Celtics putting trust to the test against December gauntlet of NBA's best

The training wheels are coming off.

After 21 games of trying to learn and execute Ime Udoka’s plans against the 23rd toughest schedule in the league, they’re transitioning into refining those lessons against what is currently the fifth-toughest schedule moving forward. 

“I think we’ve played pretty well against some of the teams with the top records,” Udoka said after the team’s Tuesday practice. “Chicago and Washington, some of the early losses were against teams that are doing very well. So it’s an opportunity to test ourselves, get healthy, get our whole group back.”

If there’s any silver lining heading into game one of the upcoming December gauntlet, it’s that the team finally seems somewhat whole, rather than filled with holes.

“This could be one of the first, one of the few times we have our squad back fully,” Udoka said. “These two days I think are our first two-day break since the start of the month. So it will be good for guys that are playing heavy minutes. ... I think it will be the sixth time in 22 games we've had the whole squad, and knock on wood we're good to go by tomorrow still.” 

They’re going to need everyone to get through this stretch.

After tomorrow night’s game against the also 11-10 Philadelphia 76ers, the Celtics head west for a Friday/Saturday back-to-back against Utah and Portland, before a Tuesday/Wednesday back-to-back against the Lakers and Clippers. They wrap up the trip against Phoenix, a team they play twice in December. They also play the Clippers, Sixers, and Milwaukee Bucks twice. Golden State, New York, and Minnesota (also 11-10 right now) round out the schedule. 

To sum up, that’s two games against the current second-best team in the league (Phoenix), one against the best (Golden State), and only one of the 15 games against a team that, right now, has a losing record. That’s the Portland Trail Blazers, who are 10-11, but they’re 9-1 at home. The only other team with only one home loss is Golden State.

“Some are playing well, some aren’t,” Udoka said of the upcoming trip. “It’s just a chance to test ourselves. We break everything up into moreso 10-game increments and see where we were from the first to the last 10, and the improvements we’ve made.”

There have been two such 10-game increments so far. 

“Defense has been steady. We’re maintaining that pretty well,” he said. “I think at the 10-(game) mark, we really had made some strides defensively and we’ve carried that over into these games. 

“Offensively is where we tried to focus over the last 10 and saw the improvement areas of offensive rebounding, getting to the free throw line, getting to the paint more. And just continue to stress penetrate and kick, playing for your teammates and trusting that they’ll make the shots.”

Never has the trust been higher than against the Toronto Raptors. The Celtics continued to move the ball, even when they were making other mistakes. It’s among the more encouraging signs of progress the Celtics have shown so far. 

“Last game was our No. 1 of the year with 60 percent of potential assists,” Udoka said. “So we really want to stress that, especially against teams that are going to try to take away Jayson (Tatum) and Jaylen (Brown) and some of our playmakers.”

As I laid out earlier, the passing game for Tatum against the Raptors stood in stark contrast to his typical passing numbers. Whether this is a breakthrough or an aberration is something that could impact Boston’s performance during this December stretch. And even though it seems like Tatum is getting the message, it doesn’t mean he’s going to morph into Chris Paul.

“Habits are hard to break; it's not going to happen overnight,” Udoka said. “Guys that are natural scorers, sometimes, getting that mode and you gotta keep instilling the trust in your teammates. It's a thing I talk to the group about. (Gregg) Popovich showed Tony Parker film for 15 years of not getting off the ball, so it doesn't happen overnight.

“Like I said, if you have that scoring mentality and you have the speed and you get downhill, it's what you look to a lot. Sometimes miss the simple pass, so it's an ongoing thing and we reiterated that today and showed them the film of how good it looked and the easy shots we got against Toronto. We want that to carry over the next 10 or so games."

Those 10 or so games will each be great challenges. If there was ever a time to prove that they’ve figured things out and are ready to fully apply the lessons Udoka is trying to teach, it would be right now, starting with Joel Embiid and the Sixers tomorrow night.