Boston Celtics regular season recap

Sporting News

This team grew up right in front of our eyes.

When the Boston Celtics got off to a 2-5 start that ended up being 18-21, many of us were just waiting for the wheels to fall off. Marcus Smart called out Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for being iso-ball twins; Tatum and Brown missed time due to injury; Payton Pritchard, fresh off his electrifying summer, struggled to start the season. The parts of this team were not working well together, not to mention the various injuries that kept Coach Iwe Udoka from building the chemistry and defensive presence he wanted to instill in this year’s team

Following an embarrassing overtime loss to the New York Knicks, this team was reeling in the wrong direction. The one thing you never saw was panic from the rookie head coach. Udoka, a disciple of Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, kept his calm publicly and his mind on the task at hand. Boston had played a league-high 58 games by the All-Star break with a high number of back-to-backs among them. This would not allow much practice time and along with the injuries, you never knew what eight players would suit up from one game to the next.

But with ten games left before the break, as Jayln Brown said, “something is about to shift.” It did exactly that. 

This team got healthy, the trade deadline came, and Brad Stevens got busy reshaping this roster. Josh Richardson, Enes Freedom, Romeo Langford, and Dennis Schroder were shipped out; Derrick White (San Antonio Spurs) and Daniel Theis (Houston Rockets) were brought in. Smart was the head of the snake on defense and was becoming the point guard this team needed. Tatum and Brown become better playmakers. Pritchard found his stroke. Robert Williams was quickly rewarding the front office for his new contract by becoming a double-double machine as well as a defensive anchor and got close to leading the league in field goal percentage at 71 percent.

Things were starting to gell as the Celtics won nine straight to close out the schedule prior to the All-Star break (a loss to the Detroit Pistons kept it from a 10-game streak). As the health of this team got better, so did the defense! A part of the 33-10 run to end the season was a six-game stretch against the Western Conference in which Boston beat the Golden State Warriors (110-88), Sacramento Kings (126-97), Denver Nuggets (124-104), Oklahoma City Thunder (132-123), and Utah Jazz (125-97).

That was followed by a beatdown of the Minnesota Timberwolves (134-112) that pushed the team’s record to 46-28 (28-7 over that 35 game stretch from the 18-21 start). Blowing out teams by halftime was becoming a regular occurrence because of the fact that their defense was holding teams under 100 points and the offense getting more efficient and potent. This team reached the top of the Eastern Conference for a couple of days, a long climb from 11th in the standings at the low point of the season. Many of us did not see this happening and yours truly was included among those!

Now comes the time of the season where the rubber meets the road as the playoffs begin on Sunday at TD Garden against the Brooklyn Nets. The Celtics went 3-1 against them during the regular season, including a playoff-type atmosphere, 126-120 win at home in which Tatum dropped 54 points.

I expect more of that type of energy on Sunday as this team is eager to prove that what they did in the regular season was not a fluke. Defense wins championships, and this team is playing championship-level defense right now. We do not know when Robert Williams will return to the lineup but he is progressing very well from his injury. The team is focusing and playing for each other in a way that championship teams do on the road to a title. Let’s get it!

Magic number: 16 wins

Up first: Game one of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals vs the Nets. Game time is Sunday at 3:30 pm on ABC.