Peak Celtics: with the playoffs starting next week, Boston is hitting its stride

With the #2 seed all locked up, the Celtics didn’t have a lot to play for Friday evening. They have been internet hosting the Raptors for a second straight sport with out Jaylen Brown, Marcus Good, and Malcolm Brogdon. The rest of the common season was all however a formality. Nothing was on the road. Jayson Tatum performed solely within the first half. And the Celtics gained in blowout style anyway.

“We had no motive to be aggressive and play the way in which we did apart from it was the suitable factor to do,” head coach Joe Mazzulla stated after a 121-102 blowout of Toronto the place his workforce was main by as many as 36 factors within the first half.

Sure, if not for some dizzy spells in December and one other proper after the All-Star break, Boston ought to have been the #1 seed in all the league and an iconic 60-game winner. However alas, whether or not it was the monotony of the common season or impatience for a second probability to finish unfinished enterprise after their Finals run got here up brief final July, these are our Celtics. They’re fairly rattling good and enjoying their greatest basketball of the season.

“Expertise is the perfect instructor. This group, we’ve been via alot over these final two years. We completed loads and we failed collectively,” Tatum stated after scoring 21 factors in twenty first half minutes and changing into the primary Celtic to common 30+ factors per sport in a single season.

“Basically, we labored all offseason, preseason and had an important common season. To get up to now, to get again to the playoffs, to get one other alternative, one other shot. That is the second that — not been ready for — however working for.”

In the event you imagine in momentum, this might be a greater time for the playoffs to come back. They’ll have to attend for Tuesday to seek out out who they’ll meet within the first spherical. It’ll both be the Miami Heat or the Atlanta Hawks on the town subsequent weekend they usually’ll be dealing with a Celtics workforce on the peak of their powers.

It was unrealistic to count on the Celtics to take care of their scorching begin. By the primary twenty-two video games in October and November, they boasted a blistering 121.5 offensive score and capturing 40.8% from behind the arc.

However over the course of the 82-game common season, water discovered its degree on that aspect of the ball and as a substitute of catching fireplace on offense, Boston regained their defensive identification that made them so robust on the flip of the brand new yr final season.

By March and April, they’re permitting simply 108.7 factors per 100 possessions over nineteen video games. And if the season really did finish at the moment, they’d end the yr with the second greatest offense and second greatest protection within the NBA, good for first in web score.

“I don’t suppose we actually had that many ups and downs this yr. I imply, we gained 70% of our video games,” Mazzulla stated.

The Toronto Raptors got here into city with a chance to maneuver up within the standings and probably face the Celtics within the postseason; beat Boston on their dwelling flooring twice would have despatched a convincing message to a contending top-seed. As an alternative, a convincing two-game sweep extinguished these hopes and extra so large image, put all the league on discover.