Things Are Going Quite Nicely For The Boston Celtics If You Ask Me

At some point, things will change. The Celtics will endure a stretch of tough losses, where their young guys will show their age. They’ve played just 10% of the season so naturally there are going to be peaks and valleys as we move forward. I fully understand that. However, right now, on November 2nd, through 8 games, the Boston Celtics are playing the best basketball in the NBA. Now winners of 6 straight, they look better and better every time they take the court. Granted playing teams like SAC make almost any NBA team look great, but with the big games on the horizon the Celtics of old probably overlook this game and we’re having an entirely different discussion today. Fortunately, they won by a billion and had a second consecutive GINO sighting at the Garden.

Win #6 was a lot of fun, so let’s talk about it

The Good

– I’m sure there were some that got a little nervous when Jaylen went into his little two game shooting slump. Well, take a deep breath because he’s back, and he’s better than ever. A total of 22 points on 7-8 shooting (5-6 from deep) and 6 rebounds in 24 minutes, Jaylen was on another goddamn planet offensively last night

What I loved about his night was how aggressive he was from the jump. He attacked the basket through contact early and that did worlds for his confidence once he stepped back behind the line. I’m not kidding when I say Jaylen has officially learned how to shoot. On the season he’s up to 16/6 with 46/41% splits. He’s making 2/0 threes a night. There were questions about how he would perform filling in for Avery in that SG spot, and I would argue he’s been just as good offensively so far. This team needed Jaylen to take this sort of offensive step, and he’s responding.

– Not far behind, was Kyrie Irving. I think it’s fair to say he’s starting to feel comfortable. He set a franchise record for points scored through 8 games passing KG which surprised me. Remember his slow start offensively? Well, here are his shooting splits over the last 4 games: 55/50%, 43/25%, 62/43%, and 47/44%

Pretty good. Last night was more of the same, a nice 22/5 with 4(!!) steals in 27 minutes

You can tell watching him play he’s having fun. What’s impressed me is even though he wants to “be the guy” he’s playing within the offense. We aren’t seeing him come here and take 30 shots a night. Instead, he’s playing unselfish basketball, making sure his teammates are taken care of and then when it’s time to cook, he untucks his jersey and the rest is history.

Perhaps the biggest fuck you to CLE and Lebron has to be his revival on defense. I don’t care what you thought of this trade, nobody on the planet could predict Kyrie was going to defend at this level. It’s insane. I don’t even care that his offense is slightly down from last year because the defense has been so overwhelming. Leading the NBA in steals is not something I saw coming, but I’m glad to have. If he keeps this up, I’ll support him on his world is flat bullshit, that’s how much stock I put in great defense.

– Did I expect the Celtics to be a Top 5 team in DREB% and Top 2 in Total REB%? Absofuckinglutely not. This was a term that was deathly allergic to rebounding the basketball, and now suddenly they are among the best in the NBA. What? How? I don’t know and I don’t want to question it. The Celtics won the rebounding battle last night 52-26. 52-26!! When was the last time they had that sort of advantage? Probably the Bill Russell Era.

They’re having such success because it’s been a collective effort. Of the starters, four of the five players had at least 4 rebounds, and three of them had at least 5. Then the bench comes in and boom Daniel Theis gives you 10. Rebounding is all about effort, and this year’s team is filled with guys who are all about maximum effort. We’re seeing what a difference that makes.

– Speaking of Theis, he had a pretty interesting night

The first double-double of his career was nice, he’s a legit monster on the glass, but the best part of his night was that halftime interview. Theis has NO IDEA what the hell Abby Chin was talking about. Tommy Award? We expect him to have any idea what that is? The look on his face was priceless. What a find by Danny Ainge.

– Is it too much of a stretch to say that the Celtics second unit would probably be something like a 7 seed in the East? The bench mob was great last night, they were the main reason this game started to get ridiculous with a nice 11-0 run in that second quarter. As a group the bench poured in 46 points and Marcus only had 2 of them! That’s #depth like you read about. Between Terry and his 12 and Semi and his 11, this team was rollllllling

– Your Boston Celtics are giving up 93.8 points a game. Fewest in the NBA. When this team defends, and then rebounds, I’m not sure how they lose. Look at how they moved last night!

Again I know it’s SAC, but remember this is a team full of kids, defending at an extremely high level. Credit Brad Stevens, credit the players, credit Walter, I don’t care who you give credit to, just appreciate good defense when you see it.

– Remember how in the last blog I talked about how I wanted to see the ball movement improve? That the 57% assist% was a little low? Well, how about 30 assists on 40 baskets. That’s what I’m fucking talking about.

– Yup, Jayson Tatum still rules

The Bad

– They got it under control by the end of the night, but TOs were a problem early. Having 5 in the opening quarter helped keep the score close, and that’s a dangerous game to play moving forward. Can’t play like that against better competition. I don’t know why but it seems like Al is turning the ball over more than usual. Gotta figure that out.

– Horford has been playing fantastic defense this season, there’s not really a debate there. However, he had all kinds of problems with ZBo last night. Much like any other human on the planet, I’m not sure Al wanted to get into a physical matchup with Randolph, and shit I don’t blame him.

– Poor Vince Carter. I respect the fact that he keeps getting those checks, but woof.

– I’ve now accepted that this is going to happen with every game for the rest of the season, but any time I see someone go up for an alley oop I get nervous, and any time I see a player come up hobbled I have a full blown panic attack. Which is why when Jaylen tweaked something and came up a little wobbly, my mind went to terrible places. I’m sure he’s fine and it’s no big deal, but at the time I couldn’t help but freak out. This was not enjoyable.

– How about we give Yabu a little more than 7 minutes in a blowout Brad? All he did was put in 4/3 and make all the hustle plays your heart could ever want. It should be a rule, if at any point the Celtics are up by more than 20 in the second half, Yabu must play the majority of the minutes. I look forward to Brad’s adjustment in this area

– Abdel Nader, on one hand you shot 50% from the field and took 6 shots in 13 minutes. On the other hand you had 3 turnovers and almost never passed the ball.

The Ugly

– Celts are getting this section off until they lose. I think that comfort of knowing they avoid the scrutiny of this section is clearly translating to on the court success. You may say that’s crazy, but then again they haven’t lost so you can’t prove me wrong either.

Now things get a little more interesting with a pretty big road trip. Games against OKC/ORL/ATL will be a nice measuring stick trip for this group, and then they come home for LAL/CHA/TOR which will be no walk in the park either. It’s one thing to beat up on the NY/PHI/SAC of the NBA, it’s another thing to pull out wins against the teams they’re about to face. Perform well during that stretch, and we can quiet down the “it’s early” talk and focus more on “they’re looking like they are for real” talk. In the meantime, you know the drill, say it with me

6 down 48 to go.

As always, YouTube highlights are from the god @Timi_093