Playoffs? Celtics back in

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Thank you, New Jersey.

Around 3:30 p.m. yesterday, the Celtics could be heard uttering that unlikely phrase. But Paul Pierce and Co. had good reason to express gratitude toward the Atlantic Division rival that eliminated them from postseason play the past two years. By defeating Philadelphia, 89-75, at Continental Airlines Arena yesterday, New Jersey clinched a playoff spot for Boston. The eighth-seeded Celtics have a date this weekend with the top-seeded Pacers for a best-of-seven first-round series.</div>

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/ce...eltics_back_in/

 

the celtics were never out, if anything they were in and went out. they lost against the friggin Hawks when it mattered! Altho the Hawks are red hot lately.

 

The Press can spin it in any unflattering way they want. The fact remains that the C's would have finished in the 8th spot regardless. The fact that they clinched because of Philly's loss, means all of jack to me.

If Carroll does his job right in preparing for the Pacers, this team will surprise alot of people who think that Indy is going to steam roll over us in 4 games.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">A few questions for the Celtics ...

-- Will Raef LaFrentz be able to make the roster?

-- Is making the playoffs a good situation for this team, or would they have been better off being in the lottery?

-- Can the Celtics pull off an upset?</div>

-- I don't think they will pull off an upset but winning at least 1 or more home games would be awesome for their fans.

--I think Boston was better off being in the lottery , a guy like Gordon would be excellent for Boston , or Jameer Nelson aswell.


This is sad..Portland , Nuggets and Utah deserve to make the playoffs more than most of the East teams does.

 

Anything is possible, but with an average roster like theirs, I don't think they'll be going very far, once LaFrentz is better, an awesome PG gained in the draft will help them a lot especially since Ricky Davis is coming around with Pierce.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">-- Will Raef LaFrentz be able to make the roster? </div>

Not sure I Understand this one, but do you mean next year? If so, you don't have to wonder. If Danny doesn't trade him this summer or make a deal with Charlotte to take him off our hands, You can put his name on the roster in PEN. The only way he's not here next year is if Danny gets a deal he can't refuse or Raef's health doesn't come around and he makes a deal with Charlotte to draft and release him in a deal for draft picks.

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">-- Is making the playoffs a good situation for this team, or would they have been better off being in the lottery?</div>

That's a question that has divided parts of the Celtic Nation currently, but IMO, this is a no brainer: Make the Playoffs. The draft is not great. There are no instatn successes coming out of it. Okafor is the best of the draft and he's got a history of back and shoulder issues. In a weak draft year, where player rankings are going to bounce up and down like mexican jumping beans, with the inherent posibility of alot of talent slipping, there's no reason to worry about the lottery. We've got a maximum of 4 picks (3 first rounders) this draft and some nice bait contracts like Stewarts coming off the books next year, we've got plenty to bargain with if Dannyboy thinks we need to move up.


<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">-- Can the Celtics pull off an upset?</div>

Only if John Carroll does his job this week. The Pacers are going to come in with more than just a playoff series in mind. Revenge is an issue as well. I've been advocating for a bigger lineup for that series and Wyc Grosbeck(co-owner) just reiterated that he felt that the Mihm/Blount Twin Towers connection at the 4 and 5 was the lineup he liked for the Indy series.

We have alot to deal with and I've outlined alot of it here:

http://www.sportsrant.net

Click on the Celticsrant Blog link and my current article should come up.
<font color="DarkRed"><font size="1">(I don't think this is spamming, because it's an information only blog site where only authorized people can post content. If I'm mistaken, please feel free to edit this, Thanks) </font> </font>

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">-- I wanted to know if there was a chance Raef would be healthy enough for the playoffs?</div>

Yes, he's healthy enough. NO, he won't be activated. Too much riding on his health from potentially a player and monitary standpoint. They won't jeopardize that position.

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Artest/Harrington versus Pierce match-up will be amazing to watch.</div>

If you saw last year's series, PP made chumps of Harrington and Bender. Pure one on one trash talk. He made them look stupid. I enjoyed the whole experience thoroughly. Brought back memories of Bird and the Rifleman dukeing it out, only it was one sided.

Count on Ricky Davis' ability to penetrate the seams and hit that dagger pull up jumper of his. That will play a very big role in beating the Pacers. PP can only draw just so much attention. After that, someone else has to step up and take some of the pressure.

I've been advocating and Wyc agrees with me: I want the Twin towers for the Indy series. Give me Mihm and Blount at the 4 and 5.

It provides a basis for strong rebounding and gives us a stronger defensive presence against a bigger Indy team.

 

IMO the Celtics are better off making the playoffs, the more I look at the draft, the more I think a lottery pick may not be the best thing. Look at the 2000 Draft where the Celtics took Jerome Moiso. The picks in the 14 to 30 range ended up producing more good players than the lottery. This year is very similar to that draft. Also I don't really see the Celtics going after a PG in the draft when they used last years pick to take Marcus Banks, who hasn't gotten a chance to play this year.
I don't think they can pull off the upset but I think they can make it go 6 games. They have some favorable matchups if they send out a lineup with Atkins, Pierce, Davis, Blount, and Mihm.

 

Very good point about that 2000 draft BC. :two_thumb

<u>Acquired In the Lottery:</u>
K-Mart
Stro
D Miles
Fizer
Miller
MIihm
Crawford

<u>Post Lottery Picks:</u>
Hedo T
D Mason
QRich
Jamal MaGloire
Mo Pete


If you do your homework, there's always talent out there to be had.

