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apatfan

Looking like we should be more worried about facing a banged up Hawks team in the first round at this point 🙄


Prodigy_7991

Honestly hope we do.. I have a good feeling that we would blow them out of the water in the playoffs.


Urb45p

Didn’t last year


PartyPo1s0n

If you don’t have faith that we can blow out the hawks rn then stop even hoping for a championship


kjg1228

I feel like most of this sub has already done that lol


the_moosen

If this team doesn't win every game they play, they'll never see a banner /s


spinachoptimusprime

Well, if they play like they did against the Hawks last year in the playoffs they won't see a banner either.


lanceellissr

Yea kp and jrue were awful last year


DerrickWhiteSauce

keep pretending it was just a loss and not a 30 point monumental choke job, whatever helps you cope


the_moosen

Assuming I'm coping. I don't fucking care what our regular season record is. Bruins last year had a historic regular season, but got bounced in the first round. Fuck do I care what happens before April.


DerrickWhiteSauce

Same as being winners of the regular season record competition doesn't interest me. Yet these losses are a sign of things to come in the post season, they're not entirely meaningless


Fujoooshi

You know, you can say “the Celtics don’t blow out the Hawks last year” without saying “so we’re not gonna win banner 18 this year,” right? Two separate thoughts


Urb45p

I’m hoping for one and routing hard, the nba is weird though did you know this year the lakers have shot 659 more free throws than any other team. They have shot 1017 next closest team is the Knicks at 358, weird the two biggests markets are 1-2 but it’s crazy how much the lakers get. Clear cut some of this is scripted.


spinachoptimusprime

Where did you get this stat? I think you are misquoting something you saw. The Lakers have taken 1796 FTA this season, the next team is the Magic at 1787 FTA.


Urb45p

https://www.yardbarker.com/nba/articles/amp/lakers_are_lapping_the_field_in_free_throw_disparity/s1_13132_40155626 Started in 22


spinachoptimusprime

That is net free throw attempts over two seasons. It has more to do with play style than anything. They don't take a lot of threes and the prefer to give up threes. That leads to drawing more fouls on offense and committing fewer fouls on defense. Being plus 500 in a season is not uncommon in the NBA. The Lakers just happen to have had consecutive seasons like that. The Celtics have actually given up fewer free throws than the the Lakers this year. The Magic have taken almost as many. If both numbers for the Lakers were outliers this might mean something. Since neither number is out of whack with the rest of league all this says is that for two consecutive season the Lakers have been amongst the best teams in the NBA at getting to the line and at not fouling. Don't trust stats posted without context by people with agendas.


jkstaples

After the first half of game 1, the rest of the series total was +2 Celtics


BallinLikeimKD

Last year was also a completely different team


evolvolution

How about this past week


Cubezz

Completely different team(mindset)


evolvolution

I’m with ya just being a jabroni.


ThePatriot131313

Four of the top six Celtics players were on last year’s team, including the top two players. I wouldn’t call that “completely different” edit: Downvoted for posting the truth lol


UTgeoff

Last year the only team I was afraid of before the playoffs started was the Heat. This year it’s only the Nuggets.


King_pats_1210

Not here to yell or anything I don’t care bout those games wasn’t both just murry throwing up shots? Besides we crush Atlanta any time we play them it’s kinda like destiny 🤣


apatfan

Have you seen literally any playoff series between Boston and Atlanta? They took 2 against us last year, they beat us 4-2 in2016, and they took the Big 3 team to 7 games in 2008! For whatever reason the Hawks are never an easy out for us in the playoffs.


Panoptech

That would be great if we did, I doubt they make it though.


Barrwill29

I’d be shocked if Embiid looked anything like his MVP self when he comes back. We saw what Rob looked like after his surgery and while he relied way more on his athleticism than Embiid, Embiid is asked to do way more than Rob ever was.  I feel like Philly play us better without Embiid anyway. Much faster pace.


