Recent Boston Celtics wins are exposing NBA’s glaring issue
This week, the Boston Celtics have beaten the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat. They’ve won 14 of their last 15 games and are doing that in a dominant fashion. These last two wins seemed like nothing extraordinary. After all, the Cs beat one of the worst teams in the conference and a merely decent team in Miami, which didn’t have their best player, Jimmy Butler.
But it also exposed another issue.
Every year in the NBA there are five to six teams that can win the title, then there are another five that will make the playoffs and finally, six or seven that are in a tanking mode and have no intention of winning basketball games.
And it never changes. It happens every year.
The Boston Celtics knew all along that they would win against the Charlotte Hornets, who had no intention of winning after sitting Terry Rozier. That’s why Luke Kornet was casually catching lobs and Blake Griffin was starting the game. Al Horford didn’t play at all.
During the season, it wears one out to see games like this. Since there are so many games, it’s easy to lose interest. There is minimal value to the non-sports bettors in those games.
The Boston Celtics regular season doesn’t define their campaign
Right now the Boston Celtics are rolling through the league. But that won’t determine the success of the 2022-23 campaign — instead, they will be judged by their playoff performance. The Cs could go 65-17 in the regular season, but if they lost to, say, Philly in the second round, their season would be considered as an incomplete.
So why are we having 82 game regular season, if none of that really matters?
Perhaps we can cut it to 56 games? That way regular season would become more interesting, due to a smaller margin for error. Players would get more rest. Coaches would get actual time to create a real game plan. There would be less players missing games because of the rest, so fans wouldn’t have to worry if their favorite player will show up tonight.
Right now, NBA’s regular season is like fast food joint. A lot of everything, questionable quality, but they are filling your stomach. Why can’t we make it a steakhouse instead?
It won’t change though, because cash rules everything around me. So enjoy the Boston Celtics and value the way they’re playing, because it’s extremely rare to see good basketball in the regular season.