Everything has gone according to plan for the Celtics . . . at least so far
The Celtics are 43-12 at the All-Star break, posting the best record in the league and a six-game advantage over second-place Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference.
So this is what “going according to plan” looks like.
At the NBA All-Star break, your 2023-24 Boston Celtics own a 4½-game lead over the Minnesota Timberwolves for the best record in the league, and a six-game advantage over the second-place Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference.
They have won 43 games and lost a mere 12. Three of those losses have come in overtime. Four have come by 3 or fewer points, and only four have been by double digits.
They don’t win every game. But they win most. And even the ones they do lose don’t often get away from them.
More Celtics:
Their excellence is confirmed in the numbers. The Celtics possess the league’s best offensive rating (121.7, meaning they score 121.7 points per 100 possessions), third-best defensive rating (111.5), and top net rating (plus-10.2).
One more for the analytically inclined: In games — fine, game — in which Jayson Tatum and Derrick White both wear headbands, the Celtics’ average margin of victory is 50 points. That’s pretty good. Might want to deploy the Slick Watts look more often.
Further truths: The Celtics have been fortunate to remain healthy and prudent in resting players when they need it, and sometimes even when they don’t.
Their best players have made a genuine effort — with a decent success rate — to curb their individual temptations for the betterment of the team.
Their top six — Tatum, White, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, and Ageless Al Horford — is more talented than any half-dozen you’ll find on any other roster in the NBA, and better, their talents, in large part because of selfless guards White and Holiday, are complementary.
And the camaraderie? Impeccable.
The Celtics would have to go 16-11 or worse over the final 27 games to miss out on achieving the 14th 60-win season in franchise history and first since 2008-09.
It’s hard to avoid nitpicking and overanalyzing every negative thing that happens over the course of an 82-game season. That’s sort of what we do around here. And many among us don’t want to avoid griping at all, exaggerating the flaws and ignoring all that has gone right.
Actually, I do have a gripe. Can we stop citing Bill Russell and Larry Bird’s achievements as a way of diminishing what Tatum is doing at age 25?
It’s an unfair standard. Russell and Bird are two of the top — what, eight? — basketball players of all time (we’ll argue about the order on another day). Russell is the ultimate winner in the history of American team sports, and Bird is as beloved as any Boston athlete has or will be. Even if Tatum did somehow surpass him in one way or another, who around here would ever acknowledge it? (Bet you didn’t know that Tatum’s career 3-point percentage, 37.4, is 0.2 from Bird’s 37.6.)
Sometimes we allow the greats and ghosts from the Celtics’ unparalleled history to overshadow the current players. It will never be that good again. Well, no, it probably won’t, because what was ever that good before?
What we have right now is a Celtics team that has a legitimate chance to be special. Tatum is playing the best all-around basketball of his career (27.1 points, 8.6 rebounds, a career-high 4.6 assists per game, while playing tireless defense and taking his fewest shots per game since 2019-20).
Yeah, he’ll still hoist a step-back, what-the-heck three with 13 seconds left on the shot clock, and the Celtics would benefit greatly from Tatum and Brown ceding most of the initiation of the offense to White and Holiday. But every single player has annoying habits, and he’s gradually eliminated many of his. (He chirps to the officials less now, for instance. I’m glad Grant Williams is no longer around to mimic him.)
Tatum has become craftier, more efficient, and less about his own shots. His name is going to start popping up in the MVP conversation more and more over the next couple of weeks as a national audience begins to grasp all that he’s been doing for the league’s best team, and it’s overdue.
I was confident Tatum would acclimate without much turbulence to the acquisition of Porzingis. I wasn’t so sure Brown would. After signing his $304 million extension in the offseason, human nature — and Brown’s proud, I’ll-show-you approach — suggested he might feel the need to validate the deal by taking even more shots.
Instead, his approach has been commendable. He quickly connected with Porzingis — a clever and unselfish player, and the key to fulfilling these championship dreams — on the court and off.
Brown has been in a bit of a rut lately, but his turnaround 16-footer has become automatic, his defensive attentiveness is more consistent, and I’m not sure what more we could realistically want from him. Here’s hoping he breaks out the Dr. J. rock-the-baby slam in the dunk contest Saturday night — Brown strikes me as one of few players who could pull that off — and brings home some individual hardware.
Holiday and White are the most well-rounded backcourt in the league. Holiday has adjusted and sacrificed his own game to almost unfathomable levels, and when asked about it he just shrugs, like it’s something everyone would do.
White is the team’s best decision-maker and, like Holiday, a picture of humility, one of the easiest Celtics to root for in years. If the Celtics do win it all, Holiday and White will be regarded as a less-cantankerous version of DJ and Danny.
The bench is deep enough, with Horford, Sam Hauser, Oshae Brissett, Payton Pritchard, and Luke Kornet filling specific roles ably, and Xavier Tillman about to get his chance.
The coach, Joe Mazzulla, has grown in his sophomore season, his staff is deeper and more experienced. He seems to have realized that press conferences are not inquisitions, but rather a chance to reveal his abstract sense of humor and genuine basketball intellect.
What else do you want? Another banner? Well, sure. Of course. But those aren’t won in February. We can judge them only by what they have done so far.
This has gone according to plan so far. All of it, in all the right ways.
The mission over the final 27 regular-season games is obvious: Stay focused. Stay healthy. Stay connected. Do that, survive those tenuous moments along the way, and come June, these Celtics can transform from looking like a champion to being one.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com