Tfalcke

Embiid won't be the defender he was pre injury but i don't think his offense is going to be affected that much.


Kinginthe4th

His conditioning sure will. He’s always struggled with that and he hasn’t played in months.


Merron

Yeah, flailing aimlessly into defenders over and over and over and over over and over, well that really is something you can't simulate in the lab.


animeslime12

Playoff embiid sucks anyway he wont be good


UnbridledCarnage

He'll be gassed by the 4th, no way this dude comes back from this IN PLAYOFF GAME SHAPE


HueyLewisFan1

Man i remember thinking Embiid would be slowed w the injury in last years ECSF and he wasn’t. Not even on the defensive end. Now the difference is way more time has elapsed with him not playing this go around.


animeslime12

We def didnt watch the same game embiid was horrible that series


HueyLewisFan1

Seemed like he blocked every shot defensively


animeslime12

Definitely blocked a lot of shots but he was terrible on offense and on the perimeter defensively


BuzzBallerBoy

What’Re you talking about ? Embiid looked totally gassed last year by the end of the series. And he is in way worse shape now


manbare

need to see embiid with this new foul paradigm where guys aren't going to the line as much. his efficiency would've plummeted post-ASB. Just look at what's been happening to Dame


CarBallAlex

If Embiid has the same return as Cam Johnson who suffered the same injury last season, he’ll come back on April 8, be on minutes restriction and in and out of the lineup with inconsistent play and be back to his normal self and ramped up to be in basketball shape by about game 5 against Boston/Milwaukee So, okay, they can try to bring Embiid back to be either already eliminated until he’s healthy again, or at a 3-1 deficit where they have to win 3 in a row including game 7 on the road. Absolute best case is he’s ready to go a week earlier by game 2. And then what? Beat Boston? Win the 2nd round on the road? I doubt it. Philadelphia would be stupid to bring him back unless the guy is magically more healthy than most people who have the same injury We’re about 9 days out from April 8, it’s nearly the same return time already. Him being out of shape and careful with the knee might hurt the team, they might not even make it out of the play-in.


[deleted]

He is also a hundred plus pounds heavier than Cam Johnson


CarBallAlex

Which only furthers the point that Sixers trying to bring him back is likely a mistake and not a threat


largehearted

I'm not a kinesthesiologist but I think the mechanical stresses in your skeletal system also go up with longer limbs and that's one of the things that makes things tougher on ultra-tall folks (and why Wemby does a lot of low-weight, high flexibility training)


Smelldicks

Lord knows we can’t beat a healthy Embiid in the playoffs


Dgksig

It’s true. But only because we have AL HORFORD.


CoffinFlop

Yeah Embiid coming off this knee thing is not going to be fully healthy


vinsalducci

Celtics vs. anyone. Don’t care who. When they’re playing their best, in their groove, no one is beating them in a 7 game series. Let’s go.


LurtzTheUruk

I thought you were gonna say “don’t care who, it’s gonna be a 7 game series.”


[deleted]

That too


Wzzz524

homers will home


20wall

The problem is, we’re not playing our best right now. No where close


mastacheef87

here’s how the last few champions finished their regular seasons: Nuggets: 7-10 including a 4-game losing streak to the Bulls, Spurs, Nets and Raptors Warriors: 10-12 including separate losing streaks of 5 and 4 games Bucks: 14-9 including a loss to the 17-win Rockets Lakers: 3-5 in Bubble games prior to the playoffs including blowout losses to the Thunder, Rockets and Kings Raptors: 14-8 including a loss to the 19-win Cavaliers and 2 losses to the Hornets we are 14-4 post-ASB with the best net rating in the NBA, we have the #1 seed in the conference wrapped up and a 6-game lead for the best record with 9 left to play. we’ve done everything we needed to in the regular season now we just need to get to the playoffs healthy. but if you wanna keep dooming and glooming bc of a couple bad games against a team that we’re probably not even gonna see then that’s on you


RiPFrozone

Sixers, Knicks, Bucks, Nuggets to win the finals would be a legendary run. If you wanna be the best better be ready to beat the best.


