Ten can't-miss stops on the Celtics' upcoming revenge tour

Ten can’t-miss stops on the Celtics’ upcoming revenge tour initially appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Profitable an NBA championship was speculated to silence the doubters, however it has as an alternative fueled them.

The Celtics could also be favored to repeat, however that does not imply they had been handled to a coronation. Fairly the opposite, July and August introduced incoming flak from nearly each path, a few of it extremely public (insert Olympic theme music), some closely implied (insert Knicks theme music).

With the opener lower than two weeks away, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Co. should have no shortage of motivation. Let’s run by means of the ten individuals/opponents/locations that ought to carry just a bit further juice.

1. Steve Kerr

First matchup: Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston

This has solely slightly to do with the new-look Warriors and the whole lot to do with their coach. He resided on the middle of all controversies Celtics, first for his half in leaving Brown off the Team USA roster not as soon as however twice, after which for benching Tatum for reasons that even he couldn’t explain, besides to say he is an fool.

Kerr’s Warriors ought to put together to reap the whirlwind. Whereas the Celtics stay firmly of their collective prime, the Warriors are a group in transition. The incomparable Steph Curry turns 37 in March and is coming into his sixteenth season. Klay Thompson is gone, Draymond Inexperienced is diminished, and the Dubs will most likely be a play-in group at finest.

Keep in mind last season’s 52-point beatdown in Boston? That was nothing.

2. Kendrick Perkins’ home

Perk lives in Texas, proper? When the Celtics go to Houston, Brown ought to detour the group bus and recreate his viral drive-by dunk of 2017, even when it means stealing the ball from one of many former Celtics massive man’s kids and shattering his backboard.

Excessive? I imply, have you ever heard Perk? Even these of us who make a dwelling manning the hot-take hibachi suppose he is dropping it. Joe Mazzulla is a birdbrain? No one fears the Celtics? He is sick of Jayson Tatum?

Whereas it is easy to dismiss the heated rhetoric as Perkins giving ESPN what it needs, it is also true that he renders his opinions fairly convincingly. Perhaps he really means each phrase.

3. New York Knicks

First matchup: Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET

New York appears to be the one group within the East clearly intent on countering what the Celtics do finest.

Undersized celebrity Jalen Brunson is fearless and difficult as nails, however he cannot beat Boston alone. So New York added Mikal Bridges, one of many extra completed Tatum-stoppers within the league, after which traded ball-dominant energy ahead Julius Randle to the Wolves for a greater offensive slot in Karl Anthony-Cities.

Whether this is enough to take down the C’s is debatable — Mazzulla will certainly torture KAT on the perimeter — however that hasn’t stopped the punditocracy from declaring New York the most important menace within the East. The Celtics will get an opportunity to silence that speak instantly, because the groups open the season in Boston on Oct. 22.

4. Anthony Edwards

First matchup: Nov. 24 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston

Edwards talks like he is Michael Jordan, and whereas his bravado is unusually endearing, it is also not but supported by group success. He solely gained his first playoff collection this yr.

His most just lately revealed trash speak, from a just-dropped Netflix documentary, is certain to gentle a hearth beneath Tatum, if Edwards’ starring function on Workforce USA did not already.

After the Wolves beat the Celtics in additional time in Minnesota final yr, Edwards was captured on digicam boasting how he had locked down Tatum defensively. He then mentioned what makes him totally different. “You’ve got simply received have it or you do not,” Edwards stated. “And I’ve just about received it.”

Oh, yeah? Maybe the Celtics can have one thing to say about that. As it’s, when the 2 met in Boston for the rematch, Tatum dropped 45.

5. Jimmy Butler

First matchup: Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston

The narrative that the Celtics did not beat anybody en path to a title began in Miami, the place Butler missed the first-round collection after which declared that the consequence — Boston in 5 — would’ve been totally different if he had performed. That remark earned a rare STFU from Heat president Pat Riley.

Assuming Butler is wholesome, the Celtics ought to have little drawback discovering the motivation to place their long-time tormentor in his place.

6. Mavericks

First matchup: Jan. 25 at 8:30 p.m. ET

It is unbelievable what number of “For those who might begin a group with one participant as we speak?” questions begin with Luka Doncic. Did anybody watch the Finals?

The Celtics abused Doncic on protection from the opening minutes of Recreation 1 and by no means relented. Final I checked, there are two ends of the ground, and Tatum is the celebrity who brings it on each of them. So does Brown.

Dallas will likely be hyped for this one, as a result of dropping within the Finals hurts. Not having the ability to do something about it’s going to simply irritate the wound.

7. Nuggets

First matchup: Jan. 7 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston

Of all of the asterisks hooked up to final yr’s title, “You did not have to undergo Denver,” is likely to be probably the most annoying.

It is not Boston’s fault the Nuggets could not shut out the Timberwolves after opening a 3-2 lead. And it is such a lazy counterfactual to declare Denver would’ve repeated when in truth the Nuggets had been a flawed two-man group by the postseason, and never even the nice Nikola Jokić alongside operating mate Jamal Murray might raise them.

Past that, if we will criticize the Celtics’ path to a championship, we must always most likely acknowledge Denver’s a yr earlier: three play-in groups, plus the perpetually underachieving Suns. Talking of which…

8. Devin Booker

First matchup: March 26 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston

New proprietor Matt Ishbia tried to purchase a title by jamming Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Booker collectively on a unexpectedly conceived tremendous group, and the consequence was a first-round sweep by the hands of the Wolves.

Phoenix might very nicely be dismantled in some unspecified time in the future this season in an acknowledgment of failure, however let’s hope that does not occur earlier than the C’s get a crack at them.

This one is principally in regards to the Olympics, the place Booker and Durant performed starring roles whereas Tatum languished on the bench and Brown traveled the world. Booker is a pleasant particular person expertise and a gifted scorer, however his groups have regressed during the last 4 years, from a 2021 Finals berth to final yr’s early ouster.

There’s additionally the truth that Booker made an All-NBA group over Brown, who went on to change into a two-time postseason MVP. Devin Booker over Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown? Please.

9. Clippers

First matchup: Nov. 25 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports activities Boston

The Brown Olympics fiasco might’ve been prevented if Workforce USA had simply achieved the smart factor and given him the roster spot that initially went to Kawhi Leonard, a broken-down celebrity who predictably bowed out earlier than the Video games even started.

There have been an entire bunch of gamers on that roster Brown might moderately declare to surpass, however the one with the sport most much like his is likely to be Leonard, a three-level scorer on one finish and a lockdown defender on the opposite.

What higher solution to move the torch than merely to take it?

10. LeBron James

First matchup: Jan. 23 at 10 p.m. ET

Do it for our guys Drew and Scal! James didn’t care for his or her commentary defending Russell Westbrook in the course of the Abu Dhabi collection with Denver, and he voiced his displeasure on the location previously referred to as Twitter.

Scal took the heat for that one, and now the C’s ought to have his again!