Who is the Most Overrated Team in the East ..aka.. Why Boston Sux.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Brad Stevens

I hope it's not that simple. I'm really hoping their clutch performance is just noise and there's something unsustainable or irregular that's causing it. If it's just Stevens we are in big trouble in the playoffs.

Looking at the top 10 teams in the clutch, they do all have coaches who are considered to be among the best tactical coaches in the league. The top 10 in order is: Spurs, Kings, Rockets, Bucks, Cavs, Heat, Warriors, Celtics, Sixers, Pacers.

With the exception of the Bucks (Kidd is generally considered to be a pretty bad coach) and Cavs (but they have LeBron so it's different), those are basically the teams who most would say have the most tactically astute coaches in the league. Pop, Joerger, D'Antoni, Spoelstra, Kerr, Steens, Brown and McMillan. So there does seem to be some correlation between that and coaching at least for this year.

Really, really hope this is not going to continue in the playoffs where the games often end up being closer when you have teams that are pretty evenly matched (which we are with Boston regardless of what Demo Shift or DanH want to spew about them being "trash").

[Shaolin Fantastic]

So do something about it instead of worrying so much.

If I could I would. Unfortunately I don't have any role in the organization.

[JawsGT]

unbelievable, was looking forward to the possibility of grabbing the 1st seed with a win tuesday

[The Great One]

Yikes

Was Kristaps Porzingis waving to someone in the crowd as the final play started? And did he miss the screen for Lee because of it? #Knicks pic.twitter.com/Ek58Y4WzYw

— Knicks Film School (@KnickFilmSchool) February 4, 2018

[Ebonhawke]

For me, perhaps the biggest question for the Celtics (and the Heat) in the playoffs, is can they find another 'gear' in the playoffs, when their opponent is solely focused on stopping what you're good at.

We've seen the Raptors struggle to find that next gear in the playoffs, but for teams like the Celtics and Heat, who play a high intensity game in the regular season, does that next gear even exist?

[tDotted]

Wouldn't give Stevens too much credit for Celtics' finishes. Raps get similar shots to them in these situations, only difference is that the Celtics make them..

[Zainab]

I don’t like anybody, honestly.

Boston’s young with a lot of bizarro trends in their win profile.

The Cavs are a nuclear quarantine zone.

I like Toronto’s formula the best but they are SO BAD in the playoffs. https://t.co/RTUtZFks76

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) February 4, 2018

[Demographic Shift]

unbelievable, was looking forward to the possibility of grabbing the 1st seed with a win tuesday

Might have to wait till the all star break...

[Zainab]

[Demographic Shift]

Wouldn't give Stevens too much credit for Celtics' finishes. Raps get similar shots to them in these situations, only difference is that the Celtics make them..

The Chowders are like a guy at the Craps table at the Venetian in Vegas who is relying on making money on rolling a hard eight.... It eventually comes to an end.....

No taking back some of the "how in the hell did that happen" wins that are already on the board.. however the mathematical laws of probability exist.... No one wins em all.....

with 16 of their last 28 on the road ... its closer to midnight for Cinderella than the hand wringers think...

[Zainab]

The Celtics now have 7 wins this season when trailing by 15+ at any point, the most in the NBA.

Boston is the only team in the NBA with a winning record in games it has trailed by 15 or more (7-6). The rest of the NBA has a win pct of .122 in those games entering today. pic.twitter.com/8IueFCtKEw

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 4, 2018

[S.R.]

This is both good and bad for them.

It's generally a bad sign to rack up a lot of wins with a mediocre point differential. It means you've gotten some good bounces that you won't be able to continue to depend on indefinitely.

Boston is also falling behind or in tight games because their offence isn't very good.

On the other hand they play themselves back into games with really good defence. That's a good sign for the playoffs, where defence wins.

They've had some luck in the clutch, but their clutch stats are also very good. Their clutch FG% is best in the league while Raps are in the bottom 1/3.

I still think the Raps are a better team overall, but key in a series would be to D up well enough to clamp down on Boston's sputtering O and play 48 minutes with a cushion. Avoid trying to win the game in the last 30 seconds altogether.

Boston was also the #1 seed last year and got steamrolled by the Cavs easily enough. The Raps had a better ECF 2 years ago but it's Toronto that still carries the playoff choker tag.

[octothorp]

See, the thing about Boston is that Toronto used to do the same thing in past seasons, get down big and then be able to come back. And that didn't make us clutch. It just gave us bad habits of overconfidence and then when we got into the playoffs we'd get down big and against good teams we simply couldn't come back all the time.

If winning close games is a better predictor of future success than winning by large margins, then every analytic system out there that values margin of victory (which is just about every one there is) is wrong.

[Demographic Shift]

To the ASG….each team has 5 games…

The Chowderheads get 3 games in 4 days .. starting with the Raps on 6th on the road.. then a day off....then @Whiz...then the 3rd game in 4 days as a B2B at home vs Indy… a day off then the Lebrons come into the Garden on the 8th… They then get 3 days off and meet the Clips at home to close it out… that’s 5 games against teams above 500

Tough draw…

Your Toronto Raptorz play every other day… kicking it off they get the Chowda’s at home… a day off followed by the Knicks at home… a day off then play @Charlotte…..another day off and then get the Heat at home followed up by a B2B against the Bulls on the road… Only 2 games of the 5 against teams above .500

Better draw….

So by the break got a lot of confidence that we are right there with the chowderheads a half game up or back … After the break the Chowders have 9 home games left and 14 on the road… with 7 or 8 out west on long road swings….Tough draw….

So with about 2 hours to go to kickoff its time to put basketball on the backburner after todays win and concentrate on further simmering the rectal destroying… not fit to be with women chili ….This staple foodgroup is required to help sop up the ice cold adult social beverages that me and my cronies will soon partake in as soon as they start arriving. With my bride and the kids over at her sisters probably watching reruns of Outlander its going to be a bonus evening for everyone…

And if your wondering.. yeah.. its Go Eagles…

[inthepaint]

Celtics are a decent team, and so are we. There's no reason to say they suck (other than a fun rivalry, which is actually a cool reason), just like there's absolutely no reason to act like scardy cats thinking that they have some kind of definitive advantage over us.

They win a lot on the clutch because they inadvertently find themselves in close games a lot. They don't want that (no team does). It's much better to put the game away early, but with only a one-man show offence, they can't help it....They're making the best out of it, but that's risky and unstable in more than one level.

Quality late game execution plays a part on it, but yes a lot of it is luck if it comes down to the last basket. Take our 1st game against them. They didn't have the last possession, we did: we got a good shot that rimmed out after two bounces. The omnipresent Brad Stevens had no control over it, and they were lucky. Doesn't take away their win in any way of course, you can help yourself statistically by defending well and designing good plays ..But it doesn't make them this magnificent machine that no one can beat in the clutch either.

Two even teams, that over 52 games are separated only by two, with several games that could have gone either way for both teams. Our point differential in the aggregate is better because we have a more balanced offence/defence combination (both top 3, despite the slightly tougher schedule so far ), but they have executed better in the clutch as of late. Both good traits to have, but nothing really putting one team ahead of the other (other than hype)

I can't wait till Tuesday, but honestly, unless it's a blowout one way on the other, I'll still consider them neck-and-neck. True gauge will be in the playoffs. I'd like to see them beat us 4 times in the clutch within 2 weeks if they're so good at it