This is how a season is supposed to go for a good team like Boston.
The new guys they added slowly figure out their roles. Some established guys on the team tweak a little bit about their games to try to help make things fit. Guys on the bench start jockeying for playing time. And over the course of the season, wins and losses come along that nudge the team in a positive direction.
For once, we are watching a very normal, healthy, progression of a very normal, very great team.
Yeah, of course a game like the loss to the Warriors will come along and people will lose their minds over it. Every team goes through those points. And as much as the schedule is now starting to break their way, there is an inevitable skid somewhere along the way that will test this team's mettle.
But this Celtics team is not only playing the right way, they're progressing the right way, and we saw it in Los Angeles.
Jrue Holiday started slow but is rounding into form. He shot 42% over his first 18 games, but is at 54% over his last eight. He shot 31-83 (37.3%) from deep over his first 18, but is now at 50% over the last eight.
“I think that this type of talent, it just makes the game easier because these guys are high-character guys, have high IQs,” Holiday said. “It makes it so much easier for me. Typically having (Jayson Tatum) and (Jaylen Brown) out there, the best guards and the best players are on them. So it leaves me wide open.”
Still, players miss open shots, and Holiday was doing that earlier this season. Now those shots are falling. He’s even doubled the amount of steals over those same splits, showing a level of comfort that didn’t exist to start the season.
Then there's someone like Neemias Queta, here on a two-way deal but pressed into service earlier this season due to injury and a matchup that worked in his favor. All he’s done is chomp glass when given the opportunity, owning the boards with a team-leading rebounding percentage of 21%.
Okay, that might be inflated by his offensive rebounding percentage of 21.5% largely from getting his own misses, but still, he’s out there grabbing those.
And honestly, he was a rebounding fiend for a while in this game. He was a big reason for Boston building that early seven-point lead into something significant. Look at this sequence.
He sets the pick that gets Derrick White an open look, tracks down the rebound, gets into the paint where he draws a few eyeballs, then kicks it to Sam Hauser who swings it to Tatum for his first 3-pointer of the night. His work was central to producing two good looks on that possession, and you can argue it’s part of what helped Tatum get going.
“Neemie is getting better and better,” Joe Mazzulla said. “Credit to Neemie for just continuing to work and he’s gotten better in the last few games … his defensive adjustment execution has gotten better and he’s been working at it.”
The Celtics' overall offense has also been getting better as well. Starting with the perfect homestand, Boston has the best offensive rating in the NBA (129.9 points per 100 possessions). They're averaging 128.3 points per game, and they have scored 144 and 145 in their last two games.
Boston was always supposed to be a great offensive team, but things have been clicking lately.
“I don't think it's because of the points. I think it's because of the execution,” Mazzulla said. “I do like the fact that we're developing a fast paced identity and not turning it over. … We're finding a good balance of pace and execution, which I think is important. … We're recognizing coverages faster … and we're changing our screening recognition versus that and I think that's a huge key for us.”
Faster recognition is a product of time and repetition. Seeing something over and over again, and getting called about not seeing it fast enough during a film session, speeds up the processing power inside a player’s head. Between the coaches drilling it and the players talking about it with each other, the speed at which they make their in-game adjustments and decisions gets faster.
This is what happens when you hear a player talking about the game slowing down for them. The game is slowing down for a lot of these Celtics, which allows them to speed up offensively, stay focused defensively, and get better as the season goes on.
There will be bumps in the road. And some of them will look familiar because some old habits are still hanging around. No team has had a perfect season yet, and no team will be perfect moving forward.
But a third of the way through the season, Boston is the best team in the league and actually progressing at a normal pace. This is how things are supposed to look. This is the track they're supposed to be on. Sit back and enjoy the ride.