With Their Fourth Win In A Row, The Boston Celtics Are The Hottest Team In The East

With each game the Celtics play, it’s becoming harder and harder for me to tell myself to take a deep breath, that it hasn’t even been 10 games yet. Now sitting at 4-2, just 0.5 games out of the top seed in the East, riding a 4 game win streak things have rebounded nicely since opening night. With 92% of the season still left to be played things can obviously change, but I’m choosing to embrace the now, and righty now it’s great to be a Celtic. This team is starting to show signs of chemistry and they are more locked in on the defensive end than we have seen in YEARS. In fact, the Celts current 97.3 Defensive Rating is the lowest since 1975-76! While a small sample, we are seeing better defense from this group than even what the title team in 2008 gave us. Will it last? Who knows, but you think I give a shit! Enjoy the ride!

In all seriousness, I was happy that the Celtics didn’t overlook this game with SA on deck and lay an egg. That would have been very Celtics of them, but instead held on for their 3rd win on the road this season. There were a ton of great performances to talk about, so let’s get started.

The Good

– I’m doing it. I’m starting with Jayson Tatum. In 31 minutes, Tatum gave us 20 points on 6-9 shooting (2-2 from deep) and 5 rebounds. It looked like this

Is he 19, is he 25, is he 40? We don’t know, but what we do know is he’s been LIGHTS OUT to start his NBA career

I think we all expected performances like this from Tatum eventually, but I can’t say even I thought he would be this comfortable on BOTH ends this quickly. You know who did know though, Danny motherfucking Ainge. This is why even when he makes moves that break my heart, you have to trust him. Last night was now the second time in three games that Tatum had at least 20 points while shooting at least 60% from the flood AND behind the arc. I know there were concerns about this 3pt range during preseason and to start the year, but he’s now 7 for his last 11 3PA. Take that Ben Simmons.

– This may seem odd to have him this high, but HOW ABOUT ARON BAYNES BABY! I can’t help it, I love him and I love everything he brings to this team. The Celtics have been searching for a player like Baynes for years and now that they finally have one, you can see right away what an impact it makes. First, his rebounding is so legit I want to scream about it from the top of Wachussett Mountain. I cannot stress how much of a relief it is to not have to worry about defensive rebounding whenever an opponent takes a shot. Second, he is one of the best bigs I’ve seen come through this team in a while who can challenge a shot without fouling. His verticality is real, and it is specactular

Look at that! Did you see Amir or Tyler Zeller do that last year? I don’t think so. There’s a reason he had the lowest Drtg of any player last night (70.7) and that’s because he is a gigantic brick wall who can also knock down a midrange jumper and FTs. People want to talk about Ainge winning Executive Of The Year for the Tatum and Kyrie trades, well how about finding this Australian enforcer? I’m at the point now where even when Morris does come back, I want to keep Baynes in the starting lineup.

It also can’t be overlooked what having strong center play does for Al Horford. Allowing him to play his natural position is beneficial for everyone.

– But, to be consistent, we need to celebrate Kyrie Irving as well. The way he closed this game, and now his performance in back to back games, looks a lot more like the Kyrie we were promised. He was fantastic when the game got close and it was time to put your nuts on the table. This is a type of performance we in Boston have grown accustomed to, so it was nice to see Kyrie be able to pick up right where Isaiah left off

A big part of why Kyrie was able to be so effective down the stretch of this game was he excelled off high stagger screens. The way he was able to come off these screens and have guys on his hip as he entered the paint was crucial. Bam Adebayo had less than zero chance of staying with him in space, and once you let Kyrie start to get a little untucked, it’s a wrap. We saw a lot of these same type of sets in the beautiful basketball chemistry Isaiah/Horford had, and this was a glimpse of what’s brewing between Kyrie and Al.

But when you look closer, as nice as the offense was, it’s hard to not be impressed with the effort defensively we are getting from Kyrie. That was always the knock on him IMO, it wasn’t a talent or a size issue, it was an effort issue. To be honest that scared me, but his defense in this game was more than adequate.

