Boston’s been shrugging off accusations that their problem isn’t a lack of effort but a lack of talent against top teams for months. They’ve said the phrase “these games don’t matter” about a million times in the last month. But if the Celtics want to avoid facing one of the top teams in the first round, they’re going to have to start “trying” or fix their problems, because the road gets hard from here on out.
CelticsHub point out that the Celtics’ next nine opponents are a combines 364-241 (.601 winning percentage) this year. Those nine games? Courtesy of CelticsHub:
3/19: @ Houston (35-31)
3/20: @ Dallas (46-22)
3/22: @ Utah (44-24)
3/24: vs Denver (46-22)
3/26: vs Sacramento (23-45)
3/28: vs San Antonio (40-26)
3/31: vs Oklahoma City (41-25)
4/2: vs Houston (35-31)
4/4: vs Cleveland (54-15)
That’s an absolutely brutal stretch. When your easiest game is against the rookie of the year? That’s tough. The three game road trip is nothing to sneeze at with Houston playing their best ball of the season, Dallas being the tiger prowling the cage, and Utah wobbling a bit but always phenomenal at home.
The C’s have a chance to put to rest the rumors of their premature demise as well as make a run for the three seed or better. It’s an important few weeks for a Celtics team that’s struggled this season.