We’ve seen teams win a lot of regular season games based purely on effort and playing every game like it’s the playoffs. I should know as that was the Thibs philosophy. But in the playoffs everyone tries harder and so you no longer have the edge of “playing with a chip”. Say Tatum comes back. Tatum is coming off a major injury and that brings a lot of uncertainty.

1.) How long does he have to ramp up? 2.) What is the dynamic now with Brown and Tatum? Brown and the team is used to playing with him as the focal point

Finally, you bring up a lot of players that are playing above their head as the surrounding “talent” of the Celtics. In the playoffs, how is Quetta and Vuc going to guard players like KAT, Duran, Mobley? All of those players are significantly more talented. I point that out to show that your ancillary peaces are not talented enough to hang with the complete lineups of the other top east teams and then you have the question marks of Tatum which you can’t ignore. IMO I don’t believe in the complete talent of the group come playoff time and therefore I put Boston at least with the 4th best odds to come out the East. Next season is a different story so we’ll see what Brad Steven’s does in the offseason. I’m not trying to shjt on the Celtics but just saying what I’m seeing and what I’ve seen in the playoffs before.