If this game was a meal, it’d be boiled chicken, steamed broccoli, and white rice. If it was elected President, it’d be Martin Van Buren. If it was a field trip, it’d be at the Springfield Box Factory.
It was, largely, unremarkable. Neither team shot well. Jayson Tatum scored 32 and had some nice stretches, but it wasn’t really a memorable game, per se. DeMar DeRozan left the game in the third quarter, so we didn't get any kind of real duel until the last couple of minutes got away from Boston.
But, just like the chicken, broccoli, and rice has real nutritional value, this game did mean something to the Celtics. Just like the trip to the box factory taught Bart Simpson what a double-corrugated, eight-fold, fourteen-gauge box was, there was something to learn from this game. And just like Van Buren … ummm … well … was President, this was a game … that we watched.
Okay, the metaphor fell apart on me there, but the Celtics did not -- at least not completely.
“It shows you that you can win in multiple different ways,” Grant Williams said after dropping his first 20-point game of the season in the win. “They’re a talented team, they play physically. Zach (LaVine) made a lot of great shots toward the end. They have all the capabilities to win, and we just did a good job of continuing to compete with them, continuing to execute down the stretch, and that’s something that earlier in the season we weren’t necessarily doing. So '' for the team.”
It’s become a bit de rigueur to complain about Boston’s wins almost as much as the losses lately. I’ve participated in my fair share of that, but at some point, complaining that wins don’t come a certain way becomes too dismissive of the opposition and how difficult it is to win in this league.
“Regardless of their record it’s a really talented team,” Tatum said. “Obviously DeMar had to leave the game, but Zach can score with the best of them and they’re always gonna play you tough, especially their second unit. I feel like that's where they have the biggest spark, coming out the second and third quarters. It’s a tough team. We’re 2-2 against them this year, so regardless of how well we did or didn’t shoot the ball, I’ll take it.”
There certainly are things to be critical of in this game. They spent too much time playing isolation basketball, getting away from a tried and true offensive style that, at one point, had them playing historically great basketball. They let multiple double-digit leads in the fourth quarter get away from them because of it.
At the same time, they played without their starting point guard and their starting center was starting for the first time this season but still only playing 23 minutes. There were miscommunications and some minor meltdowns, but even so, they kept themselves from devolving into a full-on panic like the one Van Buren oversaw in 1837.
Okay, I’ll admit to trying too hard on the Van Buren thing if the Celtics can admit to trying too hard to do things on their own sometimes instead of playing free and loose.
“We definitely can’t say we were perfect by any means. I think that just shows that throughout the whole regular season, there’s going to be ups and downs,” Grant Williams said. “It’s just a matter of how you respond to them. I think we’re doing a good job of making sure we’re responding the right way, keeping the same mentalities.”
I’ll take it.
This game was the 41st of the season, the exact halfway point of the regular season, but still a couple of weeks from what the Celtics hope is really the middle of the 100 or so games they're going to play before their season is over. We’ve essentially seen two versions of the Celtics already, and the result is a 58-win pace and the top seed in the East.
The other thing about complaining about wins is that they're wins, and Boston has more of them than any other team. The way they’ve come about is different than before, but they're still coming about. The 3-point shooting is still a mess after the blistering hot start to the season, but the more they figure out how to win without it, the better the wins will be whenever they get it back.
“We have to continue to shoot with confidence but it can’t be our identity, just shooting. It has to be executing,” Joe Mazzulla said. “Games like that, where we’re able to kind of tough it out just by making winning plays throughout the game, is important.”
Wednesday will bring a new challenge, and so will Thursday. Maybe after one of those games, we can get back to feeling great about flawless victories and textbook execution. It would be nice to see that from them. Until then, finding ways to grind out tough wins are fine.
Now let’s just hope the Celtics don't have to face Chicago in the playoffs, so let’s root for them not to climb to eighth … just like the eighth President of the United States Martin Van Bur.. NOPE… still don't have it. Nevermind.