Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are turning the Celtics into contenders

On a night when Jaylen Brown erupted for a career-high 34 points and Jayson Tatum added 30 points, Brad Stevens exhibited an attitude of business as usual when discussing the standout performances of his two young stars.

“I don’t think we saw anything today that we haven’t seen out of those guys in the last couple of weeks, last couple months,” he declared. “They’ve been playing well. They’re obviously playing confidently and feel good. They did a good job of creating their own at times and also getting created for. I still think we’re missing some plays on offense as a team and our defense wasn’t very good, but those two guys obviously have been scoring it at a good rate.”

The Celtics were never seriously threatened by the Cavs for the final three quarters in the midst of a routine 129-117 victory, their fourth straight blowout win. The hosts built up a double-digit lead in the first half with a 22-4 run and led by double digits for the final 36 minutes of the game. Cleveland may be one of the worst teams in the NBA but wins like this have become incredibly normal for this group over the past few weeks.

Boston is in the midst of a five-game winning streak right now during which the average margin of victory has been 16.4 points per game. Stevens was right in declaring the team could be better on Friday afternoon but that did not take away from the fact that the C’s still won this game with ease against a Cavs team that played well (for them). Nightly standout performances from guys like Tatum and Brown are now becoming normal and that’s separating this team from a crowded pack in the East below the Bucks right now.

Take for instance, Tatum and Brown’s overall numbers over the past five games:

Tatum: 26.0 ppg on 47.7 percent shooting (25+ points in three of those contests)
Brown: 26.4 ppg on 60.1 percent shooting (25+ points in four of those contests)

Throw in a couple of All-Star caliber players in Gordon Hayward and Kemba Walker alongside that duo and it’s just a nightmare matchup for any team across the league right now. Just ask Cavs head coach John Beilein.

“Every time I watch Boston, I’m very envious of what they have out there,” Beilein said. “They just have four guys out there that are explosive and can score at any time. Watching Jaylen Brown hit those five threes is just like something nobody would have dreamed of a couple years ago. They’re really hard to guard and hard to score on, as you can see at the end. We got a little bit of a rhythm in the second half and scored some points, but just a tough team for anyone to beat, let alone us right now.”

The numbers back up Beilein’s high praise for the 22-7 Celtics. Even though they remain anywhere between tied and 2.5 games ahead of four other teams jammed into the 3-6 spots in the East (Miami, Philadelphia, Toronto, Indiana). Their point differential is beginning to signal that the Celtics are on a tier that’s closer to the Bucks than the rest of the pack.

The Celtics pushed themselves into second in the NBA in point differential (+8.3 per game) with Friday’s win, a long way away from the Bucks (+12.7) but a healthy margin ahead of the remainder of the East.



While no one will be picking Boston ahead of the likes of the LA Clippers (+7.0) or LA Lakers (+7.0) anytime soon in a seven-game series, this team is playing at a tremendous pace given how many injuries they have dealt with for key pieces.

For some perspective on just how noteworthy the Celtics’ margin of victory has been, a few comparisons for this team over the last few years when it comes to point differential:

2018-19 Celtics (49-33): +4.3
2017-18 Celtics (55-27): +3.6
2016-17 Celtics :(53-29): +2.6

Some of the best teams in the league over the past few years:

2018-19 Bucks: +8.8
2018-19 Warriors: +6.5
2018-19 Raptors: +6.0

2017-18 Rockets: +8.5
2017-18 Warriors: +6.0

The Celtics still clearly have a very long way to go to sustain this number over 82 games but putting up these kinds of numbers for nearly 30 games signals a contender is brewing here, especially when you consider the strength of schedule for Boston (15th) has been tougher than nearly every other top-tier playoff team in the East.

The numbers get even better for Boston when you look closer at each end of the floor. Currently, the Celtics are the only team in the league besides the Bucks with a top-5 ranking in both offensive and defensive rating. The defense (fifth) has been stellar despite a host of mixing and matching on the frontline that has produced above-average production as a whole at the center position.

“We’re doing an amazing job – not just me, but Theis, Robert Williams, Grant Williams, Vinnie, even Tacko is doing an amazing job protecting the rim,” Enes Kanter said after the win. “We are a top 5 defense in the NBA right now, so shout-outs to everyone out there.”

While there are weaknesses in personnel across certain parts of the roster, identifying subpar elements of Boston’s overall game right now is tough to find. Among the four factors (FG percentage, rebounding, turnover rate, free throw rate), the C's are only slightly subpar (16th in NBA) in one category (defensive free throw rate). They are shooting, rebounding and defending well on most nights and if one of those areas struggles, they are doing enough elsewhere to make up for it as we saw on Friday.

All of this has been done with one key member of the team’s best five players off the floor for the majority (22 of 29 games. Now, Smart appears ready to re-join the squad after an eight-game absence due to an eye infection, putting Boston’s rotation at full strength for the first time since early November.

“Marcus brings a dimension to this team that not a lot of teams have in this league,” Brown explained. “Marcus, the way he comes out and changes the game, his energy, his ball pressure, stuff like that, helps tremendously. It helps us win games, helps us make teams uncomfortable. So when he comes back it just takes us to another level, especially when we got everybody clicking on all cylinders.”

With Brown and Tatum performing at an All-Star level, combined with everyone else playing to their capabilities, it’s time to start raising expectations for this team, even if Stevens isn’t willing to do it yet publicly. He hasn’t been able to have all his pieces together yet for long but there’s enough talent here to know that this group stands among the NBA’s elite.

“I’m not worried about us reintegrating guys, not worried about how we play in small spurts,” Stevens said. “I’m worried about how we prepare and approach each game and then, ultimately, what our best version of ourselves looks like — and clearly Marcus Smart’s a part of that. We’re going to throw him in there if he’s able to play tomorrow and let him play. He’ll be on some sort of minutes restriction if he is. If not, when we go to Charlotte and he can play, we’ll do it then. But our chance of being a really good team, we need all of those guys playing at a good level.”

The good news for Stevens? The Celtics are already really good as a team even without Smart. The ceiling could rise even more as the buy-in and cohesion across the roster improve in the coming weeks.

“We've got a lot of good players on the floor,” Brown said. “We have to continue to have the right balance. Make the right plays, the right reads, and continue to get better. We still have our best days in front of us, so as a team we have to continue to strive, less about the opponent and more about us. We have to get better. We're looking to be a team playing deep into the postseason this year so every game counts, every game is a chance to get better, every game is an opportunity and we've got to make sure that we seize it.”

Some tinkering needs to be done by Danny Ainge to strengthen the bench and turn this group into a bonafide contender for certain matchups. However, there is enough of a sample size this year to anticipate this group making some noise in the East deep into May, and — with good health — perhaps beyond.