We said no, but in the end it was yes. And we are not talking about Bill Russell’s team, Larry Bird’s team or the one that was champion in 2008. But the Celtics have recovered the essence of what they have traditionally been, a historic team whose successes are not just prehistoric. That hidden pride has emerged again to reshape and correct a catastrophic start to the season that heralded the early end of a disoriented team and a drifting project. The last course marked a turning point, a huge step backwards with which it was sensed that clean slate. But, as if by magic, the Celtics have gone from resembling a team to being one with all the letters. And with all deserved.
The departure of Danny Ainge and the goodbye to the top of Brad Stevens required time to see the new decisions and the new direction of the entity. It has always been maintained that the role of Stevens and his true virtues, if it has them, they will look better next year, and that at the moment had been dedicated to ending toxic contracts and strengthening a project that would have a real movement later on. The departure of Kemba Walker gave rise to the former, but the sporting inconsistency of the first months of competition was too striking to ignore. Ime Udoka couldn’t hit the key, Marcus Smart seemed more out than in, the need for a generator was getting bigger and, the crossed declarations in the press conferences were as constant as the meetings of only players and the Al Horford who left in 2019 was not the same one we see on the track today, on his way to 36 years old.
However, things have changed without much fanfare. Stevens has dedicated himself to getting rid of toxic products, surround Tatum and Brown with good defensive complements and get some other tool that is not especially expensive and helps in the reconstruction and in the upward dynamic that the team, which was 23-24 on January 21 and has won, is leading, after a start that was too long, 16 of their last 19 games. Now, the situation is totally different: 41-27, half a victory away from fourth place and home field advantage in the first round and only one away from moving up to second place. Something that seemed unthinkable just a few weeks ago and that is just one of the many representations that allow the Celtics to be one of the most fit teams in the current NBA.
The best defense of 2022
The changes in the Celtics have been notorious, visible, spectacular… and they have started in the market. It is ironic that Evan Fournier, in the opening match of the season, left as a former green player against the team he played for last year and that did not make much effort to keep him. Ironic because his season, along with the Knicks’, has gone downhill dramatically while Celtic’s performance has exploded. Fournier’s departure has ended up being logical and the subsequent one, this time by Dennis Schröder, something sung in a player who oversizes himself.
Derrick White has arrived, at the moment with many shooting problems (less than 27% in triples), but as a perfect complement and a good fit in a system in which he will end up, theoretically, standing out; and questionable products have come out like the injured Bol Bol and Dozier along with players who have not performed like Josh Richardson and Romeo Langford, as well as a replacement pitcher like Nik Stauskas, who will not have much prominence but can make free throws. All this overlooking the ephemeral passage of Juancho Hernangómez for a team that never wanted him and didn’t need him.
The defense is extraordinary: Robert Williams (10 points, 9.8 rebounds and more than 2 blocks per night) he is safe in an area where Al Horford brings a lot for his age (10.3+7.6 and great wisdom), and he can get out of it and defend small players on the outside. The other Williams, Grant, isn’t PJ Tucker, but he has stuff from him and he’s stepped up on that side of the court. Marcus Smart has put his batteries into what he does best and Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have put aside defensive indolence and have put together a spectacular effort. The Celtics are now the third best defense in the NBA (the best in 2022) and the second best in the Eastern Conference (after the Cavaliers)the third team that rebounds the most and the second that makes the most blocks per night.
Where is the roof of this team?
That’s the big question. Realism has prevailed in a franchise that, let us remember, He has played three Conference finals since Brad Stevens arrived at the entityand the managerial parsimony of Danny Ainge has been replaced by a young man, very intelligent and who for the moment, It seems have a plan aimed at maintaining the project but completing all the pieces and achieving that collectivism (sports and spiritual, of course) that he has always pursued. Tatum and Brown are no longer alone, even though the former averages more than 26 points and 8 rebounds per game and the latter, perfectly complementing his teammate, more than 23. But the Celtics have six players on the roster averaging more than 10 points a night. and they make up for the absence of a total generator with greater ball control (Smart no longer plays risky shots in tight endgames and distributes well) and long, worked attacks, being the seventh team from the bottom in pace of play.
Now, as much as this is the case, the Eastern Conference scramble is going to be epic: Heat, Bulls, Sixers, the champion Bucks, the aspiring Nets or the Celtics themselves are going to be the protagonists of fabulous playoffs. The current position of the Celtics takes them away from the danger of crossing the Nets at the first change, but the classification fluctuates very quickly and it seems that more than one is going to count while the Nets are forced to press and that the Wizards, eleventh and only two wins, do not hunt them down. Everything that happens then, crosses included, It will be differential to discern a series of eliminations that are going to be much more excitingalways proiri, than those that can occur in the West.
The victory against the Nets with an exhibition included by Tatum it has been just one more example of the resurgence of a team that will be very dangerous in the Garden and, consequently, if they have home court advantage. That 10-1 in 2018 remains in the memory, a year in which only LeBron Jams managed to conquer Boston (with 35 points, 15 rebounds and 9 assists in the seventh game). At that moment, the Celtics’ pulse trembled. In the Orlando bubble, the infighting and the absence of home games in a neutral venue. Now, in 2022, LeBron is out West and the chemistry has picked up with a new face on the bench. and the gradual recovery, through patience, of the personal relationships between the players. And yes, the healthy Nets seem unbeatable, the Bucks simply superior and the Sixers with Harden and Embiid are scary. All of them are potential rivals of the Celtics, a team endorsed by its own history and that seeks the crush and the redemption of a project called for everything, but for now he has been left with nothing. The next objective will be to amend that fact. They’re on time, that’s for sure.
#hell #light #Celtics #dream