It’s time to humblebrag.
Back in the preseason, our staff made some predictions about how many wins the Celtics would rack up by the end of the regular season. How close did they get to 61-21?
Nirav Barman (58-24): Coming into the season, there was good reason to believe Boston would continue their dominance from last season. The main guys all came back, and somehow the league and media found a way to give the Celtics a chip on their shoulder despite the chip they just brought home. Tatum didn’t win the Finals MVP, and Steve Kerr held him out from much of the Olympics, creating this narrative that he’s not one of the top players in the league, and isn’t responsible for much of our success. Jaylen was snubbed from Team USA altogether. Many fans also chose to ignore Boston’s full season of dominance, discounting their championship by saying that they only played bad, injured teams. There was plenty of motivation, coupled with the consistency and chemistry, a perfect recipe for success. The only reason I expected the Celtics to win less games than last season is because of the overall strain of playing so many basketball games within the last two years. I wanted to account for any potential injuries given said strain. It was also natural for them to pace themselves a bit more, because ultimately the banner is the end goal, not the top regular season record.
Jeff Clark (60-22): I struggled to come up with reasons to doubt this team and it seems like I was right not to doubt them. They had their bouts with boredom and generally played it cautious with injured or aging players and still ended up hitting the over (I repeat, don’t gamble kids). Pretty happy with my win prediction as well. Let’s do this again next year! (and the year after, and the year after, …).
Daniel Poarch (60-22): The benefit of the Celtics’ continuity from last season to this one was that it made their range of outcomes feel pretty small. Barring something crazy happening, this was always going to be a really good team, and ultimately, nothing crazy happened. It didn’t feel as if their injury luck was any worse than last season (expect, perhaps, for the timing of the ongoing Jaylen Brown knee issue). Nobody seemed to regress, except perhaps for some sluggish stretches from Jrue Holiday and a drop in efficiency for Al Horford. The Cavaliers arose as the Eastern Conference threat the Celtics didn’t have last season, otherwise the status quo mostly remained the same. Ultimately, this was a very good team and they played like one. Hard to complain too much!
Mike Dynon (61-21): As the only CelticsBlog contributor to accurately predict a 61-21 record, I’d like to thank my teammates and coaches for putting me in position to win. I couldn’t have done it without them.But seriously, consistency was the key. I had predicted 61 wins and a title the year before, and the Celtics surpassed that with 64 and the title. On the theory that if it’s not broken, don’t fix it, I stayed with 61. Nearly the entire team came back, so I reasoned that their motivation to repeat would overcome their injuries and fatigue. That’s pretty much what happened. Only the rough stretch they experienced at midseason prevented them from exceeding 61 again.The one difference between last season and this season was the emergence of the Cavs and Thunder as 60-plus win teams. As a result, the Celtics will not be the postseason favorite — and I expect the defending champs will take that personally. So don’t be surprised when this season ends with another parade. Remember, I’ve been right about these things before.