The last two games for the Boston Celtics have been at opposite ends of the enjoyment spectrum. Friday night featured a one-point thrilling win over the Philadelphia 76ers, while Saturday's game ended in a 128-101 blowout loss to the Houston Rockets. It's likely that the Celtics' season is going to be defined by these kinds of extreme highs and lows.
In the grand scheme of things, this really shouldn't be all that surprising. We know that Boston lost more talent than any other team in the league over the course of the summer, and the expectations coming into this current campaign were far from what have been the typical standards in this era of Celtics basketball. Recent years have had fans in Boston thinking championship or bust to begin most every season, while things are quite a bit different this year.
While this fan base is accustomed to 50 wins being the standard in a season, these last two games for the Celtics have shown us that this team is performing far closer to a .500 level of play this season. Frankly, I think we can expect that to continue to be the case for most of the year.
The Celtics will likely continue to produce these results this season
At the end of the day, Boston is simply dealing with an overabundance of roster turnover compared to last season, and that big picture change was always going to be hard to adjust to. But we all know that the real difference maker here is Jayson Tatum being out of the picture. Had the Celtics lost their other role players and key pieces but at least had their best player still on the floor, they would likely still be a more consistent winner.
The fact of the matter is that Tatum will likely not play this season. And at the very least, if he did, it may or may not be the wisest decision in the world. While Boston's roster remains in its current state, I believe fans are going to have to suffer through these types of results for much of the season.
Sure, it won't be all losses. There are going to be those types of signature victories and thrilling moments like the Celtics had against Philadelphia on Friday. But the element of inconsistency is going to crop up to the point that those type of 20-plus-point losses are going to rear their ugly heads as well. And that's just something that I think Celtics fans are going to have to be prepared for.