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When teams start to streak, people start to talk. It’s just what’s always happened in the National Basketball Association.
Sometimes they chalk up several wins in a row, other times they can’t seem to find a win no matter how hard they try. But no matter what the streak is, it will always cause people to talk and this year is no exception.
Currently, there are 12 teams on a streak of three or more matches – that’s 40 percent of the entire league on some sort of streak.
However, streaks do mean different things to different teams. Say, for example, the Sacramento Kings lose three in a row and the Miami Heat lose three in a row at the same time. The talk and speculation is going to be on the Miami Heat and not on the Sacramento Kings.
Why? Because Miami are considered a playoff team, a team likely to challenge for the championship title and a team that shouldn’t be losing three in a row.
So in 2012, when the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics are both on a three-game skid, who is the concern and talk going to center on?
You guessed it, the Celtics because in the minds of nearly every one, they are a side that should still be there come playoff time.
And on the back of a three-game skid which has led them a 15-15 record for the season, the Celtics’ current streak has to be causing some concern for the faithful.
Perhaps the reason why the streak hurts so much is that it’s come in games that they feel they should have won.
A home game to the 9-22 Detroit Pistons should not result in a loss; neither should the return game in Detroit, yet that’s exactly what the Celtics managed to do.
Throw in a loss in the middle of those to the championship-hopeful Chicago Bulls, and Rajon Rondo’s triple-double seems a lifetime ago, especially when that 95-91 victory has been their only win in their last six matches.
And with away matches to the ever-improving Dallas Mavericks and league-leaders Oklahoma City Thunder, that streak may well sit at five, and the Celtics will have chalked up one win in two weeks of basketball.
Three games in a row might not be cause for concern, but five games?
March will be the key month for the Boston Celtics.
All-up, they face teams with a win-loss record of 222-238, but they have two weeks without a home match in the middle of all that.
The C’s aren’t in danger of missing the playoffs just yet, but if they can’t stop the streak and chalk a few wins together before the road trip from hell, then that cause for concern may well be justified.
Maybe momentum is mathematically supported; maybe it’s just psychological.
But whatever the case is, it can be the difference between a win and a loss, which can be the difference between a win and a loss the following night.
Which, in turn, can be the difference between the playoffs and the couch.
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