Here’s your daily reminder that the NBA is an incredibly long season.
The Boston Celtics had a supremely disappointing first half of the season. It began with Marcus Smart publicly voicing his frustrations with his team’s offensive gameplan before suggesting that Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum don’t want to pass the ball. Then there was the historically bad three-point shooting night against the LA Clippers and then achoked-away 25-point lead to the New York Knicks that resulted in a buzzer-beating loss.
Mostly everything that could have gone wrong did, and the C’s found themselves in 11th place in the Eastern Conference with a 22-22 record on January 16th. Exactly one month later, those same Celtics are winners of nine-straight games, sixth place out East and are just 3.5 games back of the first-place Miami Heat.
The nine-game winning streak includes impressive blowout wins over Miami and Philadelphia, re-routing Boston’s season.
Boston Celtics Futures
Odds via Tipico Sportsbook
NBA Championship: +3000
Eastern Conference Championship: +1300
Atlantic Division Winner (regular season): +300
With their 135-87 victory over the 76ers, The Celtics are the first team in NBA history to win 3 straight road games by at least 30 points. pic.twitter.com/2hqDX7pgX9
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 16, 2022
What’s changed?
Boston’s shift has taken place on the defensive end, which has very easily been the best in the NBA over that period. Check out these stats:
Since January 29th
Defensive Rating: 95.5 (1st)
Opponent PPG: 94.1 (1st)
Opponent FG%: 37.9 (1st)
Opponent 3P%: 29.2 (1st)
Opponent PITP: 40.4 (2nd)
Blocks: 7.2 (1st)
Even looking beyond the nine-straight wins, coach Ime Udoka’s team has the best defensive rating in the league (100.4) since January 1st and is allowing the fewest point per game (97.5) in that same span, leading to Boston’s 17-6 record in 2022.
But that shift in defense isn’t just a switch that Boston randomly decided to flip. It helps to have your best players on the court.
If you look at the last nine games, specifically, you’ll see that the phenomenal defense is a direct result of the availability of the team’s great defenders. Al Horford, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart and Grant Williams played in all nine. Robert Williams played in eight of those and Derrick White in three (after being acquired via trade).
The Celtics beat the Sixers by 48 points tonight, tied for the 2nd largest road win in franchise history.
Boston has the 2nd best defense in the NBA and have been 1st since Christmas. pic.twitter.com/XhCOjkiEMB
— StatMuse (@statmuse) February 16, 2022
It may have sounded preposterous about a month ago, but the Celtics have put themselves in a position to make a run at homecourt advantage in the postseason, and maybe more. They’ll finish up with the Detroit Pistons (+12.5) before heading into the All-Star break.
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