I didn't get to watch any of the game but I think defense will be their Achilles. Aside from Garnett, everyone else is just average or pretty bad.
Here's my wacky and somewhat accurate-inaccurate equations - 1) Minnesota has missed the playoffs 3 consecutive seasons in row with KG being the lone star on the team, he has only missed 12 games in the last two seasons, and played 3 straight 82 game seasons with 3 straight 81 game season...pretty durable...but is a year older, and since he is on a better team. Ray Allen missed the playoffs 2 consecutive seasons 2) Weaker conference.....KG and Ray Allen were getting their a$$es kicked in west...seriously dealing with Shaq and Kobe, then Duncan and Co. run gun teams like Mavs and Suns, and pretty second class heavyweights like the Kings and Rockets. It was good chance Seattle or Minnesota wasn going to win the West. But now they've got a little bit of hope....the Leastern confernce where the best team only won 53 games and the team that won their division only won 47 games, which would give about a 5th and 8th place respectively in West. Playing against the likes of the Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks, Charlotte Bobcats, and 76ers....I mean these are solid young teams, but most don't have clue about winning.... 3) The 3 Superstar system....usually works (at least early on)...Ray Allen, Pierce, and Garnett are very Superstar caliber players, since all have lead their teams to consecutive playoff appearance at some point in their careers and even gotten deep into playoffs and been perennial All-Stars. They are the best three headed monster in the league, since Shaq, Kobe, Rice and Olajuwon, Barkley, and Drexler - Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman. No other team in the league has three bonafide HOF (still in their prime), like the Celtics do. 4) All are year older.... How many games will the Celtics win? I predict 58 wins on top of 24 losses.... where do I get 58 from....well, I averaged the number of wins from Minnesota's , Boston's, and Seattle's best season in four years, since I figure their big guns resposnible for alot of them....52, 58, and 45...averages out to 52....two of the stars played out in the West against the NBA's toughest competition, so I gave them an whopping 6 games.....playing the Knicks, Hawks, Magic, and Bobcats 4x year can do that for a team. I also factored in that the Nets and Heat probably won't be healthy the whole year. But still how are Celts gonna win 58 games...easy now they have the talent....and weaker competition. TO start, Garnett will only miss about 5 to 7 games, not really big cause for concern, because he has never really had in serious injuries in his career and has carried mediocre franchise for most of the time. Next Pierce and Allen for some reason will have more of sense of urgency to make it to every game, their team won't be out of the contention in the middle of January and in fact they will be far ahead of most teams in 2008. Before last season Pierce played 79 and 82 games, he is a warrior, I give him at least 78 to 82 games this year playing for a juggernaut. Allen might missed the most of the three he is older and has missed time, 55 last year....but 78 and 78, not bad. He has more incentive to play hurt, injured, and dead now...his team could win a championship. But, he the 55 games and older age...I give 69 games this year...still pretty good....their in the East anyway. The Celtics will have the best record in conference and tied for 3rd best in the league. Big question...how will the stats look? I considered that all will probably not shoot the ball as much....more superstars, less load needed, and more difficulty for defenses. Judging how many points they've averaged over the last few (4) seasons....all three together can account for nearly 60 shots, it's possible. Since, msot of the other players on the team are not really scorers or shooter or ball-hogs or ball-needers...so it's good. So who lead in scoring....hard to say...but based on shots I think Pierce will probably lead in scoring, because he will probably take the most shots, since he sorta needs the ball to score, while Ray Allen will follow and Garnett will stay under the basket for rebounds and post work. FG% of all three and the rest of team will shoot up and up, because doubling will be somewhat risky and sorta stupid...you got Pierce on one side and Allen and Garnett and all three pretty good passers. I mean there will be nights that it works, but it will be very rare. Statistics 07-08 Pierce: 24.1 | 6.0 | 4.3 | 47% pct | 19 FGA Allen: 20.2 |4.2 | 4.0 | 49% pct| 15-16 FGA Garnett: 18.5| 12.3| 5.0| 52% pct| 11-13 FGA after that whocares...it'll probably be Rondo, House, Perkins, Pollard, and etc. Most teams get roughly about 70 to 90 shots a game...it's enough to keep everybody (or least AG-P) happy. Final Outcome: Unknown???? I think they will be an almost dominate team until they encounter a team, like the Heat, Bulls, or the Pistons. Best Chance to beat them: The Bulls and Pistons, because of their defense. I don't think much has changed between the two teams, so I will give the Pistons a very slight edge. I think this will be a banner year for Celts at least in the Eastern Conference.
plutoblue: That's a good rundown. I disagree on a couple of points. I think you're reaching a bit when you say that the Lakers with Shaq, Kobe and Rice were a three-superstar threat. Rice, at that point, was way downhill in his career. If you're going to compare Rice at that point to a superstar, you might as well say that Steve Francis is a superstar NOW, and that we have a 3-superstar team. Or that Miami two years ago had three Superstars (or four) in Shaq, Wade, Payton, and/or Walker. (I should note, at this point, that I think that we WILL have 3 all-star level talents this year, Yao, TMac, and either SF3, Bonzi or James). I think calling Pierce and Allen HOF players is also a reach. Dream, Clyde and Barkley, yes. Jordan, Pippen and Rodman, also HOF players, although with less of a pedigree. The current Celtics threesome...doubtful. The Celtics definitely have the best shot at coming out of the East. They are going to tear that conference up as long as KG and at least one of Pierce or Allen stays healthy. That's how weak that conference is.
I actually think their offence was very confusing. There was a lot of 1 on 1 going on and at one time raptors had every player scoring on Celtic's horrendous defence. It didn't look good IMHO to be honest but like others have said, it's just preseason.
The big 3 will always make any game interesting, but when the Raptors had their starters playing, or main reserves against the C's main reserves, they really had no trouble with the Celtics. One look at the minute distribution (34 minutes for their big 3, with no more than 24 minutes for any Raptors), as well as many more minutes for the Raptors 3rd stringers, and it's a small taste of what's to come for Boston. Basically - all 3 have to log major minutes and against decent teams, at least 2 have to be on the court at any given time. If one goes down with injury, then they're really no better than Minny or Boston was last year. I think they'll improve a great deal, but will be maybe 43 - 37 at the end of the season.
