Quote Originally Posted by new city champ View Post
Road loss on a back to back against a surging and talented Celtics squad (albeit, shorthanded) while were missing Payton, Moore and Mirotic isn't horrible. It's the losses to teams like Miami and the Knicks that kill you. Every team throws in a few clunkers against bad teams. But you can't have too many of them. So far the Pels inconsistency is cause for concern, not panic, though in a tight Western Conference race even a handful of bad losses could come back to cost you.

Like many of you I was hoping the Pels would get out to a fast start this year and claim their spot as one of the top four teams in the West. Early returns were promising, but more than 1/3rd of the way through the season they are bumping along at .500 and on the fringe of playoff contention. That's legitimately disappointing given where we finished last year. But truthfully we are playing this year a lot like we were playing last year at this time: Win one; lose one. Great one night. Terrible the next. It's deja vu all over again! Of course last year the team went on a fantastic run to finish the season which extended into the playoffs. Maybe history can repeat itself, but it would be nice if it didn't come down to that again.
Everyone is also failing to realize that while Boston was shorthanded, they also pretty much trotted out the same team that went to the ECF last year.