There are nine games left in the regular season.
Nine.
They have four games left this month, and five games next month.
There are only five regular season home games left.
I don’t know about you, but it’s still hard to wrap my head around this. The Celtics seem to have lived five lifetimes this season, and each one has been so fleeting that being here, now, on March 22, is a bit dizzying.
So I thought it’d be good to just get everything together in one place after this perfect road trip so we can, hopefully, fully grasp what we’re seeing.
The Boston Celtics are now 45-28, tied for second in the East. Their 45 wins are second-most in the conference and fifth-most in the NBA (tied with Utah, their next opponent).
Their point differential (the difference between how many points they’ve scored per game and how many points they give up per game) is +6.4, best in the East and third-best in the NBA.
They are giving up 103.8 points per game, fewest in the NBA. Their defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) is 105.8, also best in the NBA. Their opponents’ effective field goal percentage (a metric weighted to account for 3-pointers) is 49.9%, lowest in the league.
Their net rating (the difference between their defensive rating and offensive rating) since back-to-back losses to San Antonio and New York dropped them to 18-21 is 13.3, best in the league. Boston has gone 27-7 since then, climbing from 11th in the standings to second. Their effective field goal percentage during that stretch is 55.7, fourth-best in the league.
The Celtics have had 20-point leads in 17 road games this season, including in five straight games and in 11 of their last 13 (thank you Sean Grande for that stat). They trail only Phoenix for the best road differential in the NBA (+7.5 to +7.2). Brooklyn is third at +3.8.
Ella Fitzgerald said “It isn’t where you’re from, it’s where you’re going that counts.” The Celtics spent so much of last season and this one playing with unearned confidence and blowing a lot of games because of it. Now they seem to have embraced letting the past be the past and focusing on the next task at hand.
“We can’t be comfortable with it,” Grant Williams said after the win over the OKC Thunder. “We’ve done a great job (in the) regular season bouncing back, and just gotta continue that perseverance throughout the rest of this year and throughout the playoffs … no matter where we are at, just focusing on the day and what’s tomorrow and who we play next.”
Who they play next is the Utah Jazz, which presents another great opportunity for Boston. Jayson Tatum, the NBA’s current leader in total points with 1863, and Jaylen Brown have spent quite some time getting themselves to the rim. They have been attacking very well and reaping the benefits with perhaps their most efficient combined stretch of their careers.
Rudy Gobert is hoping he can change that, and the Celtics are hoping they can change one more perception about how they play.
Guys like Gobert are Defensive Player of the Year candidates for a reason, and it would be no shock to see the Jays struggle like others have against him. But if they can find ways to attack him and pull him out of his comfort zone by the basket, they could have a real chance at coming out on top.
This is the story of the season, though. Even after all that praise and proof of where Boston is, I’m sitting here asking for Boston for more. I’ve already gotten their license, work ID, credit card, and two utility bills, but I’m asking them to bring a birth certificate, a blood sample, and sworn affidavits from their parents on Wednesday just so I can believe who they are.
They don’t seem to have an issue with it, though.
“With any team, you are bound to face a lot of different challenges throughout the year, and how do you attack those and address those make the team the way they are,” Grant Williams said. “Throughout the season we’ve been down, we’ve been up, we’ve dealt with injury, had guys out with COVID, we’ve had a little bit of everything. So we’ve kind of fought and came through for another. So the biggest thing is just perseverance, step-by-step, and I feel like that’s something that’s valuable not only to this team, but the outlook for this team for the future."
