re:The rest of the season

[j.hironaka@unesco.org]

I hope the Celtics can somehow win tonight at home against playoff-bound
Philly but, as hard as I've tried to be optimistic, I can't see the team
winning 20 games overall. That's four more wins over the remaining nine
games without Mercer, Anderson and Walker. Basically, Paul Pierce and
Vitaly will need to turn into Havlicek and Cowens circa 1976. In any
case, I hope they play really well and with confidence.

The only possible victories IMHO will be on the road against Da Bulls on
Friday, the Wiz at home on Sunday, and the Hornets at home in the last
game of the season. The Celtics are currently #7 from the bottom but
tied in wins with the #8 Wiz. I think they will still need to win more
games to finish ahead of Dallas, Denver, New Jersey and Chicago. That's
some pretty lame company I know.

We are literally the underdog in each of our remaining 9 games, unless
Ron and Toine can somehow make it back. You could put Bowen, Minor,
Shintzius, McCarty, Jones and Garnett on a CBA team and they probably
still wouldn't win.

I wish the month of March could be stricken from the records. Not that
it signifies anything, but we actually have a .542 winning percentage in
months not starting with the letter "M".

Sorry for such a depressing post. It's not like I'd ever give up on our
team, but sadly I don't believe we will be able to measure our success
over the final two weeks in terms of wins. Here are some of my hopes.
I'd love to see Battie and Potapenko really establish themselves so that
we can all start talking about our "Fab Five" (all 24-or-under next
season) and not just our "Big Three" (Toine, Ron and Paul). I'd love to
see Paul Pierce win another Rookie of the Month. I'd also love to see
tons of great hustle and defense.


Go Celts!!

Joe

p.s. Can someone clarify how the lottery works this year?  I think one
of you mentioned that only the three worst teams will be put in a
lottery (the rest of the non-playoff teams will pick according to where
they finished). Is this true?