Ten can’t-miss stops on the Celtics’ upcoming revenge tour initially appeared on NBC Sports activities Boston
Profitable an NBA championship was speculated to silence the doubters, nevertheless it has as an alternative fueled them.
The Celtics could also be favored to repeat, however that does not imply they had been handled to a coronation. Fairly the opposite, July and August introduced incoming flak from nearly each path, a few of it extremely public (insert Olympic theme music), some closely implied (insert Knicks theme music).
With the opener lower than two weeks away, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Co. should not have any scarcity of motivation. Let’s run by means of the ten folks/opponents/locations that ought to carry just a bit further juice.
1. Steve Kerr
First matchup: Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston
This has solely a little bit to do with the new-look Warriors and every part to do with their coach. He resided on the heart of all controversies Celtics, first for his half in leaving Brown off the Workforce USA roster not as soon as however twice, after which for benching Tatum for causes that even he could not clarify, besides to say he is an fool.
Kerr’s Warriors ought to put together to reap the whirlwind. Whereas the Celtics stay firmly of their collective prime, the Warriors are a workforce in transition. The incomparable Steph Curry turns 37 in March and is coming into his sixteenth season. Klay Thompson is gone, Draymond Inexperienced is diminished, and the Dubs will in all probability be a play-in workforce at greatest.
Keep in mind final season’s 52-point beatdown in Boston? That was nothing.
2. Kendrick Perkins’ home
Perk lives in Texas, proper? When the Celtics go to Houston, Brown ought to detour the workforce bus and recreate his viral drive-by dunk of 2017, even when it means stealing the ball from one of many former Celtics massive man’s kids and shattering his backboard.
Excessive? I imply, have you ever heard Perk? Even these of us who make a residing manning the hot-take hibachi assume he is shedding it. Joe Mazzulla is a birdbrain? Nobody fears the Celtics? He is sick of Jayson Tatum?
Whereas it is simple to dismiss the heated rhetoric as Perkins giving ESPN what it needs, it is also true that he renders his opinions fairly convincingly. Perhaps he truly means each phrase.
3. New York Knicks
First matchup: Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET
New York appears to be the one workforce within the East clearly intent on countering what the Celtics do greatest.
Undersized celebrity Jalen Brunson is fearless and hard as nails, however he cannot beat Boston alone. So New York added Mikal Bridges, one of many extra achieved Tatum-stoppers within the league, after which traded ball-dominant energy ahead Julius Randle to the Wolves for a greater offensive slot in Karl Anthony-Cities.
Whether or not this is sufficient to take down the C’s is debatable — Mazzulla will certainly torture KAT on the perimeter — however that hasn’t stopped the punditocracy from declaring New York the largest risk within the East. The Celtics will get an opportunity to silence that discuss instantly, because the groups open the season in Boston on Oct. 22.
4. Anthony Edwards
First matchup: Nov. 24 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston
Edwards talks like he is Michael Jordan, and whereas his bravado is surprisingly endearing, it is also not but supported by workforce success. He solely gained his first playoff sequence this 12 months.
His most just lately revealed trash discuss, from a just-dropped Netflix documentary, is bound to mild a hearth underneath Tatum, if Edwards’ starring function on Workforce USA did not already.
After the Wolves beat the Celtics in time beyond regulation in Minnesota final 12 months, Edwards was captured on digital camera boasting how he had locked down Tatum defensively. He then mentioned what makes him totally different. “You’ve got simply bought have it or you do not,” Edwards mentioned. “And I’ve just about bought it.”
Oh, yeah? Maybe the Celtics may have one thing to say about that. As it’s, when the 2 met in Boston for the rematch, Tatum dropped 45.
5. Jimmy Butler
First matchup: Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston
The narrative that the Celtics did not beat anybody en path to a title began in Miami, the place Butler missed the first-round sequence after which declared that the end result — Boston in 5 — would’ve been totally different if he had performed. That remark earned a uncommon STFU from Warmth president Pat Riley.
Assuming Butler is wholesome, the Celtics ought to have little downside discovering the motivation to place their long-time tormentor in his place.
6. Mavericks
First matchup: Jan. 25 at 8:30 p.m. ET
It is unbelievable what number of “In case you might begin a workforce with one participant at the moment?” questions begin with Luka Doncic. Did anybody watch the Finals?
The Celtics abused Doncic on protection from the opening minutes of Sport 1 and by no means relented. Final I checked, there are two ends of the ground, and Tatum is the celebrity who brings it on each of them. So does Brown.
Dallas will likely be hyped for this one, as a result of shedding within the Finals hurts. Not with the ability to do something about it can simply irritate the wound.
7. Nuggets
First matchup: Jan. 7 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston
Of all of the asterisks hooked up to final 12 months’s title, “You did not have to undergo Denver,” is perhaps probably the most annoying.
It is not Boston’s fault the Nuggets could not shut out the Timberwolves after opening a 3-2 lead. And it is such a lazy counterfactual to declare Denver would’ve repeated when in reality the Nuggets had been a flawed two-man workforce by the postseason, and never even the good Nikola Jokić alongside operating mate Jamal Murray might raise them.
Past that, if we will criticize the Celtics’ path to a championship, we must always in all probability acknowledge Denver’s a 12 months earlier: three play-in groups, plus the perpetually underachieving Suns. Talking of which…
8. Devin Booker
First matchup: March 26 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston
New proprietor Matt Ishbia tried to purchase a title by jamming Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Booker collectively on a swiftly conceived tremendous workforce, and the end result was a first-round sweep by the hands of the Wolves.
Phoenix could very properly be dismantled sooner or later this season in an acknowledgment of failure, however let’s hope that does not occur earlier than the C’s get a crack at them.
This one is especially in regards to the Olympics, the place Booker and Durant performed starring roles whereas Tatum languished on the bench and Brown traveled the world. Booker is a pleasant particular person expertise and a gifted scorer, however his groups have regressed over the past 4 years, from a 2021 Finals berth to final 12 months’s early ouster.
There’s additionally the truth that Booker made an All-NBA workforce over Brown, who went on to develop into a two-time postseason MVP. Devin Booker over Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown? Please.
9. Clippers
First matchup: Nov. 25 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston
The Brown Olympics fiasco might’ve been averted if Workforce USA had simply performed the smart factor and given him the roster spot that initially went to Kawhi Leonard, a broken-down celebrity who predictably bowed out earlier than the Video games even started.
There have been an entire bunch of gamers on that roster Brown might fairly declare to surpass, however the one with the sport most much like his is perhaps Leonard, a three-level scorer on one finish and a lockdown defender on the opposite.
What higher solution to move the torch than merely to take it?
10. LeBron James
First matchup: Jan. 23 at 10 p.m. ET
Do it for our guys Drew and Scal! James didn’t care for his or her commentary defending Russell Westbrook through the Abu Dhabi sequence with Denver, and he voiced his displeasure on the positioning previously generally known as Twitter.
Scal took the warmth for that one, and now the C’s ought to have his again!
