A Look Back at Boston Celtics December

It is time to move on from that month into a new year. Before we do that, I would like to look back on the month that was and see if the Celtics performed the way I expected them to. I started “Celtics December Tour Coming To a City Near You” by bringing up the C’s 4 lone home games. I made the statement that these 4 games should be easy wins for the team. Boston finished 3-1 in these 4 home games, and only 1 of them was as easy as I had hoped for. The first game against the Bucks was surely a game I never thought the team would lose, however was much closer throughout the game than I would have expected. The 98-89 final shows no mercy on just how close the game actually was. The Celtics followed that up by losing their next home game in  a stunner to the 76ers, a game that looked in hand. Next, in the game against Minnesota, the green team laid the hammer down on the T’Wolves. This game had no question marks and was highlighted by the Eddie House to Tony Allen play of the year. Lastly, they played the Pacers and played 2 completely different halves. They went into the break at halftime down 15, rallied back, and ended up winning by 9. Again, a score that makes it look like the Celtics got by easy.

I thought the Celtics may struggle against the Spurs and OKC as they both had different kinds of talents that could give the team fits. These games were kept in check by the C’s throughout, and the team got out of both with great victories. I was nearly spot on with the 3 road games in the middle of the month against sleeper teams who could jump up and nab the Celtics such as the Wizards, Bulls, and Grizzlies, as in 2 of those games, the Celtics seemed to play down to their competition and just barely got out of Washington and Memphis with wins. The Bulls game was the game in the middle where the team completely dominated.

Next on the schedule was the Celtics @ Magic on Christmas Day. I mentioned in my post that if the Celtics were playing at the same level they were when I made the post, I liked their chances. Well, I wouldn’t say they were playing at the same level as they were missing Pierce in that game, however they stepped it up and played a great game for a team victory.

Finally, the team made the trip to the west coast to finish out the month. I brought up the troubles the Celtics have had against the Clippers, and Warriors in the past few years on the road, but also mentioned how the Celtics gave the Suns a thrashing in Phoenix last year. I said the opposite may be the case this year where the Celtics have it easy in LA and GS, but get beat in Phoenix. Half right- the Celtics were blasted in all 3 of these games.

All and all my final hope was that in the worst case scenario the Celtics finished the month of December with an 11-3 record. They finished with a 10-4 record. Yes, that is indeed worse than the WORSE CASE SCENARIO, however, I never knew the C’s would get bitten by the injury bug to the extent they have. Therefore, I can accept 10-4, even though I know deep down it could have been much better. On to January.

(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)