 

Steve Kerr is a moron. He continually proves that he's either saying stuff for shock value or simply can't judge talent well.

I've already wrote Steve Kerr on several occasions this season for ridiculous stuff that he's put in his articles.

Let him think that Artest will completely shut Pierce down. No one ever does and Artest will fail just like the others.

Davis will be a key player in this series, as Indy has no one to stop him. How Al Harrington suddenly puts Indy at the advantage off the bench is completely beyond me. Davis will prove my point for me though, so there's no point belittling the issue.

Pacers in Four, huh Steve. Don't worry Sir. You'll hear from me when the C's take one from Indy, IN INDY before going back to Boston. Count on it.

 

I'm wondering this: How come in previous threads Boston fans say that the Lottery is the way to go, saying that Danny Ainge is one smart cookie? While now they come around and say that the playoffs might not be so bad in the first place?

Everyone was arguing with me here in the past about how the Celtics were never going to be good without going in the lottery and now that they are in the playoffs their mindset has changed? It seems that some people are just saying things to make the situation seem better.

It seems like he made bad decisions then covered it up with the "I'm trying to build a team through the lottery." Now that the team is making the playoffs, I'm wondering: What does he think of his grand vision now?

I have only one question now:

Does the Celtics making the playoffs finally confirm that Danny Ainge is an idiot and he can't even do a good job of screwing over a team to make it to the lottery?

BTW Artest will hold Pierce to under 20 points a game for the playoff series. That is my prediction. He won't shut him down, he'll just make him work a lot harder.

 

For the record bro, I wasn't one of those people who was clamoring for the lottery. In fact, I've been chastizing alot of my Celtic Nation bretheren for comments like that, most particularly those advocating tanking to get there.

We don't tank. We're not the Cavs, Spurs or Clippers. We're the Boston Celtics.

As far as Dannyboy's comments: It was unfortunate that DA felt the need to be so candid, because those are words that should never come out of his mouth. He felt that given the way the team was going at the time and his rebuilding plan, he didn't expect us to make the playoffs.

DA's behind this team though, he's simply stated that they asked him a direct question about what he thought was best in the long run and he foolishly answered them.

He's attending every game these days and has always wanted the team to win, which I believe. He just felt the need to bed completely candid at the time of the question.

 

Pierce in 4 meetings with Artest this year never had one game where he scored over 25 points. He also averaged 4 turnovers for the series. I don't expect Pierce to score 30 and I expect his shooting % to be very average

Boston will get 1 game but I doubt they will win anymore than that.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting CourtVision:</div><div class="quote_post">I'm wondering this: How come in previous threads Boston fans say that the Lottery is the way to go, saying that Danny Ainge is one smart cookie? While now they come around and say that the playoffs might not be so bad in the first place?

Everyone was arguing with me here in the past about how the Celtics were never going to be good without going in the lottery and now that they are in the playoffs their mindset has changed? It seems that some people are just saying things to make the situation seem better.

It seems like he made bad decisions then covered it up with the "I'm trying to build a team through the lottery." Now that the team is making the playoffs, I'm wondering: What does he think of his grand vision now?

I have only one question now:

Does the Celtics making the playoffs finally confirm that Danny Ainge is an idiot and he can't even do a good job of screwing over a team to make it to the lottery?

BTW Artest will hold Pierce to under 20 points a game for the playoff series. That is my prediction. He won't shut him down, he'll just make him work a lot harder.</div>

I was one of the posters who said it would be better for the team to miss out on the playoffs and get into the lottery. But that was before they went on their winning streak and they still had a realistic shot at a top 3 pick. This draft is full of guards and the Celtics don't need a guard, they have Pierce, Banks, Davis, and Welsch. If the Celtics were to have missed the playoffs thye probably would have picked around eighth or ninth. They probably would have taken a chance on someone like Kosta Perovic or Ha-Seung Jin. At the 15th spot the Celtics will probably take a player from college who will be able to help the frontcourt right away, maybe Rafael Araujo or Ryan Gomes.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting hagrid:</div><div class="quote_post">For the record bro, I wasn't one of those people who was clamoring for the lottery. In fact, I've been chastizing alot of my Celtic Nation bretheren for comments like that, most particularly those advocating tanking to get there.

We don't tank. We're not the Cavs, Spurs or Clippers. We're the Boston Celtics.

As far as Dannyboy's comments: It was unfortunate that DA felt the need to be so candid, because those are words that should never come out of his mouth. He felt that given the way the team was going at the time and his rebuilding plan, he didn't expect us to make the playoffs.

DA's behind this team though, he's simply stated that they asked him a direct question about what he thought was best in the long run and he foolishly answered them.

He's attending every game these days and has always wanted the team to win, which I believe. He just felt the need to bed completely candid at the time of the question.</div>

Bro I was not implying that it was you that said those things. Your post was just above mine thats all. It was implied towards the people that actually said that tanking was good.

I agree with you 100%. The Celtics have too much history and pride to tank games on purpose just to get a lottery spot. To me it would have been a black mark in Celtics history if they didn't make the playoffs because some GM screwed over the team. DA has got a lot of work to do (pending if he's fired or not, the former hopefully) in the offseason and I just hope he doesn't feed the Celtics a bunch of crap lies again to save his own skin.