– Speaking of defense, much like good ball movement and good offense, it’s contagious. The Celtics are giving up 95 points a night right now, they are defending at a very high level, and when that happens, this is what it looks like

They had 11 steals, caused 19 TOs, and held the Heat to 22% shooting from behind the arc (7-31). With good reason many of us were skeptical about how they would respond to losing guys like Avery and Jae, and to be honest the answer is they haven’t missed them. Guys like Terry, Marcus, Jaylen, Kyrie, Horford, have all been playing defense at a level we haven’t seen them play as Celtics. I know it’s only 6 games in, but how does that not excite you? If this team seriously addressed their rebounding and defense, and the only thing we have to worry about is their offense coming around, how is that not a GREAT spot to be in?

– Last night was one of those nights where Al Horford haters will say “Look he only had 12/9 against MIA and Whiteside didn’t even play! He’s not worth the money!” Well if we didn’t know already, those people are morons. Yes, Al Horford didn’t fill up the stat sheet, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have his moments!

– This was also the best game of Marcus Smart’s season, and I think that was the case because he got back to doing what makes him successful. He created for others. When Smart plays the right way, almost every part of his game responds. All the sudden he shoots better (50% last night), he’s active on the glass, and he’s looking for his teammates.

When he plays as Marcus The Creator, not only does he make everyone around him better, but I also trust him more. I need more performances like this, and less ones where he does nothing but stand around and jack up ill advised threes at the end of shot clocks. I’ll take 16/4/4/2 any day of the week.

– I love Brad Stevens for many reasons, and one of them was his out of bounds zone to end the third quarter. Not only an ATO offensive master, but Brad is also showing to be an ATO defense genius as well. God what can’t this guy do.

– Walter has not lost since he got his first win. Just sayin.

The Bad

– Jaylen is in a mental funk no two ways about it. He’s currently 3 for his last 17 which isn’t great considering he needs to be our secondary scorer, and I know it’s mental because he’s also continuing to miss FTs. I haven’t loved how he’s gotten his shots to start games, mostly because when you’re struggling like this, normally you would want to get stuff around the basket just to see the ball go in the hoop. Well, here was his shot chart

not enough around the rim for my liking. I’d like to see them run more high screens for him in an attempt to get him into the paint with space, because right now a lot of his possessions are just one on one attempts that clearly aren’t working. Every young player will have a stretch like that, I promise you even Tatum is going to have them, but it’s a little surprising that Brad and his teammates aren’t doing more to get him in successful spots. There’s no other way to say it, for the Celtics to be consistently successful, they need Jaylen to snap out of this funk.

– Kyrie did a lot of good in this game, but this 5000000 dribble possession was not one of them. If it’s not there, gotta move the ball

– Does anybody have any idea what Smart was doing with that 2for1 attempt? At least I think that’s what it was? Why can’t our guards succesfulyl run 2for1s? Are they really that hard to figure out?

– I can tell when Jaylen is pressing because he doesn’t make the correct basketball play. So focused on breaking his scoring drought he missed a wide open Kyrie on the break on this play. You learn at an early age to keep your head up on the break, and I didn’t like this decision one bit

The Ugly

– What is it with this team and inbounding the basketball. Why is it so hard?

– This was called out of bounds

Color me shocked there was iffy officiating during a Celtics game in which they are playing in MIA. That almost never happens.

The Celtics now enter a week in which they’ll face SA, OKC, and red hot ORL. If you ask me, this is a good measuring stick week, and it will be important to see how they handle potential trap games of SAC/ATL. This team is nowhere near where we need them to be come April, but through 6 games, after an 0-2 start, things are starting to look a lot more like what we expected. Long way to go, but in the meantime say it with me

4 down, 50 to go.

YouTube highlights are obviously from the highlight god @Timi_093