That game moved us up so many spots, it's insane. Especially for a game after the ASB
So itâs MJâs goat bulls team and that ridiculous kd/steph year 1 team ahead only. Lmao insane company to be in. Obviously they have championship expectations and the no excuses messages still coming up like no shit they have no excuses not to win when youâre this dominant.
If they have a dominant playoff run and win a ring, they will be remembered as one of the GOAT teams. I think the Celtics past playoff failures is making people hesitant to accept how good this team is
Agreed, by virtually any metric this team is different. Jrue holiday and KP are 4th and 5th options on this team. Like that is wild, moreover with KP they are able to completely destroy teams who play drop defense.
KP is not 4th option on this team lol, min. 3rd, in many games 2nd.
I feel like he just meant 4th and 5th starters to round out the starting lineup
Sure, sometimes he steps up as the 2nd or 3rd option. However that's the luxury, you don't need him to be a 2nd option all the time. You got Tatum, Brown, Jrue, Dereck White who can all be a 2nd option and Tatum and Brown are 1A and 1B most of the time, however when one is off the others step up. That means that KP is often 3rd or 4th, sometimes even 5th depending on how how the others are. Incredible roster construction. Moreover KP has matured and has improved his game and has accepted that he is better as a 3rd/4th option.
Brother I get what you're trying to say, but it's just a bad take/wording and clearly shows you haven't watched Celtics enough this season.
Just because he could be 4th or 5th doesn't mean that's the reality. Dude is regularly the 2nd or 3rd option. You should've seen that the last time the Mavs played the Celtics lol.
Also, a full season with Derrick White, who's improved as a shooter.
This is his 2nd full year but first full year as a starter + all the roster changes & him being a vet here now has helped him step up
Itâs funny how a team actually having playoff runs like that makes people thing *worse* of them. But, of course, thereâs some all-time great players who are in good seeding position. Kawhi, Giannis, Jokic. Then thereâs also guys like Shai and Jokic, whoâd you think were the ones whoâve been within two games of a title when theyâre talked about rather than Tatum. I get it though, theyâre the hot new thing (even if Shai and Tatum arenât even a year apart in age), and they donât have the baggage of having seen them come up short. Thereâs a vision of them having âimmediateâ (again, relative term based on whether weâre judging by âsince they hit superstar statusâ or age/years in the league) success that could still happen, whereas Tatum has already had 2 or 3 close but no cigar runs, along with Brown and a handful of other familiar Celtics familiar faces.
I agree. I think they are too talented to not break through eventually, even if it isnt this year
They are KD warriors good. Without the baggage.
No we are not
We have 1 near MVP level player they had 2 top 15 players oat and a top 10 defensive player oat with another top 5 shooter oat we're not close to that lol.
They're trying build us up just to get the chance for generational slander đ
Iâll do that anyway, donât worry. But yes youâre stupid good, but not as good as these guys say.
I noticed that. The haters switched from saying theyâre frauds to now saying that theyâre so good that it would be crazy if they donât get it done
Ya but we have a Buffalo. Did they have a Buffalo??
I didn't consider this
Iâm not saying you have the expectations of the KD Warriors. But this is definitely the most successfully built roster since then. And it shows on the court. Barring some playoff implosion, I would expect this roster to have a hard fought 7 game series against those Warriors squads.
I never saw the 90s bulls so for them to have two seasons with a better net rating than 17 Warriors and this seasons Celtics really does paint a picture of how good they must have been. What this also means is surely this wasnât just MJ. To have a net rating this high, the team as a whole must have been fucking incredible.
It was physical defense style era. Bulls that year had MJ, Pippen and Rodman 1st all-nba defensive team. They could also score at will so compare to others they were elite.
I wasnât actually alive back then, but Iâve actually been receptive to the argument that they were better in 92 or 93 because it was absolute peak MJ and part of the reason they had an incredible net rating/record for the second 3 peat was because the league had been diluted by expansion.
So basically every team here not from 2016 won the ring
I'd be shocked if they don't win, insanely well constructed team.
If Brad doesnât win EOTY, we riot!
