Hey John. It’s getting pretty boring with these Celtics, isn’t it?
Well, voice in my head being used as a literary tool to represent all the comments and questions I get regularly, I wouldn’t say boring, per se. Though I acknowledge it’s pretty tough to find new slants about this team. I feel like we know who they are right now. But there is always something interesting with these guys. It’s just that the most interesting stuff is just wondering how good they continue to be.
So you’re not afraid of them falling apart in the playoffs?
I know a lot of people are, and I can’t say I blame people for it. I’m definitely more confident than others because I see this as a different team than in years past. Yes, they have Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but the rest of the team is very different. Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday are new. Derrick White was here last year, but “bald Derrick” is new and he’s been playing at an All-Star level. Joe Mazzulla is better this year. He has his own staff and they’ve been great.
I don’t know how they're going to be in the playoffs because no one can predict the future, but I feel pretty good about where this team is now.
But don’t they go how Jaylen and Jayson go?
Yes, in a sense, because those are the best players. I can argue that the answer is also no because the threat of those guys is so great that it can open up large stretches of games for Porzingis and Holiday and White to go off while the main guys figure themselves out.
The pressure of past years isn’t on these guys. They can actually take back seats for a while, draw the double teams, and let the other guys cook.
Here are two quotes that make me feel good about how I’m feeling. This is Jaylen from after the Knicks game: “You want to double, OK, I'm gonna drag the double out and make the right plays, and our team is going to get open looks. Just making the game, thinking the game, manipulating the game is all about what we've been emphasizing this year."
And here’s Porzingis: “JT, he deserves a lot, like a lot of credit, because he could say, eff it, like, I want to score 30 every night, I want to get the MVP, but he's not doing that. And I think people are overlooking that. And you have to give him credit because when he does that, it makes everybody else do that, and then we're winning games because everybody's feeling good, everybody's scoring, we're all dangerous. So I think he deserves a lot more credit than he's getting, and everybody has made a sacrifice. And I think people from outside kind of see that, but us as players, we know what we're doing and we know what the goal is. So we're all putting our stuff to the side for one big goal.”
So? Words words words blah blah blah anyone can say things.
Right, but also this is how they’ve been playing and acting for most of the season. I haven't seen “try too hard” Jaylen Brown for more than a couple of plays here and there after the first month of the season. Once he fell in line with the rest of the team, they’ve been pretty untouchable.
And Porzingis, I just believe that guy. He’s either being genuine or he’s going to become the Prime Minister of Latvia because he comes off as saying what he means. And he’s right about them. Tatum ISN’T going for the MVP. He’s not trying to take over games.
Call me crazy, but it feels like they’ve turned a corner. They're growing up.
Can they keep this up when the playoffs start?
That's the big question. The playoffs bring a different brand of basketball, so there will inherently be more isolation play. We’ll have to see if the pressure of the moment causes Tatum and Brown to revert to some bad habits. We’ll have to see if it gets to Porzingis. My feeling is that it won’t, but we won’t see until we get there.
That's what I’ve been saying. I won’t believe it until I see when it matters.
That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy things right now. And I think it’s important to do that. They're writing a great story in real-time, and they have a really good group of guys on the roster. It’s an incredibly likable team. Don’t rob yourself of some enjoyment of sports just because of things that have happened in the past. Enjoy what’s going on now.
Fine. But I want to see them send a message to some of these teams they have coming up. They can’t lose to Denver again. I need to see them smack some of these good teams around and let them know what’s up.
It doesn’t really work that way. We love to approach these games like the Celtics completely control every aspect of the game and the opponent has no say in how it will go.
The Celtics feel pretty good about how the Denver game went in Boston, other than them losing the game, obviously. This isn’t some kind of moral victory thing, either. They feel like they got shots they should have made and forced shots Denver should have missed. Of course, Boston missed and Denver didn’t, and that's how it will go sometimes. But they liked the process of what they got.
Mazzulla’s whole thing is approaching each game the same way because putting too much emphasis on any one game threatens to pull guys out of the right mindset.
Remember the “try too hard” Jaylen stuff? That's what this mentality is hoping to avoid. The same goes for Tatum. Both those guys get into the most trouble when they try to do too much. If these guys want to send a message to Denver, they’ll do it by sticking with the mentality that has worked.
And maybe one of the Jays goes off for 40 along the way. That’ll happen plenty of times because those guys are good. But it has to happen in the flow of what they're trying to do every day.
You have really jumped onto the Mazzulla bandwagon.
I think Mazzulla and I think very similarly when it comes to this stuff. I’m not a lunatic about things like he is, but I 100% understand the process and mentality stuff he’s talking about. I think at this level of basketball, it’s the kind of mentality that gets the most out of players.
The hardest part of coaching in the NBA is getting 15 or so guys to think similarly. It’s really damn near impossible because of the money and fame involved. Guys you think are cool one year come back different after the summer for whatever reason. Guys who were grounded get cocky and guys who were confident get timid. Each year is something new, even with a similar group of guys.
This, more than anything I see on the court, is why I’m so confident in Mazzulla and this team. This is a team that seems fully aligned, and that's rare. Mazzulla has been able to will this mentality on the team.
So then what are you looking for over these last 25 games?
Keeping that same mentality. They’ve basically sewn up the East and it won’t be long before they can wrap up the top overall seed. They’ll have a few weeks where they might feel like they can kick their feet up, light a cigar, and coast.
I actually asked White about this at practice and he said “We think we can just keep getting better. We know what the end goal is but we got 25 more games to keep playing our best basketball. We just take each opportunity as a challenge and every time we go out there we're competing and having fun doing what we do.”
Okay, there's some canned basketball speak in there, but I do think they understand they have to head into the playoffs on a high note, and any variance in how they approach the game over these next few weeks could represent a step backward.
They could play well and lose three in a row and I won’t mind. They could get lazy and win three straight and I’ll get worked up. It’s all about their approach.
I’m done worrying about what each single game represents. All I’m worried about is the big picture at this point.
That's fine. Fans like to live and die with losses, though. Do you mind if we freak out a little bit?
Go for it. I don’t want to police fandom. I’m just trying to say that, at this point, individual losses aren’t harbingers of doom.
So go ahead and yell, swear, cheer … whatever. Be pissed about a loss. I don’t think you really get to experience the highs in life without the lows. You don’t feel joy without feeling pain. It’s the difference between those two that makes the good stuff so good.
But also keep it in perspective. We’re heading into March and this is the best team in the league and they're pulling away. Soak it all in. The Celtics are the best Boston sports has to offer right now. Enjoy the ride.