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October 7, 2010 — Celtic Nation staffer Mark Vandeusen offers his take on the Celtics’ prospects for the upcoming season —

A year ago I guessed the Celtics would go 37-29, and they did two games better.  A lot of the same factors come into play when speculating on how the team will finish this year.  Boston is a well coached veteran squad that knows exactly what they are capable of.  They will not feel the need to try to prove themselves during the regular season.  And as we saw last spring, come playoff time Doc will choose health and rest over home court advantage if necessary.  I’m sure we’d all probably like to see Coach Rivers sacrifice a win or two here and there in order to give some extra rest to Pierce and Garnett along the way as well.  Although recent history and past numbers indicate that may not actually happen.

I do believe the Celtics will win what is sure to be an improved Atlantic Division (the Knicks, Nets, and Sixers all have legitimate division title aspirations).  My guess is this Boston team is probably capable of winning around 57-58 games, but could still accomplish what they want with 47 or 48.  Final prediction?  52-30.  In the post season I expect to see the C’s again battling the Heat for the conference title, and the right to face either LA or OKC in the Finals.  I can’t get my heart and my head to agree on who wins though, so I’ll leave it at that.

Follow Mark on twitter @LucidSportsFan