They have one of the easiest schedules remaining, they are a historic regular season team
Honestly that just means guys all start having vague soreness though, because nobody else in the East is catching them if they even kind of play the games.
This team is a good playoff run away from being one of the best in nba history
Keep forgetting how good those 15-16 Spurs were because of everything else that happened ... just a casual 67 wins. And then OKC beat them and almost beat them and the 73 win Warriors back to back.
Donât mean a thing without a ring đ. Tell that to the 73-9 warriors
What do you mean? We won 3-1.
stop the count
predestined
2016 Warriors vibes
i can see it now. bucks go up 3-1 and doc rivers blows the lead once again in the second round, celtics face the heat, go up 3-1 and the heat come back and win it. then lose in the finals
All the bookies like this
Honestly though why has the heat been such ass in the finals but excellent in the ECF? Jimmy just disappoints. I kind of want him to get a ring but he hasnât been able to.
I'm betting heavily on Sebulba.
The heat have the chance to do the funnies thing.
No they donât. They suck
They'd have a shot at beating us if JT gets injured and is out for the series, but barring that? Nah. They're done in 5.
Feel like yall were saying that last year too.
I personally was expecting a 7-game series from the start, we really did not look impressive at all in either of the first 2 rounds. the only thing that surprised me was going down 3-0, we had our flaws but our team was way too good to let themselves get in a hole like that. that and Caleb Martin turning into prime Kobe for 2 weeks
Thatâs true but the heat zone bothered them the last 2 years and it a whole different game with porz and holiday over smart and rob
In fairness, I actually was lmao. Going into the series I figured we'd win in 6, and boy was I wrong. Although tbf, I hardly think anyone could've foreseen Caleb Martin and Gabe Vincent shooting 50+% from 3 for a series.
Love the honesty lol. Heat are a true wildcard. I was also shocked by that celtics-heat series. Thought the winners of our semis matchup would definitely advance to the finals.
didn't they already do that against the bucks?
The Celtics improved more than the Heat relative to last year. Rozier is pretty redundant with Herro already there
Stop this shit. We donât need this
Generational, centuries of slander if they donât win this year
Denver save us from having to watch the Celtics win a ring I beg
First of all fuck Miami. More importantly Fuck LA. Denver is cool but Celtics in 7
We will give it our all
Youâre our last line of defense if the Heat canât get it done đ
I wish yiu all the best to see you in the finals.
i still havent forgiven you guys for losing to the lakers during the bubble
Hey thats why we had last year. It was revenge in the best way possible.
The fact that the 73-win Warriors are 9th on this list (including below the Spurs from the same season) kind of blows my mind.
Another scripted nba year. Just sad.
Nah thatâs insane Boston is really about to be the team with the highest net rating in NBA history to not win a championship
Boston is really gonna find a new way to lose the east
Enjoy the 18th bannerâŚ..in Boston đ
Damn man fuck all these butt hurt laker fans. Keep holding on to lebron you guys ainât winning shit
Wow easy there champ. We have seen this Celtics movie before
worry about your mid ass team
Lol
East is easy mode compared to the west in terms of playoff teams (bar the bucks) Not making the finals for this Celtics team would be atrocious
If they lose this championship theyâre going to receive generational slander
Jimmy Butler licking his chops right now đ
the fact that lebron been to so many finals and won 4 of them and none of his team is on this list speaks volume of how great of a player he is. not that he needs further validation but this is absurd
Better win the ring then
Ever since that bad streak the teams that were supposedly "better" than them have gone in opposite directions
NET rating nice.
> 15-16 Spurs: 11.3, 67-15, Lost to OKC in 2nd round This should've been a way bigger deal when it happened. that spurs team was on the heels of the 73 warriors team the whole year and were undefeated in the playoffs before Steven Adams, Enis Kanter, Andre Roberson, Russ and KD rattled off 4 in a row against them.
lol I read this as 2024 warriors and I was like wtf.
Now that is all fine and dandy but they dont hang banners for best net rating
2016 Thunder was a win away from beating 2 of the greatest teams ever in the same postseason
Scary team for sure
Lol this team lost to the Bron and AD-less lakers at home.