Karalis: This is either a glimmer of hope for Boston Celtics, or a cruel joke

It's hard to express what a game this win over the Orlando Magic could mean for the Boston Celtics, so I'll do what the kids do and say it with a meme.



The Celtics season is still alive, thanks a game in which they actually played good basketball. It was the type of performance that simultaneously gives you hope and gets you upset because it makes you wonder why they couldn't play like this against Cleveland and Sacramento. If they did, Boston would be 23-19 and a game ahead of Atlanta for the fourth seed in the east.

Luckily for Boston, this weird season still, after all this, has not buried Boston.

"We don't want to look back on this season and be like, 'Damn, we could have did this.' We still have time," Marcus Smart said after the win over Orlando "It's not a lot, the margin for it is closing, but we still have time to fix it and that's what we are trying to do. We all came together and we all agreed that we want to evolve as a team and continue to learn and make each other better."

They came together in the aftermath of the loss to the Kings. This Celtics season has seen more rock bottoms than Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18, and Friday's loss was the one that threatened to be the finisher.

"We just kind of sat in the locker room and we just really self-reflected on each other," Smart said. "We asked each other, like I said, 'How do we want to end the season? How do we want to be remembered for this season?' Everybody agreed, this was a bad feeling and an ugly feeling that we are feeling and we don't want to feel like this."

The answers have not been easy for Boston, because the problems have not been typical. There is no one malcontent to be traded, or schisms to be mended. So maybe Friday night's meeting was a come-to-Jesus that actually resonated.

"It’s a huge stepping stone for us. We’ve been in a little bit of a funk," Jaylen Brown said. "To come in here, early game a little bit different from our routine, to come in and get a nice comfortable win is just good for our spirit. We know that we’ve underperformed, and we’ve kind of had that extra pressure on us just from everybody, from all the outside forces. So I just told our guys to just focus on us, man. Forget about what the media is saying, forget about what the fans are saying and just come out and play some good basketball and let’s see where the chips fall, and hopefully we can do that more - a lot more - for the rest of the season."

This game was all the evidence anyone needed that there was no schematic solution to the problem. Boston didn't do anything different, really, besides try.

It's really as simple as that.

This team spends too much time not trying, and when that's the case, they're pretty bad. When they decide a game is getting too out of hand or too embarrassing, they turn it on and actually start playing well. Their problem is that they're not good enough to pull the "coast and steal the win" move.

Sometimes Robert Williams can come into a game and change the energy. Occasionally, Payton Pritchard can be that guy. But mostly, Boston's biggest issues when they look completely lost stem from the shoulders, up.

"It takes teams time for a number of reasons. Sometimes it comes quick to teams, sometimes it comes at different stages of the season, and some teams never get it," Brad Stevens said. "But the goal is to find your best version. It’s clear we can’t do it with three guys at once, with four guys at once, with two guys at once, with one guy. We have to do it with all five on every possession on both ends of the floor. And that’s just the focus. That’s what we’re talking about."

And so we're here, after the Celtics showed us who they are capable of being. They moved the ball beautifully, and more often than we're used to. They defended tenaciously, forcing turnovers and pushing the tempo, which is also rare. And most importantly, they took a big counterpunch to the chin in the fourth quarter and, instead of caving with a bad case of glass jaw syndrome, they fired back with a game-ending combo of their own.

The timing of this is tough, because they now hit the road for four more games over the next six nights, two of which are against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.

But they put themselves in this position. This isn't a self-inflicted wound. This has been self-immolation. Now they have to make a decision.

Are they committed to a turnaround, or is this just the beginning of one last, cruel joke?

“Orlando, they got rolling in that fourth quarter, they cut the lead down. That’s a part of the game, that’s a part of life where adversity comes, just continue to stay the course and play good basketball," Brown said. "We were able to push the lead back out. We didn’t get tight, our hands didn’t get clammy or we didn’t feel the pressure. We just kept playing. And that’s what we’ve gotta do more. Like I said, today isn’t something to be too excited about, but it’s a small victory for us. So I’ll take it.”