Your honest opinion

[meta4]

Ok, so we have 20 games left, I'm sure we can win a good chunk of these games and keep the 3rd seed in the playoffs. But what are our chances? We can most likely make it out of the first round but will then meet up with Orlando in the second...not good. We're all still waiting for everyone to get back into shape and rhythm like where we were at the begginning of the season. That was only 3 months ago, how did it all go wrong so fast? The issue right now is Pierce--he looks unmotivated and flat out lazy. Ray Allen is playing great, KG is giving his best and Rondo is playing his part--can't wait to see him in the playoffs. If PP shows up, I like our chances...if not...we won't make it past the second round.

[nighthob]

Honestly I doubt they'll hold on to the third seed at this point. I expect them to finish behind Atlanta in the standings. The Celtics season ended when Ronnie Turiaf injured Garnett's knee. The owners' refusal to allow a Ray Allen deal pretty much sealed this squad's fate. At this point they might not make it out of the first round if they need to face Milwaukee.

[nepg]

It's tough to tell. It really just depends on if everyone shows up. If the starters and Sheed show up for the playoffs, they can go all the way. If Ray or Pierce doesn't show up, they're screwed because they just don't have the ability to score without those two to compete with anyone.

[Bogg]

I figure we wind up seeded fourth in the playoffs, play a six or seven game series with Milwaukee that we win, and then lose to Cleveland in the second round. Hopefully that kicks off a rebuilding effort over the summer, if we decide to ride out the last two years of KG and Sheed's deals with this core it's just going to be two years of first or second round exits without much to hope for other than the development of Rondo(and possibly Perk and Nate).

[Celtics17]

I've been pleased with what I've seen out of KG lately. He's certainly not as good as he was before his knee injury, but he's starting to look more active out there all the time. Fingers crossed that the knee doesnt't go out on him again.

Pierce, on the other hand, not so much. If this is the Paul Pierce that we see going into the playoffs, we'll be in deep trouble. He had that one decent game against the Bobcats which I thought would start to propel him back into form . Unfortunately, that hasn't happened yet. It will come, though. And, once we have our Captain back, I expect us to make a serious run at another title.

[hurdler]

In the last 3 games both kg and ray have put up 0-fers and pierce narrowly escaped with a 1-fer, and against 3 ordinary teams. Offensively we don't have a lot of options. We all know that Ray's december was a temporary phase. KG is very passive offensively and settles for (usually) efficiency in low attempts. Pierce still tries to be aggressive, but he can't do it consistently.

Hopefully after this challenging stage they get to the point of realizing they are what they are, but if they put back in the hustle and hard work they can make a run. They aren't good enough to simply switch it on for the playoffs, and that never works anyway. The need to be humbled so they stop making the same stupid excuses in the press conferences. Hopefully they can turn this into a Rocky III kind of season.