How chaotic the east is, just look at the rankings of these two days.
The day before yesterday the east first is the Heat, the day before yesterday the east first is Philadelphia, yesterday the east first is the Celtics, and today the Celtics have become the fourth in the east.
At present, the top four in the East are only one win apart, and the top three records are all 28 losses, so the rankings in the East in recent days are basically the same every day.
In other words, the northwest of Jin was all chaotic into a pot of porridge.
But if you focus only on the Celts, they can complete a rather spectacular counterattack story in just two months.
Pulling back the clock to Jan. 17 of this year, after the day's game, the Boston Celtics finished just 11th in the East with a record of 22 wins and 22 losses.
At that time, the team's record was average, the chemistry of the players was also very bad, and the main problem was that the defense was always penetrated. They were as many as 6.5 wins away from the Chicago Bulls, the number one in the East, and they didn't even have a chance in the playoffs.
But more than two months later, the Celtics rushed to the top of the table with a throttle kick, and after the last game to win the Timberwolves, the Celtics climbed to the top spot in the East, during which they achieved a record of 25 wins and 6 losses.
Not counting today's loss to the Raptors, the Celtics have all beaten each other in the last six games and are at least 20 points ahead of their opponents in each game.
In these six games, Tatum and Jaylen Brown scored 25 points per game, becoming the third team in history to play a similar combination of statistics, which was previously only done by Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, as well as O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, respectively.
If you expand the time to January, they have already won 12 times against their opponents by more than 20 points, also ranking first in the league.
In two months, the Celtics on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends is a big improvement in a month, in February the Celtics won 9 wins and 2 losses, defensive efficiency league first, but the offensive efficiency only ranked 10th in the league; in March, the Celtics maintained defensive efficiency at the same time, the offensive efficiency also improved, 11 wins and 1 loss in 12 games, offensive efficiency 124.5 ranked first in the league, even 2.7 higher than the second place Hornets.
So when the Heat, Philadelphia and other teams hesitated and did not know whether to take the top two in the East, the Celtics rushed directly to the first place in the East.
But this year's Eastern First seems toxic.
When the bull row was first in the East, the players were injured again and again, and now they may have to play the play-offs.
In the First Place of the Nets East, Durant injured Harden and left the team, and then the team experienced a wave of 11 consecutive losses.
The heat ranked first in the East a few days ago, haslem and Butler online battle, the team directly broke out infighting.
This season's Eastern Conference first, really a bit of metaphysics in it.
Sure enough, the crisis crept in when the Celtics won the Timberwolves' game to pick up the Eastern Conference first. In that game, Lowe suddenly sprained his knee during the game and then withdrew early.
Late last night Shams released news that Celtics player Robert Williams suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee, which could lead to his indefinite absence.
ESPN then confirmed that Lowe did suffer a meniscus tear in his left knee and that he could be absent for weeks, and that today he will be subject to further evaluation to get the relevant timeline.
You know, just a few days before the injury, Lowe mentioned that the playoffs are coming and can't be injured. He missed out on a game with the Thunder because of a sore knee, and then said in an interview: "It's really a minor injury, but obviously, as you approach the playoffs, you definitely have to pay more attention to recovering from minor injuries." ”
As a result, this statement became a proverb, causing the meniscus to tear.
The meniscus tearing injury can be big or small, as big as Wiseman's kind of reimbursement for a whole season, and if it is small, you can also refer to Embiid last season, using a truce to recuperate while recuperating, and finally successfully catch the playoffs.
So when Ukadu was interviewed today, the answer was also ambiguous.
He said Lowe would evaluate some surgical options in the coming days and ultimately decide which one to use, but also said Lowe was optimistic about returning at some point this season.
So what impact did Lowe have on the Green Army? Put it this way, he's the defensive core of the Celtics.
Entering 2022, the Celtics have conceded only 104.3 points per 100 rounds, 4.5 points less than the league's second-most defensive Lone Ranger in the same period.
Ukadu's tuning of the team's defense favors unlimited changes of defense. They tend to put Lowe in the big forwards, Horford in the center and Tatum back in the small forwards. This lineup looks like a combination of two towers, but Lowe is 2.03 meters tall and Horford is 2.06 meters tall, and you can completely think of them as a forward team.
Under this defensive system, Lowe is mainly responsible for guarding the frame and assisting in the work of defending the sweep. Although he is only 2.03 meters tall, he has an arm span of 2 meters 29 meters and is very fast at bouncing.
Playing the Nets in the first game of the playoffs last year, Lowe only played 22 minutes to deliver 9 blocks, which was impressive.
Blocks are Lowe's housekeeping skills, and this season Lowe has been able to deliver the league's second-highest 2.2 blocks after averaging 30 minutes per game.
With a total of 169 players at least 500 times this season as the most recent defender interfering with opponent shots, Lowe is the only player to reduce the opponent's shooting rate to less than 40%, and he only let the opponent score 0.90 points per game.
And Lowe is not all a player in the air, and the stout Lowe is also very good at confrontation. Lowe and PJ-Washington this season are the only players in the league to have played at least 800 times against opposing strikers/centers/defenders in defense.
From the comprehensive data, the two-point shooting rate of The players against Rowe dropped from 53.9% to 45.5%, and the three-point shooting rate dropped from 37.7% to 31.7%.
Of course, Lowe is also a player with a strong defender and a weak attack, and he has almost no offensive means outside the three-second zone, so Lowe basically relies on the inside to eat cake to score.
But his pie success rate is also very high, shooting 73.6%, ranking first among players who have made more than 350 shots. Before his injury, Lowe played 61 games, averaging 10 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2.2 blocks per game.
In the Celtics under the infinite change of defense system, Lowe is the eye of this lineup, and his injury has also caused the Celtics a headache. But fortunately, a trade they made earlier this season, which brought short center Tais back into the squad, was a good draw.
Judging by today's performance, the Celtics did not collapse because of Lowe's absence. Even against the Raptors, the Celtics, in addition to the lack of Lowe and Horford, also took tatum and Jaylen Brown in turn.
With the four main players injured, the Celtics and Raptors played overtime before losing the game. It was also the first time in Raptors history that they had beaten the Celtics in overtime in the regular season, and their previous record was 0-5.
Don't think that the Raptors are soft persimmons, this season they are called strong team killers, facing the current top four in the East, the record is very amazing, playing bucks 3 wins 0 losses, play Philadelphia 2 wins 1 loss, play green army 2 wins 2 losses, play Heat 2 wins 1 loss, the total record 9 wins 4 losses.
In this game, the Celtics prevented the Raptors from shooting only 43.4% and shooting only 25.6% from three-point range, which is a continuation of the team's recent state.
The meniscus is torn and Lowe is likely to miss the regular season, but if he can catch the playoffs in the middle of next month, it should be a big help to the Celtics in the playoffs.
After today's match, Smart said: "We have to survive the storm in front of us until the moment we see the rainbow." ”
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