Much to the chagrin of the Boston Celtics faithful, the team has opened up the 2016-17 season similarly to how they began the 2015-16 campaign. The first 25 games of the season have been a microcosm of the phrase “close, but no cigar,” as the Celtics have continued to toil in the same realm of “near-contention” in the Eastern Conference as they have found themselves in over the course of the past few seasons.
You can point fingers at the recent absence of leading scorer Isaiah Thomas due to a nagging groin injury or Al Horford‘s inability to live up to his hefty salary to Boston’s inability to close out games over the past few weeks.