3 reasons why the Celtics missing the NBA Cup knockout rounds isn’t a big deal
Instead of flying to Vegas, the Celtics have some time to recharge.
The Celtics were eliminated from the NBA Cup after losing a tiebreaker to the Magic for the Eastern Conference wildcard spot on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, the NBA announced two regular-season games for the Celtics that previously weren’t on the schedule: a home tilt against the Pistons next Thursday (Dec. 12) and a road contest against the Wizards on Sunday (Dec. 15).
Those games will fill the time that was blocked off in case the Celtics made it to the knockout stage in Las Vegas.
“At the end of the day, the NBA Cup just gives you an opportunity to go after something, to try and win something,” Mazzulla said. “If you win it, you look into the process of what went into winning it. If you don’t, you look into the process of what went into losing it and you just use that as perspective for the rest of the season. So, that’s kind of how we’re looking at it.”
The Celtics did not make the later rounds because they committed 20 turnovers, let Dyson Daniels score a season-high 28 points (double his average)and lost to a Trae Young-less Hawks team. Atlanta won the head-to-head tiebreaker and emerged as the group winner because of that one game.
So, the Celtics aren’t going to Vegas. It is a little bit of a letdown that the Celtics aren’t in it, but it’s not the end of the world either. Here are three reasons why.
It’s a small sample size.
In the NBA Cup’s group stage, each team plays the other teams in it’s group once.
That means a four-game sample-size decides whether or not a team advances from the group.
Overall, the Celtics played well. They won three out of the four games and their only loss was by one point. Boston was a missed free-throw or two away from this being a different conversation.
The Celtics should not be let off the hook for losing to the Hawks, but ultimately they could have done a lot worse than winning 75 percent of their games in that span.
Boston gets a week to recharge.
Instead of traveling across the country for the single-elimination part of the tournament, the Celtics have just one home game on the schedule for next week.
There’s no required travel until next Sunday. It’s almost like having a second All-Star break. Those two weeks are the only ones left on the schedule with just one regular-season game.
The break comes at a good time, too. Saturday’s matchup against Memphis will be the Celtics’ fifth game in seven days.
The Celtics have their eyes on a bigger prize.
Trips to Las Vegas can be fun, and so is winning extra cash, but the Celtics have their eyes on a bigger prize — the Larry O’Brien trophy.
This group could become the first Celtic team to win back-to-back titles since the Bill Russell-era.
The Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parrish-led teams didn’t do it. The Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen-era teams didn’t do it either. This is Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s shot at it.
These Celtics are in good shape as far as positioning themselves for another deep run. They have the second-best record in the league at 18-4, and they’ve done it mostly without Kristaps Porzingis, who is now healthy.
It’s a long season, and there’s lots of basketball left to be played. Playing for the NBA Cup would have been nice, but the true measure of this Celtics team will be taken in April, May, and June.
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