This is getting kind of hard to believe.
The Celtics woke up on January 7 in 11th place, losers of two straight, with highlights of RJ Barrett’s miracle 3-pointer running on all the highlight shows. They were 18-21, out of the play-in tournament, and out of words to describe their situation.
“You only can learn from it and remember the tough stretches where things are not going your way and it’s frustrating and it keeps you up at night and it bothers you,” Jayson Tatum said after that devastating loss to the New York Knicks. “I think because when you go through stuff like this and then it gets to a point where you figure it out and you get back to what you’re used to doing, it makes that feel that much better.”
They swore they’d turn things around, but there was no reason to believe them. And even if you did, no one could comprehend it being so sudden and stark.
Boston has gone 21-6 since that loss. They're 16-3 since losses to Charlotte and Portland at home. They're now 39-27 and on the other side of being out of the play-in, and a game-and-a-half out of second with 16 games to play. They just beat the Memphis Grizzlies and Ja Morant, the darlings of the NBA and the West’s second seed, and followed it up by winning a shootout against Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and the real Brooklyn Nets.
“It just shows the resilience we have, our resiliency. It shows the growth we’ve made and we’re going to continue to make, we’re on the right path,” Marcus Smart said. “It shows how we’ve really just bought into the system. … when you’ve got a team that’s locked in, we feel like we can beat anybody.”
They're not just locked in, though. They're playing at a level that was unfathomable just two months ago.
After their loss to the Sixers on January 14, I wrote “Tatum’s frustrations are obvious. He spent more time talking to the refs than his teammates in this game, and every mistake seemed to pile up on top of the last. He could never get it going in this game, and neither could the Celtics.”
Tatum had similar frustrations against the Nets. At times it looked like he was doing jumping jacks as he gestured towards the officials. During a timeout after one non-call, Tatum pleaded his case to two separate officials before walking to the bench. When he got there, he tossed the towel that was handed to him into the front row. Not only did he not fall apart, he put the Nets away with 18 fourth quarter points.
“Obviously, this is an emotional sport. We compete at a high level and it's not like we're in a library. We're in an arena with 20,000 people with everyone yelling and screaming and things like that,” Tatum said. “I think Smart does a great job of everybody having their moments when you disagree with something and coming to the timeout and regroup. People tell each other that it's over with. We've had our moments with the refs and let's move on, move past it. We've done a great job at that recently.”
Smart had a similar interaction with officials, and he spent a significant amount of time on the court pleading his and his teammates’ cases. But that was always when the play was stopped.
“We realize that the more we talk and the more we allow ourselves to talk, it can’t take us out of our game,” he said. “And we don’t want that to happen. So we catch ourselves. Early on, we probably wouldn’t have, we probably would have just kept going … That shows our maturity as a team, individually, and everything like that. So I think that’s been a big key for us, is saying what we have to say, moving on and then not letting it affect us, because we understand that it could affect us, and when that does affect us, we’re not a good team.”
Well whaddya know? They're learning.
We know that COVID and injuries caused a lot of their inconsistencies earlier this season. It’s also pretty clear that Dennis Schroder was a worse fit than anyone realized, and there was some addition by subtraction there. Bringing in Derrick White just adds another quick decision-maker to the team.
But, there's more to what’s happening here. This win over Brooklyn stands out as something even bigger than what they’ve been doing recently because this wasn’t just a “Celtics style of play won out” kind of game. This wasn’t the typical crushing defense leading to offense on the other end formula they had been using. This gang that couldn't shoot straight two months ago won a gunfight with Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp on Sunday afternoon.
“I’m extremely proud of the effort on a night-to-night basis,” Ime Udoka said. “As a coach, you want nothing more than to know what you’re going to have every night. And defensively we knew what we were going to be: tough, mentally tough team that can play through runs. And offensively we were improving. So I’d describe our group best as locked in, confident, connected. You see that on both ends of the court.”
It took Udoka some time to figure things out himself and get guys bought in to this degree. These guys weren’t even paying attention to the game plan some nights, but against Brooklyn they were making in-game adjustments like they’ve been together for years.
“A lot of things we were doing on that defensive end were on the fly, and we were executing perfectly,” Smart said. “Against two of the greatest, that’s tough to do, especially on the fly. You have a place, we’re switching, we have mismatches all over, and we’re helping each other out. And that shows the best of a good team, and that’s what we’re becoming — a really, really good team.”
I always tried to be the voice of reason around here. I knew this wasn’t an 18-21 team. I knew there was better basketball within them. But after these last two games, I'm even looking around the room to make sure everyone else is seeing this.
This turnaround hardly makes sense. They're not just good, now. There might just be a path out of the East for these guys.
“We know the potential we have, we understand how good we can be,” Smart said. “We understand that these types of tests like tonight are going to show us how we really are and who we really want to be and set the bar and standard for us. That's what we got to follow from here on out.”