At the beginning of every month I update my desk calendar at work with the Celtics schedule for the next four weeks. Obviously their schedule is available at dozens of places at a click, but this tradition allows me to think about how the schedule is going to affect the team. Let's look at what the C's face this month:
Tuesday, Nov. 2 @ DET
Wednesday, Nov. 3 vs. MIL
Friday, Nov. 5 vs. CHI
Sunday, Nov. 7 @ OKC
Monday, Nov. 8 @ DAL
Thursday, Nov. 11 @ MIA
Saturday, Nov. 13 @ MEM
Wednesday, Nov. 17 vs. WAS
Friday, Nov. 19 vs. OKC
Sunday, Nov. 21 @ TOR
Monday, Nov. 22 @ ATL
Wednesday, Nov. 24 vs. NJ
Friday, Nov. 26 vs. TOR
Tuesday, Nov. 30 @ CLE
The beginning of that stretch is rough -- five games in seven days, including four matchups against playoff teams from last year. We get two days off after that, and then stroll into South Beach for a TNT game? Ouch.
Things get better near the end of the month. Assuming everybody's healthy, we could easily reel off a few wins in that New Jersey/Toronto dominated portion of the schedule.
My focus is on the beginning though. We already know that our bigs are hurt, and we might see Semih Erden starting. With so many guys questionable up front, this stretch could be taxing on KG, which I hate to see. We all heard about KG's renewed energy and "100% healthy" knee in the preseason, but heavy minutes in consecutive nights (especially against hard-nosed teams like Milwaukee and Chicago, and high-energy teams like Oklahoma City) definitely pose a threat.
This should be a good test of Boston's depth -- to see if it's really all it's cracked up to be.
