Karalis: The Boston Celtics are fun again because they're focused on the right things

With just under nine minutes to go in the game and Boston holding a 23-point lead, Payton Pritchard snapped up a loose ball and kicked it ahead to Jayson Tatum. Tatum had one defender between himself and Grant Williams, streaking up the left side, finger pointed skyward in the universal “please throw me an alley oop” manner. 

Tatum gathered the ball … and dunked it himself. 

A very audible “oh wow” could be heard from Williams, who jogged back up court laughing and talking some friendly trash with his friend and teammate. 

“First of all, I love Grant to death. But he had a better chance of just calling for the ball, I think,” Tatum joked after the game. “When he pointed up is when I made the executive decision of taking it myself. … I just told him like, on the fast-break, there are two guys I’m gonna throw a lob to: (Robert Williams and Jaylen Brown). Grant is a lot lower on that list.”

It was a fun moment, in a fun game. 

Celtics fans are used to using f-words when talking about the team, but fun hasn’t been one of them until recently. And the fairly thorough (yet very necessary after the loss to Detroit) dismantling of a decimated Brooklyn Nets team has given fans reason to buy back in.

“It makes life a little bit easier,” Tatum said of the team’s recent resurgence. “We're having a lot more fun, knowing how we go play and how we should be playing night in and night out. Just really trying to build off of that from game-to-game and having fun while doing it."

There's a common thread to the best moments in these games. Just like that Tatum dunk, it generally starts with some kind of turnover forced by the defense. 

"Man, obviously stopping people consistently,” Tatum said when asked what the most enjoyable aspect of these games has been. “Just being connected on the defensive end and showing multiple efforts. I think just the way we're moving the ball. Everybody's touching. Everybody's getting an opportunity. It shows how much tougher we are to guard when we play that way."

It has taken some time for everyone on the team to come to this conclusion, Tatum included. The process of fully grasping how they need to play and the need for breaking bad habits has been a slow and sometimes painful one. But the results are undeniable. 

“We always take pride defensively but now it's more contagious,” Al Horford said. “It's even more the way we are defending, the way we are enjoying playing defense out there. Helping one other, flying around, not giving up any easy shots, it's really fun when everyone is so engaged defensively to play that way.”

Obviously, scoring is the most fun thing to do in basketball, but the scoring comes so much easier when the defense is great. Just look at this play. 

That's fun. And not only that, it’s demoralizing for the other team. Not only did they make a mistake, they had to scramble to get back only to get spun around and scored on easily. 

“I love it. That's my mindset, I just enjoy it,” Horford said. “It's great to see everyone buying into it and everyone really locked in and having pride on the defensive end. That's important.”

The Celtics never trailed in this game. They didn’t in the last game in Brooklyn, either. Actually, they haven't trailed in a road game since the New Orleans Pelicans scored the first basket of the game on January 29. 

Boston has the best defense in the NBA since January 1 and it’s not close. Boston has the best defense this month and it’s by an even wider margin. Their defensive rating on the road in February is an insane 92.9 and their net rating is 30.9. 

It’s blowout city. In fact, since January 1, Boston’s road net rating is 16.8, making them the best road team by four full points. And it’s because the most inconsistent bunch of players ever to grace the parquet have flipped the script. Now, they are mostly giving Ime Udoka a product he can rely on. 

“It's what you ask for as a coach,” he said. “We bought into the defensive mentality, and we're sharing the ball. Two simple things that we kind of harped on, takes some time to happen, but now, for the most part, I feel great about going into every game no matter the opponent, that we're going to do certain things. Shots are going to fall or they're not, but we're going to be solid defensively, we're going to share the ball offensively, and more often than not you'll get good results.”

Fun ones, too.