{"id":1715,"date":"2007-10-28T12:25:44","date_gmt":"2007-10-28T17:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/boston-celtics\/"},"modified":"2007-10-28T14:16:25","modified_gmt":"2007-10-28T19:16:25","slug":"boston-celtics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/boston-celtics","title":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record<\/strong>
\n52-30 (Tom), 54-28 (Gil)<\/p>\n

Last Year’s Record<\/strong>
\n24-58<\/p>\n

Eric Grunfeld’s Commentary<\/strong>
\nWhile the summer acquisition of two all-stars in Garnett & Allen has Boston fans thinking Championship, I strongly disagree. The NBA is a league where it takes time to jell and work as a cohesive unit before posting W’s. Ray Allen is not getting any younger and won’t be playing the minutes he used to. The support staff consists of Rajon Rondo, Eddie House, James Posey, Scot Pollard and Brian Scalabrine. Oh, I forgot to mention the intimidating presence of the others: Kendrick Perkins, Esteban Batista and Tony Alllen. Unless Rondo and House have great seasons, the BIG 3 will really have to carry this team.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong: the Celtics will be strong this year in a very weak division, but will have trouble with the Cavs, the younger Bulls, and the Heat (if they can stay healthy, but that’s a big “if”). I’d be psyched too, if I was a Bostonian, but this will not be the year they go to the Finals.<\/p>\n

After years of Danny Ainge messing with this roster and organization, he pulled the trigger and the excitement for Boston basketball will be back. Barring no injuries this season, expect them to pull away with the Atlantic Division, win the first round of the playoffs, but start having some troubles in round two.<\/p>\n

Rejoinder From Tom<\/strong>
\nYeah, that sounds about right, although other than Detroit, who are so old I believe they still use James Edwards as the 9th man, and Chicago, where the atomic clock on “physical confrontation with Scott Skiles during a practice” is at 11:58 PM, I’m not sure any other team gets a cohesion through years of playing together advantage. The interesting player to watch will be Garnett, who I think is fully aware his legacy as a player is going to be set in stone over the next 20 months.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Comics Connection<\/strong>
\nAl Capp of Li’l Abner fame headquartered his Capp Enterprises in Boston.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Pharma Connection<\/strong>
\nWhen Novartis decided to build a major R&D campus, it bailed on its Swiss homeland and set up shop in Cambridge, MA.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/strong>
\nThey’ll fall short in the conference finals, unless they’re playing against Detroit. –GR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record 52-30 (Tom), 54-28 (Gil) Last Year’s Record 24-58 Eric Grunfeld’s Commentary While the summer acquisition of two all-stars in Garnett & Allen has Boston fans thinking Championship, I strongly disagree. The NBA is a league where it takes time to jell and work as a cohesive unit before posting W’s. Ray Allen is … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Boston Celtics”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1713,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"nba0708index.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1715","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P4C7K-rF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1726,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/minnesota-timberwolves","url_meta":{"origin":1715,"position":0},"title":"Minnesota Timberwolves","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 18-64 (Tom), 20-62 (Gil) Last Year's Record 32-50 Tom's Commentary Sebastian Telfair's odyssey as kind of a strange mini-me to Stephon Marbury takes him to the land of Garrison Keillor, Marbury's first pro stomping grounds. The Timberwolves are actually Al Jefferson's team, which is interesting in that Jefferson\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1718,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/philadelphia-76ers","url_meta":{"origin":1715,"position":1},"title":"Philadelphia 76ers","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 28-54 (Tom), 24-58 (GR) Last Year's Record 35-47 Morris Levin's Commentary There must be a way to write about these 2007-2008 76ers without mentioning Allen Iverson. After all, it has been more than 10 months since the team traded him to Denver and fans stopped coming to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1713,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview","url_meta":{"origin":1715,"position":2},"title":"NBA 2007-08 Preview","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time for the race (well, marathon) to see who will keep the Spurs from repeating THIS time! Which is to say, \"The new NBA season is upon us!\" Sure, the league's been pummeled lately, what with the referee-gambling scandal, the Knicks' ugly sexual harassment suit, and the uncompetitive finals.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1741,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/detroit-pistons","url_meta":{"origin":1715,"position":3},"title":"Detroit Pistons","author":"Gil","date":"October 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 46-36 (Tom), 54-28 (Gil) Last Year's Record 53-29 Gil's Commentary Raise your hand: who thought that Rasheed Wallace's attempt at beating Tim Donaghy's ass would turn out to be justified? Yeah, about as many of us who thought that he'd be the difference-maker for a chamionship team. Life's\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1755,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/tip-off-interview","url_meta":{"origin":1715,"position":4},"title":"Tip-Off Interview","author":"Gil","date":"October 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"To celebrate the Tipoff of the NBA season, I did an interview yesterday on the Adam Taxin Radio Show on WNWR 1540 AM in Philadelphia. You can download the audio (mp3, about about 3mb) or just read this transcript: Adam Taxin: The baseball season ended not much more than 24\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/tip-off-interview#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1181,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1715,"position":5},"title":"NBA Preview 2006-2007","author":"Gil","date":"November 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm the Juggernaut, bitch! ATLANTIC Boston Celtics by Tom Spurgeon New Jersey Nets by Gil Roth New York Knicks by Gil Roth Philadelphia 76ers by Adam Taxin Toronto Raptors by Sam Richezza CENTRAL Chicago Bulls by Tom Spurgeon Cleveland Cavaliers by Tom Spurgeon Detroit Pistons by Tom Spurgeon Indiana Pacers\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1715\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}