Light Schedule Gives Boston Celtics Time for Recuperation
By Greg Cassoli
A favorable schedule should help the Boston Celtics deal with their injuries
The Boston Celtics put up a valiant effort against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night. They came into the game woefully undermanned, missing Jae Crowder, Al Horford, and Kelly Olynyk. Those absences were apparent for most of the game, and were it not for a late game push, the Cavaliers would have won in a landslide. Avery Bradley submitted another stellar outing, and Jaylen Brown had his most impressive performance as a professional basketball player, but ultimately, the game was decided before it began.
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Injuries can have that effect on a team, and it seemed to be a bit of bad timing for Boston. The Celtics missed out on their first real chance to see how they stack up against their conference’s best team. Boston won’t know the real implications of adding Horford to its roster until it has its full complement of players on the court versus Cleveland. From there they can gameplan the best ways to maximize their strengths, account for their weaknesses, and attack any new threats that their revised roster construction may pose to Lebron and company.
In that sense, the Celtics’ injuries were poorly timed. Beating Clelveland is a daunting task, and every chance Boston has to better learn how to do so is an important one, even this early in the season. Taking a more macro-level look, however, the timing of the Celtics’ rash of injuries might not actually be all that bad. In fact, one might argue that the next week and half is the best possible time to be operating at less than full capacity. Boston has a date with the Warriors looming on November 18, but until that point, they play the Nuggets, Wizards, Knicks, Pacers, Pelicans, and Mavericks.
Those teams have a combined record of 7-22 to date, and all but one of them (Nuggets) have a net negative rating per one hundred possessions. Just one game comes on a back to back, and the only time that the Celtics will have to adjust to a new time zone is when they travel to New Orleans on November 14, a difference of just one hour.
It’s not outrageous to think the Celtics could win four or five of their next six games, even without Crowder, Horford, and Olynyk. They will need those players if they want to compete with Golden State on the 18th or San Antonio one week later. Outside of those two matchups, the schedule remains fairly light until the middle of December. Boston will need all hands on deck from that point on.
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Injuries are never welcomed, but if a team must endure them then playing lesser opponents well they resolve themselves is ideal. The Celtics have lucked into that scenario thanks to the NBA scheduling gods. They’ll be thankful for that in the present, and hopeful that no one has to miss extended time in the future.