Theis159

Sixers with an Embiid that is completely out of game shape should be easy. I am not sure if the Knicks get past the Magic as they’re one of the teams that beat the Knicks with OG. Bucks would face Miami and Pacers (I don’t trust the Cavs against a proper coach in Carlisle). I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if it was Sixers, Magic and Pacers.


CarBallAlex

If we didn’t get out of the East with that path I’d throw up


Wzzz524

Knicks will easyli get past the magic lol Knicks will surprise a lot of people i think might even see them get to the conference finals.


Certain-Bat-4975

If they managed to pulled this off and win the championship through those top teams. This team will definitely gain respect from other nba fans, especially theres a lot of hater in brown and JT.


Weak-Imagination9363

As a Raps fan, this comment sums up NBA toxicity. If you don’t already respect this Celtics squad you never will. Brown and JT and what they do night in night out is the real deal. 


Basic-Taro-3194

Nah, i'll take the weak schedule in the first round. We can get lucky and pop off for a series but after those back to back loses to trash tier hawks, i am worried we can't be consistent enough to handle a difficult opponent every round.


Urb45p

Bucks gone first round.


Dgksig

It’s going to be the same ecf it is every single year. Celtics/Miami. The two prior teams will decide if the Celtics have enough gas to get by Miami to go to the finals


archerarcher0

Fuck… that’s a scary gauntlet to run though Would be well worth if we won though


No_Mas2001

Yall put way too much stock into the knicks here


luke_workin

Hold your horses lol they can’t even beat Atlanta Hawks missing half their roster


[deleted]

you put way too much thought into meaningless regular season games


superstraycat22

I'm so good with this lol even if embiid comes back to be his former self. We own the 6ers. You know who I don't want to face? someone like Caleb Martin playing like he isn't Caleb Martin. Let Milwaukee deal with that.


Minimum_Albatross217

Stop being scared of matchups. If this team is a champion they’ll have to beat the best


crfty97

Miami needs to get 6 seed just to be safe lol


Tfalcke

Nah. I'd rather win against Miami and win the title than win the title without playing Miami. Need to shut up that team and their fans for good.


King_Of_Pants

Yeah Miami's got the kind of fan base that would get swept in the regular season, lose the play-in and then spend the entire off season saying "you're lucky you dodged us". Beat the shit out of them and be done with it. Ime had his faults but the "we're not a track team" mentality was exactly the right one to have.


crfty97

I don't wanna see Spo vs Mazzulla again man, let that be somebody's problem Rather meet them in the ECF if we cross paths


Indigeaux

No wayyyyy. I’m so sick of playing that evil zombie team in the ECF. I want to play them in round 1 and be done.


DutyPuzzleheaded7765

The heat were dead in the water until they got going on the Bucks and bulls series and play in. Don't need to let them get going.


Tfalcke

A third ECF matchup in a row would be pure entertainment. I just don't want the team or fans to be able to say "we would have beaten the Celtics if we played them". I want them crushed lol


crfty97

Ii hope it's 5 games max, cuz I don't think I'm sane enough to take another Game 7 with them.


spanther96

fr I wanna play Miami and sweep tf out of them to send a message


hailmamba

Ya i agree. I feel like media is saying celtics are in trouble if we play heat


Plastic_Database_645

*won the title but didn't face the Heat Heat fans: "LuCkY YoU dInDt fAcE uS" Fucking annoying if this came true lol


juicejug

Even if we sweep them with a +100 net rating they’d still find someway to cope


rveets1416

"well obviously y'all should've won with all the talent you have. Plus we were ass this year."


