An In Depth Look at the Celtics' 2011-12 Schedule

Marc D'Amico
Team Reporter and Analyst

By Marc D'Amico
Celtics.com
July 20, 2011

BOSTON – Can a team’s final games of the regular season be indicative of the path it traveled throughout that season? In the case of the 2011-12 Celtics, it most certainly can.

The schedule makers didn’t ease up on Boston while scripting the final games of the Celtics' season, as they will close out their schedule with a difficult back-to-back set against two teams that are determined to make a run at the NBA championship, the Knicks and Magic. The path to getting to those final two games isn’t exactly painless, either.

Boston’s schedule will begin on Nov. 2 in the TD Garden against the Cleveland Cavaliers. That date for the Celtics’ Opening Night is a full week later than it was last season, when Boston opened up at home against the Miami Heat on Oct. 26.

There are several other differences, and many similarities, to last season’s schedule that will be outlined in the following. Some of them are nice, and some of them not so much. This is your guide to everything you need to know about the 82-game trek that lies in front of the Celtics.

Back-to-Backs

The Celtics possess an aging core, and it’s certainly no secret that that aging core struggled mightily in back-to-backs last season. The 2010-11 season gave the Celtics 18 back-to-backs, and Boston finished with an underwhelming record of 8-10 in the second night of those sets.

Those struggles would lead any Celtics follower to immediately scan this season’s schedule to determine the back-to-backs at hand. The news that those people will find is that things didn’t get any easier this time around. In fact, they became more difficult.

This season’s schedule includes 19 back-to-backs, with 15 of them concluding on the road. None of the back-to-backs include two home games, but seven of them consist of two road games. In addition to those difficulties, 11 of the 19 tail-end games are against teams that were in the playoffs last season.

Start of Season

The first two months of Boston’s schedule are loaded with away games, as the C’s will play 16 of their 28 games in November and December on the road. And while we’re fresh off the topic of back-to-backs, we’ll point out that Boston will slice seven of its 19 back-to-backs off of the schedule in those first two months.

While all of that sounds incredibly daunting, there is definitely good news. Only 12 of those 28 games during the first two months are against teams that made the playoffs last season. That fact, combined with the Celtics’ trend of red-hot starts to the season, should put them in prime position heading into the new year.

Coach’s Sets

Doc Rivers acknowledges back-to-backs, but he points to the three-games-in-four-nights (3-in-4), four-games-in-five-nights (4-in-5), and five-games-in-seven-nights (5-in-7) sets as those that he worries about most. For that reason, we’ll call those three groupings of games our "Coach’s Sets."

The schedule is relatively unforgiving in this aspect for the Celtics. Boston will go through a 3-in-4 stretch 14 times this season, including six occasions that overlap (meaning that specific games are a part of more than one 3-in-4 stretch). From March 11-17, the Celtics will experience their only 5-in-7 stretch. And remember that difficult end of the season we touched on earlier? Boston’s final four games of the season, from April 14-18, will conclude with the only 4-in-5 stretch of its season.

Practice Time

The C’s may have received a break this season in terms of practice time. First of all, they’ve been blessed with the ability to essentially extend training camp into the regular season. In the first 14 days of their regular season, the C’s will play only six games. There are two three-day breaks that will allow Rivers to put his team on the practice floor quite a bit at the start of the season.

The Celtics will be in Boston from Dec. 11-20, while playing only three games – all at home – which should give the C’s ample practice time heading into the holiday season.

Those practice sessions will be important, because there won’t be many more until the end of the season. January and March each have a season-high 16 games scheduled. Luckily, Boston will have a full week between games over the All-Star break before it opens up a four-game homestand after the break. That should allow for some recharging of the batteries.

The schedule does open up toward the end of March and throughout April, where the team will have six different instances of back-to-back non-game days. Those days off should help to integrate any new players the Celtics may add at the trade deadline.

Holiday Games

Six notable holiday games are on tap for this season, and they are as follows:

  • Veteran’s Day – 7:30 p.m., Nov. 11 vs. L.A. Clippers
  • Christmas Day – 12 p.m., Dec. 25 at New York
  • Martin Luther King, Jr., Day – 8 p.m., Jan. 16 vs. Oklahoma City
  • St. Patrick’s Day – 7 p.m., March 17 at Denver
  • Easter Sunday – 6 p.m., April 8 vs. Philadelphia
  • Patriot’s Day – 8 p.m., April 18 vs. Orlando

Road Trips and Homestands

Another aspect of the schedule that is more difficult than last season is road trips - they're longer. This season’s longest road trip will last five games, as opposed to last season’s longest road trip of four games. The road trip will begin on March 11 in Los Angeles against the Lakers and concludes on March 17 in Denver.

Interestingly enough, Boston will take three road trips this season that match last season’s longest trip of four games. The trip mentioned above is one of them, and the other two will run from Dec. 3-9 and Feb. 16-22.

On the flip side, the C’s will match last season’s longest homestand with a six-gamer that will begin on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day (Jan. 16) against Oklahoma City and wrap up on Jan. 27 against Indiana. From Jan. 4 through Feb. 5, Boston will play 14 of its 18 games in the TD Garden.

Tough Stretches and Key Games

Twenty-four of Boston’s 82 games will be broadcast nationally on either ABC, ESPN or TNT. Here are some of those games:

  • 8 p.m., Nov. 16 at Miami (ESPN)
  • 8 p.m., Nov. 17 at Orlando (TNT)
  • 8 p.m., Dec. 1 vs. Miami (TNT)
  • 8 p.m., Dec. 22 vs. New York (TNT) and 12 p.m. Dec. 25 at New York (ESPN) – A rare home-and-home set with New York, which concludes on Christmas Day in Madison Square Garden.
  • 8 p.m., Jan. 11 vs. Dallas (ESPN)
  • 8 p.m. Feb. 9 vs. Lakers (TNT)
  • 3:30 p.m., Feb. 12 vs. Chicago (ABC)
  • 8 p.m. April 17 vs. New York (TNT)

The three toughest areas of the schedule all appear late in the season for Boston.

First, the C’s begin a difficult eight-game stretch on Feb. 9 at home against the Lakers. Boston will play five games during that stretch against teams considered to be title contenders, and one more against another playoff team, the 76ers.

Just more than two weeks after that stretch comes to a close, Boston will begin its longest road trip of the season on March 11 in Los Angeles against the Lakers. That five-game trip ends on St. Patrick’s Day in Denver.

Finally, to wrap up a demanding season, the Celtics will play nine challenging games in April. The brutal month opens up with consecutive games against Miami (home), San Antonio (home), Chicago (away) and Philadelphia (home). Three non-playoff teams follow that stretch before Boston closes out its season with back-to-back games against the Knicks in New York and the Magic at home.

That’s the path that the Celtics must navigate this season, one that ends in a fury. We’ll soon find out how well their talent can position them for what will hopefully be a lengthy playoff run.