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41 games in you can call it halftime, but the halfway point of the season is coming a little early this year. Last nights 118-86 victory over the Nets was their 41st of the season making Boston the first team reaching the halfway point of the season, the Bucks joined the Celtics later that night with a loss to the Heat. Can this frontloaded schedule be the reason for the recent lackluster play? The Celtics played 107 games last year the most by any team in league history, so, reaching the midway point of the season nearly a week before most teams might have had an effect on their recent woes.

The good news is the next 41 games are spread out over the next 3 months with only 3 remainging back-to-backs. Febuary will be the tough part of the schedule with 9 out of 12 being against the West. Febuary also incluedes a 6 game westernt road trip but there is nice break in the middle making it manageable. The all-star break is also a great opportunity to get the batteries recharged for the rest of the second half and playoffs.

With all that being said what can we expect from this team in the second half and through the playoffs. Was the recent swoon just fatigue or something more ominous My inklink is that this recent adversity will make us stronger much like last years Hawk/Cavs series were a learning experience for the championship rounds.

I kept saying it early in the season, when everyone was saying how we were 'the worst 8-1' team and what not in regards to how we were barely winning games, that that was excusable since we were jamming so many games in the early part of the schedule.

I'd say that's been a legit excuse as to why we did have that slump. My complaint wasn't the bench, it was that the starters weren't pulling it out in the 4th quarter and I've got to say they just looked flat out tired. It's understandable when you consider how we've played such a tight schedule and that 3/5 starters are over 30. You just can't do it every night at that age. Here's to hoping that playing so hard in the first half of the season means our guys will be more rested and ready for the playoffs.

Zin5 wrote:I kept saying it early in the season, when everyone was saying how we were 'the worst 8-1' team and what not in regards to how we were barely winning games, that that was excusable since we were jamming so many games in the early part of the schedule.

I'd say that's been a legit excuse as to why we did have that slump. My complaint wasn't the bench, it was that the starters weren't pulling it out in the 4th quarter and I've got to say they just looked flat out tired. It's understandable when you consider how we've played such a tight schedule and that 3/5 starters are over 30. You just can't do it every night at that age. Here's to hoping that playing so hard in the first half of the season means our guys will be more rested and ready for the playoffs.

That is a good point because i can remember the Celtics having leads in the 4th quarter against LA (4 points), G-State (12 points), Charlotte (7 points), and Houston (7 points). Now those leads aren't huge but most of expect when the starters have any lead that it is a safe one.

I had noticed this, most notable difference I saw was that Cleveland has played 5 less games.

I agree that a big part of the problem the C's had, was they were just tired, and being on a west coast Xmas road trip just made it so much worse.

Although I watched the Xmas game, I wish they wouldn't schedule a game the 24'th through 26'th. Putting a team on the opposite coast instead of their spending time with their family isn't something I'd wish on any team.