Re: eastern previews

[jmc@ptc.com]

"Ozersky, Joshua A" <OzerskyJA@corning.com> said:
>  The preseason hasn't been too promising, though.

I like all your other comments, Josh, but I beg to differ on this last one. 
I think the Celtics preseason was excellent preparation for the regular 
season.  You don't look at record, you just look at their overall 
competitiveness, and how they did in the last few games.

Here are the scores of Celtics games in the preseason:

Wed 13    Charlotte                              L 103-110        -7
Fri 15    Atlanta (@ Providence Civic Center)    W 104-79        +25
Tue 19    at Charlotte                           L 117-120   OT   -3
Wed 20    Utah (@ Gaylord Entertainment Center)  W 108-104   OT   +4
Sat 23    at Utah                                L 92-93          -1
Mon 25    at Atlanta                             L 99-105         -6
Wed 27    Washington                             W 97-92          +5
Thu 28    at Washington                          L 101-102        -1

                                                      Last year's
                                                       winning %
They outscored Utah       in 2 games by  3 points.      .740
They outscored Atlanta    in 2 games by 19 points.      .620
They outscored Washington in 2 games by  4 points.      .360

Charlotte outscored them  in 2 games by 10 points.      .520

Analysis:
The C's played 4 teams twice each.  Those 4 teams all had winning 
records 2 years ago, and 3 of them did last year. 

Overall they outscored their opponents by 16 points.  The only blowout 
was on the positive side.  Even if you only count the last week as 
being meaningful in any way, the C's were outscored by only 3 points.

They were 3-1 in "home" games and 0-4 in "road" games. 

They lost their 5 games by a total of 18 points, and just 15 points 
if you take out the overtime.  That averages to just 3 points down 
per loss.   No loss was more than 7 points.  2 losses were by 1 point 
and another in overtime. 

Considering that last year's preseason blowout wins against Toronto got 
the C's overconfident, I'll take a 3-5 preseason with lots of close, 
frustrating, motivating losses, and no blowout losses to shake their 
confidence.  

Jon Mc