Blog

By: @EricJsaint   |

Tonight, the currently semi- fragile green warriors look to close out at home for the year 2012 and hope for better in the 52 games remaining in 2013, which ends on the road. (Even though we thought the planet would melt with Jason Collins playing his career game in Green…right?)

Not true. With almost 60 games left the Celtics have forced themselves to simply make games matter more.  Not that all games shouldn’t matter equally, but going 0-3 on an important road trip with the potential of improving to 15-9 and instead coming out a frazzled 12-12 makes games against 5-21 teams like Cleveland… important ones. (And they almost lost too, thank you Paul Pierce)

Looking around the NBA it ‘seems’ as if elite teams are starting to emerge and shape themselves for the long term and the better part of the remaining season. The Celtics are on a weekly plan. A short term plan. A when are we getting Smith, Verajao, or Gortat, or anyone? plan.  A who’s available? plan. A daily plan. The kind of plan the least reliable person you’ve ever met would make about their next diet or something. A loose end New Year’s resolution. An awful and painfully tedious plan. Whenever the Celtics appear to show flashes of leverage ,balance and consistency as a team they fall on their collective faces in front of everyone who loves and cares about them.

Time to stop planning and simply start doing for the Celtics.

Right now I would say that the top tier of the NBA consists of New York and Miami in the East, (not sold on ATL yet, and Chicago is not forgotten) and Oklahoma City, San Antonio, and the raging Clippers in the West. This season  Kevin Durant is putting together an absolutely amazing one on all levels. Scoring 27.9ppg, grabbing 8.4 boards, 4.2 dimes 1.3 blocks and 1.5 steals. That’s a wow season (his shooting numbers are also ridiculous, I don’t like talking about them.)  I would say as of today that OKC ‘seems’ to be the team to beat. They seem solid on all levels and holes are hard to find, even after saying goodbye the Harden. They have a plethora of scorers and have put it together on the defensive end as well, they look like a juggernaut from tornado alley.

Does it seem like a dream the Celtics beat the Thunder this year? Remember that? Jeff Green’s ‘breakout’ game? Because it happened. The bottom line is the potential is still there, the season isn’t lost, the world isn’t ending and it’s one game at a time… and although Jennings and Ellis is a back court tandem that messes with my head, No, Tonight I don’t fear the deer, I simply fear the next game.