Cheer up, folks

[jmc@ptc.com]

Hey, everyone on this list, stop hanging your heads and feeling sorry for 
yourselves as Celtics fans... you have reason to be optimistic. 

The Celtics will start the new year with a new, modern parquet floor 
January 3rd, and for the first time this season they'll play a home game 
with all their major players healthy.

It's a fresh start and a psychological clean slate that will wipe their 
miserable finish to the 1900's out of their minds.  I anticipate a big 
win for the Celtics in their first home game of the year 2000.


I think recently people on this list have been jumping to conclusions a 
bit too quickly in response to the recent losing.  

Didn't you expect there would be times like this during the season? 

When the Celtics lose key players to injury, they're not good enough 
yet to compensate.  We all knew that.  We all should also know that 
it takes a few games before injured players and new players start 
helping the team more than they hurt it.  

When Paul Pierce (then Potapenko) went down right at the time the Celtics
played the best teams in the NBA, we should have braced ourselves for a 
losing streak.  What we got very competitive losses, including a near win
against LA, and near wins on the road against good teams, which hurts
to watch, but it's not a sign of gloom and doom.  If the C's were
getting their butts kicked by 20 to 30 points a night, that would be a
bad sign.

The real bad sign would be if the Celtics start losing at home with
a fully healthy team, or start getting blown out on the road.  Until then,
remember that Rome was not built in a day.

This team has shown us that they can beat the top teams fairly frequently
on their home court.  The potential is definitely there.  They need to
improve their consistency at home, and have more confidence on the road.
It's mostly attitude that they're missing.

Jon Mc