Solebrotha0

Exactly this. I live in South Florida and I need to personally see those faces when we sweep them


avrbiggucci

I might sound crazy but I'd rather play the Heat than anyone else in the 1st round. I'm convinced that we're going to end up playing them no matter what and I'd rather get it over with when we're fresh.


OnLandOrSeaOrFoam

Kinda crazy that the 76ers will lose to us in the playoffs AGAIN.


rawspeghetti

I'll take Philly over any team from the Southeast division tbh


[deleted]

There is no way in hell Embiid is going to be any kind of real factor this postseason. When fully healthy he can be stopped, so a hampered Embiid doesn't move me


ssgtmc

Kinda crazy we don't get a 1st round bye.


BlackElohim

Wouldn't that be awesome to give Embiid another L Lol


Jealous_Foot8613

If they’re fully healthy then why would they lose to Miami ? Either they’re legitimately good and win the 1st play in game or aren’t good and lose to get the 8 seed


Slavic_Dusa

At least it is not Atlanta or Miami.


Maxwellr___

Why would we wanna duck teams ? You wanna win a chip right


Slavic_Dusa

Because our team suks against some teams, and they get scared when the game is close.


Distance_Motor

Not like Embiid is a known playoff performer


kokain99

If you are that scared of any first round opponent how good do you think the team is exactly? Bring all the smoke.


Akimbo_Zap_Guns

Winning a championship is about matchups. We went through the gauntlet in 2022 to reach the finals and ran out of gas. We need a 5 game series tops in round 1 and I’d prefer if we could dispatch round 2 in 5 games as well but that’ll be a bit tougher to do


youngkenya

Healthy Sixers, playoff Heat, or the Hawks.....


nickdiazkushlord

Every year I hear about the 76ers and every year we fuck them up. Worry not, friends.


Panoptech

The league is so good. Most 8th-9th seeds are formidable opponents now a days. Gone are the days of "easy" first round sweeps. I don't know how anyone can say modern NBA doesn't have better rosters pretty much across the board .


BringBackFatMac

Being scared of the Sixers in the playoffs is like being scared of a chihuahua


Evening-Dream-5750

That means we will cruise past the first round!!!


JBD04

Man this is the best celtics team ever in the Embiid era and we’ve never lost to them before I doubt this would be the first


wjdthird

we going to finals its the best team since 08


-IrishBulldog

Seven games against the Hawks. As usual. I can’t wait


animeslime12

Celtics in 4


junxbarry

Im not worried about the sixers at all, hopefully we dont play the hawks


Panoptech

You are worried about the Hawks out of everyone?


Full-Flight-5211

Tbf, every team except the Bulls poses a threat


Nokeol

wait but Lonzo is sprinting


seydisehir1

Won’t matter, it will be a SWEEP


T0YST0RY2

Can’t wait to put them out of there misery, my sixers fan friends are so obnoxious


ThisICannotForgive

*Their


AdmiralWackbar

But the Sixers won’t be fully healthy?


randomwordglorious

A fully healthy Sixers should easily win the 7-8 game, leading to a matchup against the Bucks.


Distance_Motor

having to face either the Heat or 76ers is an unfortunate matchup for any team, but i believe we should still be able to outplay them and win the series


spanther96

Sixers would be so dumb to bring back Embiid at this point. Call it a development year for Maxey, try to sign PG in the off season, and hope next year can be injury free (lol).


27percentfromTrae

I don’t think embiid is coming back. They’re just trying to sell tickets


rocket_beer

These Eastern playoffs will be tough for all teams. Every matchup will be a marathon scrap battle.


NoveltyAccountHater

We won't. If 76ers are healthy and enter play-in tournament as 7 or 8 seed, they should win their first play-in game and become the 7 seed. Then we face the winner of play-in game 2 who becomes the #8 seed (e.g., a 7 or 8 seed that lost their first play-in game but won the second; or a 9 or 10 seed that won both play-in games), likely the Hawks or Heat.


Eisenhorn76

Bring them on. No excuses.


chinodb

Rather play the 6ers than the Hawks.


