Robb: Celtics have the look of a true contender after West Coast trip

Marcus Smart was asked by a reporter in the aftermath of the Celtics’ win over the Jazz Wednesday night what exactly he took away from a 3-1 road trip without the services of All-Star point guard Kemba Walker (sore knee).

“We should have beat LA, should have won that game,” Smart replied.

It was a fitting response for a team that has matter of factly gone about its business amid injuries and a challenging schedule over the past month and a half with games every other day at minimum (outside of the All-Star Break). The end result has been 14 wins in Boston's last 17 games, including going 6-1 without an injured Walker over that stretch.

The capper to that impressive run came in Utah on Wednesday night against a desperate Jazz team that had lost three straight games and elected to shake up their starting five. Utah was the more rested team with an intimidating homecourt advantage (featuring plenty of boos for Gordon Hayward) and was playing at full strength against the shorthanded Celtics on their fourth game in six nights. Based on that, there were plenty of excuses to pick from for Boston in this matchup but none were necessary. Despite 37 points from Donovan Mitchell, the Celtics capped their road trip with a double-digit win, running away with the victory in the second half behind Tatum’s passing out of double teams, timely shooting from Marcus Smart and steady play from Jaylen Brown and Daniel Theis.

“We have good players,” Brad Stevens told reporters in Utah after the win. “They pull together and we showed some resiliency in this moment. So we’ll see if we can build off of it.”

“This was big,” Tatum added. “This was big for our team. This is a tough place to play. It’s a great way to end the road trip. We could have made excuses on the back-to-back, but we didn’t.”

Big wins like this have been the rule rather than the exception of late for Boston who can now put Utah on a quality victory list that includes the Lakers, Clippers, Sixers, Heat and Thunder in the last month alone. Given the circumstances, Utah likely serves as the team’s best road win of the year to date, giving Boston a quality road win over a potential contender.

We’ve written for months here at BSJ how the emergence of Tatum and Brown has this team trending towards contending territory but the kind of consistency they’ve received up-and-down the roster throughout the trip is what is putting this group into an impressive tier of contending teams just below the Bucks. Beyond Tatum playing like an MVP candidate in the past few weeks, there have been a number of valuable contributions that have received fewer headlines during this trip.

Jaylen Brown: The fourth-year swingman served as a reliable second option to Tatum all week long, scoring above 20 points in every game of the 3-1 trip. He shot 47 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range during that span and ranked third on the team in rebounds per game (6.7).

Daniel Theis: The C’s biggest question mark heading into the season has steadily turned into one of the group’s biggest advantages in head-to-head matchups of late when he can avoid foul trouble (a tough whistle hasn’t helped). Theis was a walking double-double for the entire West Coast trip, averaging 16.8 points and 10.3 rebounds a game while shooting 64 percent from the field and 93 percent from the free throw line.

Gordon Hayward: His 3-point shooting has been off of late but the veteran still managed to shoot 51 percent from the field while averaging 15.8 ppg during a down stretch as a secondary scorer.

Marcus Smart: The point guard stepped into the starting role admirably and managed to knock down 39.3 percent of his 3s during the 3-1 trip. His shooting inside the arc remains something to work on but 13.3 points and 6.3 assists from the team’s fifth option is something Brad Stevens will take any day of the week.

The bench: It was ugly for them in Los Angeles but Brad Wanamaker and Enes Kanter redeemed themselves in wins over Portland and Utah with timely contributions. Defensively, (outside of Kanter), Wanamaker, Grant Williams and Romeo Langford have all remained steady, wisely deferring to Tatum and other starters to score while they are on the floor.

The fact that the Celtics have found this level of consistency without their second-best player for the past month signals a new level of potential for this group. Danny Ainge’s decision not to make any moves at the deadline has worked to plan so far, allowing the team’s core to get more opportunities with the bench staying out of the way from a shooting standpoint.

A few more tough tests lie ahead in the coming month (vs. HOU, MIL x 2, vs. TOR) but this run has made the No. 2 seed very attainable despite a ridiculous stretch by the Raptors (winners of 15 of last 17). The Celtics have kept pace every step of the way and are positioning themselves well to stay in the hunt for home court in the second round against Toronto and while avoiding the Bucks until the Eastern Conference Finals.

The biggest question now with this group remains with how Walker looks whenever he does return from resting a sore knee. The Celtics’ level of play has been good enough where there will be no need to rush him back now for seeding purposes. They need him at his best to get the NBA Finals but this group is meshing well enough without him to keep surging in the meantime.

“It’s good to see it,” Stevens said. “Now we’ll see if we can keep being it. There’s too much season left to write the story about what you are. You have to keep doing it.”