The Boston Celtics are third in the East.
That's not a sentence that anyone thought would be written about this team. Of course, we all know that doesn’t matter much. Orlando and Memphis were your third seeds last December 7, and that didn't really work out well for them in the long run. There are no delusions of grandeur here.
“Doesn't mean anything. Doesn't show you anything,” Joe Mazzulla told reporters after beating the Toronto Raptors to jump them in the standings. “There's ebbs and flows along the way in the league.”
I agree with most of what he said, but I will disagree a smidge on the “doesn’t show you anything,” line. I’m sure Mazzulla is saying that for his team’s consumption, but for the rest of us, it shows us quite a bit.
This eight-game gauntlet, especially the five games in eight nights they just finished, was supposed to be a little more humbling than it was. They went 7-1, beating teams currently first, second, third, fourth, sixth, and eighth in their conferences (and also the Wizards). They have the fifth-best point differential and net rating in the league. Their offense is the NBA’s second-best.
None of this makes sense. This is not where they were supposed to be right now. But this win over Toronto is a great example of how they're exceeding their expectations.
They were supposed to be sloppy in their fourth game in six nights, but they came out on fire. The first half of this game was played nearly perfectly. They swarmed on defense, blocking shot after shot. Jordan Walsh looked like a different guy named Jordan for five minutes, which is not something I say lightly. They were running and creating great looks, and then they were rebounding the shots they missed to give themselves more chances.
Watching them, I had to remind myself to make notes and analyze what was happening because I was staring at the TV slack-jawed, wondering how the hell they were doing what they were doing.
And then in the third quarter, I thought they might have just hit a wall and this game would be a reminder of how precisely they need to play to win these games, and that there is no margin to allow for extended lapses. But then they just started hitting shots again, and they won another clutch game that they were losing earlier this season.
How is this possible?
We can start with Mazzulla, who has a roster full of guys with reasons to play selfishly, and he’s getting them on the same page. They are playing together and for each other, which in and of itself is a great coaching accomplishment.
Beyond that, he has them tapping into their collective strengths to thrive in this situation. Walsh is a defensive menace who finds himself at the center of massive runs, mostly because his defense is the reason those runs are happening. Josh Minott finds himself at center, period, because Boston stumbled onto a small-ball lineup that works and Mazzulla is riding it as an incredible change of pace while teaching Minott the ropes on the fly.
And if someone isn’t playing to their standards, he sits down. He’s done it to everyone on the roster at least once. Even Jaylen Brown.
Brown, by the way, isn’t just having a great season. He’s having an All-NBA season. And the way some things are breaking around the league, it’s looking like he can be a lock first-teamer if he keeps this up.
Brown isn’t just scoring points, he’s seventh in the league in points per game, fifth in total points, and second in field goals made (two off the leader, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander). He is working hard for his offense, and he’s getting all of it without a sidekick.
For all of Jayson Tatum’s greatness, he’s had Brown next to him every season of his career. Brown has Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, which is nice, but neither of them is making an All-NBA team.
Beyond the points, Brown has leaned into giving the ball up when he needs to, sharing the wealth so his team can benefit. And it’s all working beautifully right now. This five-game win streak is the culmination of everything coming together to work at its best.
At the same time, Mazzulla is
