Superhero Squad
It is not going out on a limb to say the Boston Celtics are the hottest team in the NBA at this moment in time. After a relatively routine win over the rebuilding Thunder, Boston who looked dead in the water in December is now tied with the Bucks and 76ers for the second seed in the Eastern Conference.
The road trip was a display of how team basketball is supposed to be played. Tatum and Brown got theirs, but that did not stop the rest of the squad from contributing in their own ways. Payton Pritchard looked like a man possessed on the road this past week, as he went 100% from beyond the arc in two of the four games outside of TD Garden. The second quarter against the Nuggets was like a clinic for Pritchard and Tatum who were just lighting Denver up with their elite shot-making abilities.
C/O: The Associated Press
Following the win over the Nuggets on the road, Jaylen Brown stated, "Not satisfied. I can always play better…It feels good to win games, and I don’t want to discredit that. But we’ve still got a lot to do. We haven’t proven ourselves yet."
Every game for the Celtics is the same old story at this point. Get off to a hot start, build a lead with their relentless defense, and never look back even though sometimes teams hang around as Oklahoma City did with its fourth-quarter surge. Whenever it feels like Boston is losing momentum in any part of a contest, there is currently no need to panic with the way the Celtics are playing. At the beginning of the season, that was a different story. Passing, unselfishness, and discipline define what Boston is right now, and why it ran through its road trip with relative ease.
While the Celtics do shoot a lot of threes, the points in the paint numbers are quite impressive as of recently, and the willingness to get to the cup shows on the box score at the end of the game. Even with all of the success as of late, it still feels like Boston has something to prove night in and night out. The intensity on the defensive end of the floor, making every shot a difficult one for the opposition, and the much-improved ball movement makes the Celtics a dangerous team heading into the postseason.
C/O: David Butler II
The passing once again stands out for the Celtics as Boston has another game of over 20 assists. It is not just the assists, but the hockey assists and extra passes that make the lives of its opponents a nightmare. Tatum moved into first in the NBA in total points scored after the win over the Thunder passing Bulls superstar DeMar DeRozan. The 24-year-old is without question a dark horse candidate to win MVP this season. While Embiid and Jokic will be the frontrunners, Tatum is making a point to the league that he is without hesitation an All-NBA player.
Grant "Batman" Williams has demonstrated his importance to the team by locking up the former MVP and dropping 20 and 10 following his creation of his own nickname. Everything is clicking on all cylinders for Boston right now as Williams stated, "I feel like this team is growing closer and closer every single day. We are proving ourselves so we can compete, not only with the best teams, the worst teams, but anyone in the league. It's a matter of maintaining the consistency, not riding the highs or lows, just staying even-keeled."
Over the past few years, the Celtics have lacked that camaraderie. Williams giving everyone on the team a superhero name may not mean that much, but the fact that he and his teammates can laugh about it means a whole lot. Sometimes the locker room in Boston has been filled with drama, especially in the last few seasons, but right now the team is as interconnected as it has in quite some time. At the beginning of the season, Smart called out Tatum and Brown to pass the ball more, and now that seems like a decade ago with how far everyone in the locker room has grown since then.
C/O: USA Today Sports
In the last 15 contests, Boston is top-10 in assist percentage, and top-4 in assist ratio in the NBA. In December, the Celtics were ranked 25th in the league in assist ratio, showing how much improvement the offense has made in just a few months' time. Boston's offensive rating in the last month of 2021 was in the middle of the pack at 15th, but in the last 15 games, the Celtics' offensive rating is number one in the NBA by a landslide.
Boston's defense has been the talking point during the Celtics' resurgence, but the other side of the ball has been almost as lethal. There are only three teams that are in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive rating in the month of March, and those include, the Suns, the red-hot Timberwolves, and the Boston Celtics. Since the All-Star break, Boston has had the second-lowest turnover percentage in the league behind the Atlanta Hawks.
Cleaner and more fluid offense, on top of a defense anchored with one of the most intimidating shot blockers in the game, Robert Williams III, the Celtics have a legit shot at the NBA Finals. The bench has stepped up led by "Batman" and his sidekicks "Captain Marvel", "Quicksilver", and "Iron Man", among others. With just a few weeks left in the regular season, Boston has the players, the chemistry, and the coach to make a run when meaningful basketball comes around.
A team full of superheroes seems like a tough squad to beat in a seven-game series. Tatum and Brown have embraced their roles as not only leaders but also creators on the offensive end of the floor. Both stars attract multiple defenders on almost every possession but both of them have found ways to find the right guy in the right position to make a play when called upon.
Ime Udoka otherwise known as "Nick Fury" has crafted a mediocre team into one that has the ability to contend with the elites of the Eastern Conference. With all the talk about avoiding the Nets in the first round, Boston should not be concerned about who they play because if the Celtics play the way they are playing, there isn't a team out there that is going to beat them.
