Written by Sports-Hop Media Staff writer Mack B.
After burning up the NBA and running through much of the competition earlier in the season, the Celtics cooled off quickly and came back down to earth. Despite losing Gordon Hayward in the first game of the year to a nasty lower leg injury, the Celtics ran off a winning streak of 16 consecutive games and were looking good. With injuries to Marcus Smart and some poor defensive outings and bad shooting, the Celtics hit a wall and were in a semi slump.
Head coach Brad Stevens is still one of the best player coaches in the league, and the Celtics seem to have regained some momentum after the NBA Allstar break. It certainly helped matters that Marcus Smart returned to the lineup after missing 11 games with a hand injury after punching out a picture frame in a team hotel room. That certainly wasn’t the “smartest move” that Smart could’ve made, no pun intended of course.
Sometimes many folks (including myself) forget the fact that the Celtics are one of the younger teams in the league with outstanding players who are 25 years old or younger. This core of youth includes Kyrie Irving (24.6 PPG/5.1 ASST), Marcus Smart (10 PPG/ 4.7 ASST), Jaylen Brown (13.9 PPG/ 5.4 RBDS), and Jayson Tatum (13.5 PPG/ 5.1 RBDS). Despite being young, they certainly don’t play like it.
Kyrie already has a championship ring not to mention big time playoff experience from his tenure in Cleveland. I’ve taken notice that when the Kyrie goes, so does the Celtics offense. If he’s struggling to get his shot off and not connecting or his penetration to the hoop is limited, this heavily hurts the Celtics and they tend to struggle when that happens.
Their struggle is on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively as well. From January 1st up until the Allstar break, the Celtics ranked 28th in offensive efficiency. They gave up a lot of points on the defensive side as well, allowing the Clippers to put up 129 pts and Cleveland added 121 pts.
These were games in which the Celtics suffered two home losses. They tend to do better and play with a nice flow when they’re hitting their outside shots and Kyrie is able to penetrate to the basket and score at the rim or dish the ball out to an open shooter on the wing. When Boston steps up its defensive intensity and is shooting well from the outside, they can play with anybody in the league.
In fact when the Celtics hold teams under 44% from the field, they are 28-0. They are also 30-7 when they score over 100pts in a game. When holding the opposition under 100pts, the Celtics are 27-3. I believe that the Celtics will have the ability to beat anyone in the East with the exception of Cleveland.
Despite me picking the Cavs in a seven game series vs the Celtics, trust me it will be a dog fight and Boston will not back down from King James or anyone they may face. I believe it’s important for the Celtics to secure the #1 seed and get home court advantage in the playoffs as they tend to feed off of the home crowd and play well. They’ve also proven that they can win on the road as well, but I like their chances even more in a seven game series when they have the home court advantage.
We shall see if the luck of the Irish and Mr. Leprechaun sprinkles the Celtics with an extra stroke of luck come April and May. If the Celtics can stay healthy and remain disciplined and focused, watch out world for this could get even more interesting than you anticipated.