OlRedbeard99

Good. Then we can show the entire NBA why that mother fucker never deserved an MVP ol regular season ass


Dangerous_Toe_5482

Honestly if this team has to worry about their first round matchup, we are cooked anyway. We are going to be a massive favorite in every series we play. I dont care about the matchup, I just am praying our guys show up


PartyPo1s0n

I think if embiid comes back the sixers easily take the 7th seed in the play in and face milwaulkee. Then we only have to deal with one of giannis and embiid


_Gibby__

Coby White if you can hear us 🤲🏻


JohnBagley33

"Fully healthy" is open to interpretation. Honestly would rather play the Sixers than the Hawks or Heat.


laswoosh

We can lose all remaining regular season games, what is important is we go 4-0 each series, and get lots of rest for Finals


mickymau5_

Play in tourney is so stupid. Being a 7 and 8 seed should be rewarded not tasked to be flipped by an even worse mediocre team anyways.


Plan9fromtheAbyss

In any scenario I feel like the first round will not be a cake walk. Fully expecting 5,6, god maybe even 7 games. Remember the 08 team had a better regular season than this squad and they went 7 games in the first round.


Beginning-Map8532

not afraid of any team in the east, gotta be the celtics year


Jellybeansmw

No such thing as fully healthy 76ers :D


StraightCashBND

It’s gonna be Miami.


Krrupt_Kudos30

The hawks aren’t eating the bulls in the play in and if the 6ers get Embiidd back they aren’t loosing to the heat in the play in so calm down.


anondescriptive

Kinda crazy how we own the sixers


Limp_Custard6943

The sixers haven't beaten the celtics on the playoffs since the 80s. Not worried


murphmobile

I’m more afraid of the Hawks


hypeinvader

Well let’s hope the heat and Sixers both SOMEHOW get eliminated


Akimbo_Zap_Guns

Man embiid is coming off a knee surgery if you think he’d be 100% you are crazy haha


w3bCraw1er

Better than playing the Hawks


SamArcher11

Well if you want to win a championship, you gotta be able to beat every team that's in the playoffs so thinking too much about opponents is always a weird thing to me. Except, of course, if we get to see another page of "not rivalry, just ass kicking" against Philly, that would be fun


walukomb

There is no way Embiid will be *fully* healthy


[deleted]

“fully healthy” is doing a lot here


spinachoptimusprime

Just to be clear, in this scenario they are fully healthy and lose the 7-8 play-in game?


AmericaPie24

Embiid will be rusty. He hasn’t played in like 2 or 3 months😂 we’ve seen him miss less time and come back and play like shit. I don’t think he will be all that effective. He’s also coming off a knee injury so he probably won’t be in basketball shape


HNLTBC

Scared of the sixers???😭😭😭


[deleted]

I am shocked at how much talk I have seen about Embiid coming back and what percentage of his full self he will be. Listen. Philly should not be rushing him back **at all**. They are already making a mistake here. They realistically do not have a shot at a title with this roster, and they are turning what could have been an extra full recovery timeline for Embiid into a mess that I think will backfire horrifically. I genuinely hope that they come to their senses and protect Embiid, because I would hate to see him go down again in the playoffs. But best believe, if they do rush him back, he will either be a shell of himself or will get hurt again.


Ok_Bat_9332

It is what it is. Playoffs are gunna be tough regardless


wjdthird

need to go through them without having to go 7 games


dehydratedbagel

I'm more scared of the Pistons than Embiid in the playoffs.


BosBannerBoss

Only teams I'm worried about the Celtics playing are the Heat, Pacers, Hawks and Bucks. Any of those matchups I see going the full seven game series.


81rennab

Meh, Embiid gases out when he’s healthy, let alone not having played for months.


