The Celtics are ahead of schedule. They are 24-14 and currently the third seed in the Eastern Conference, which is both a testament to how much has gone right for Boston, and how much has gone wrong for some of the competition.
“I would say we got here faster than I thought we would,” Jaylen Brown said last week. “I thought we would just kind of take little baby steps along the way, but right now we're playing some really good basketball.”
The Celtics are jockeying with the Denver Nuggets for the league’s best offense. And despite their defense being in the middle of the pack, their historically good scoring numbers have pushed their net rating into a second-place tie with Houston at +7.3.
They are one of the best offensive rebounding teams, and they are right there with Oklahoma City in terms of protecting the ball. No matter how you measure their shooting, their percentages all fall in the top 10.
That's all really good basketball. Unless, that is, the game is close.
Of Boston’s 14 losses, 11 are “clutch” losses, or games that were within five in the last five minutes. The Celtics are 8-11 in those games, and this is where the numbers show Boston’s underlying weaknesses.
Boston’s clutch offensive rating (111.9) is exactly 10 points worse than their overall rating and is currently 13th in the NBA. Their clutch defensive rating is 128.2, last in the league and almost 14 points worse than their overall rating. Their net rating is -16.3. So while the Celtics normally out-score their opponents by 7.6 points per 100 possessions, they're getting blown out by 16.3 per 100 possessions in clutch situations.
Their turnover percentage drops from