The Boston Celtics have made it to the top of the standings. It’s a remarkable turnaround from the 18-21 team that was 11th a couple of months ago, and a message to the rest of the NBA that this Celtics team is a force to be reckoned with.
And it doesn’t matter.
The Celtics came out of their win against the Minnesota Timberwolves feeling good mentally, but not so great physically.
Robert Williams, whose name has been mentioned in All-Defensive team and Most Improved Player conversations, left the game with a left knee sprain.
“Quite a bit of pain on the lateral side,” explained Ime Udoka, but leaving the rest of the prognosis for the doctors to make in the morning when Williams’ knee is scanned. When asked if this could be a long-term injury, the coach simply said it’s too early to tell.
Williams’ knee is one of a few that need to be monitored. When Jaylen Brown finally exited the blowout, he spent time on the sidelines flexing his right leg and rubbing the lower quad/upper knee area. Soreness in his right knee landed him on the injury report before he was cleared to play tonight.
And then there's the right knee tendinopathy Jayson Tatum is dealing with.
“I’ve just really been playing basketball like three years straight, from the bubble, short offseason, playing last year, to the Olympics,” he said. “But that’s just part of it.”
Tatum is making the trip, but whether he plays against the Raptors is still in question.
“I think we’re gonna assess that tomorrow, see how my knee is feeling,” he said. “But we should have a better idea in the morning.”
After spending a few months tucked away in the horror section, the Celtics are a feel-good story now. They aren’t just beating teams, they're tearing them to shreds. And they're doing it to good teams, too. Boston is 26-16 now against teams above .500. Only the 61-win Phoenix Suns have more wins against winning teams, and they're at 27.
But there is no bigger priority at the moment than getting healthy, because there is no scenario where the Boston Celtics finish this fantasy turnaround without being fully healthy.
“We've got some guys that are banged up, including Rob tonight,” Udoka said after the game. “We're getting some other guys looked at now. Our thing is injury prevention going forward in the last eight games, and Jaylen, Jayson had the flare-ups before, looked good tonight, but second night of a back to back, we'll see how they feel after the game, getting checked out shortly.”
The Celtics have proven what they can do with this run they’ve been on. They’ve made their run through the American Ninja Warrior course and they’ve hit that button, but this isn’t the end of the competition. They have to run more gauntlets to be the last one on top. The million dollar question for the Celtics is whether they can stay healthy enough to win this war of attrition.
Wherever Boston finishes this regular season doesn’t matter, really. If they get the top seed, then great. I’m not worried about the Brooklyn Nets. They just lost at home to Charlotte and fell into an eighth-place tie with them. Brooklyn is on the edge of the 9/10 game in the play-in tournament and would need to win twice before starting a playoff series against a top seed that's had a week off to prepare. I’m not afraid of them.
If Boston falls further down the standings, so be it. At 3.5 games ahead of fifth-place Chicago with seven games to play, it’s almost assured that Boston will get home court at least in the first round. A drop to fourth might even be the easiest path out of the East, depending on who the top seed is.
I’m not concerned in the least bit where Boston sits in the standings anymore because they’ve shown us what they are at their best, and they’ve reinforced that over and over and over with wins like tonight’s against Minnesota.
Resting guys and fixing sore knees now is the absolute priority. Nothing else matters at this point for Boston. We all need to wrap our heads around this during these next couple of weeks.
If the Celtics can run out of that TD Garden tunnel without aches or pains, with a full roster at the ready, they can make it out of the East and get to the NBA Finals. If the Celtics we saw for most of the game against Minnesota, and for most of the past couple of months, can line up for the opening tip in Game 1, then they have a great chance to create a Hollywood ending.
But if they mess around with these angry knees and push their guys too hard in pursuit of any kind of seeding, they will fall flat.
They’ve come too far to do that now. The Celtics are the top seed, and that's nice, but after tonight’s game and all the talk of knees not being 100%, that no longer matters.