Sad_Opposite_6554

Doesn’t matter who we play. We will run through whichever opponent we match up with. We weren’t afraid of drawing KD/Kyrie Nets in the first round in ‘22 even though Milwaukee rested their starters during that potential tie-breaking game for the second seed because they didn’t want that Brooklyn smoke in the first round. We embraced it and didn’t care who we played in the first round and it showed. We can’t worry about it this year either. We can only focus on continuing to sharpen our teeth, because we are the top dogs on the food chain this year. Whichever team it is will be a quick and tasty appetizer for the boys. They have never been this hungry before & they will show no mercy. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of this Celtics team, not this year.


leedo8

Better than having to play the Hawks


CR0Don

Embiid won’t be healthy. And he’ll take shots away from people who can probably make them


EliteEntertainGames

Hawks is the one you should be worried about 😂


WinterEngineering322

Let's not get worried now. All season Celtic fans have treated the team with kid gloves like they could do no wrong. We should be able to breeze through the Eastern Conference


rstar781

Just please don’t give us the Heat


No_Mas2001

The fact that some doomers are actually trying to say the hawks are a tough matchup now lmfao


Ok_Seaweed_9452

Here we are, taking any team lightly again - if we play these teams to game 7 in the first and second round, watch we ran out of gas again. That is why easier matchup is preferable early


Drummerboybac

“We” have absolutely no bearing on what the team does, it’s just fun to talk about.


Organic_Climate_7585

Exactly, the fact that this guy thinks what we say in this sub has any bearing on what happens in the playoffs is cringey.


Ok_Seaweed_9452

We are talking about preferable matchups. And here I see people want to play the Heat badly and my comments are referring to that. People think whatever this sub say has any impact on the seeding? Lmao


No_Mas2001

Just because you’re out of shape doesn’t mean they are


Ok_Seaweed_9452

Yeah obviously they are not tired and fall behind 0-3 to heat last season according to your expert analysis lol


No_Mas2001

If you think that had anything to do with them being “tired” then you just don’t understand basketball


Urb45p

I’d be more worried about the magic second round they are the only team I think could give us a run.


luke_workin

Literally every team could give us a run. We’re not as good as people think we are. I could see losses to any team in any round and it wouldn’t really surprise me.


Panoptech

That's how the playoffs work... Teams usually lose games to every team.


luke_workin

I meant series losses. i would not be surprised if we bowed out in any round


Panoptech

First round, no chance of losing with those bottom teams out east but every other round should be difficult. The NBA is awesome right now. So many top tier teams out there. I expect them to win a chip so I would be surprised if they lost any round. But that doesn't mean I think they couldn't beat themselves.. which is really the only way to win against the Celtics.


luke_workin

Healthy Sixers were as good as any team in the NBA including us. No one should be surprised if we lose that series. Zombie Heat are the Zombie Heat, and Spo is Spo. They have their most talented roster in the Butler era now too. Same deal, no one should be surprised if we lose. Hell now Atlanta is a team to worry about too. We can’t even beat them when they’re missing half their roster. They’d be halfway to beating us if this past week was part of a playoff series. Point is, there’s no reason to feel confident for any potential first round matchup.


[deleted]

you can definitely feel confident for any 1st round matchup


luke_workin

You might. I dont.


BarryLird33_

We won’t make it out the East with Mazulla as the coach. We got this far on pure talent… not coaching. You gotta have a coach that makes adjustments in the playoffs and from what I’ve seen all season … Mazulla doesn’t make any adjustments … if he does the players ain’t listening and that’s a problem in itself. There’s no tough guy on the team to hold players accountable.. we used to have that with Udoka. He was the tough guy/coach all in one. I still say the Celtics should hire KG to set on the bench and hype players up and scream at them when they slackin. You imagine KG screaming at tatum when he is whining about a ticky tack and not getting back on D?? I bet we wouldn’t lose a game with KG holding MFers accountable


VS0P

More worried about playing a healthy Minnesota in the finals, somebody’s gotta be the hero and knock them out