The Current Level Of Basketball Being Played By The Champs Is Enough To Give You A Raging Porzingis In Your Pants

Vaughn Ridley. Getty Images.

6 in a row. 10 of the last 11. 13 of the last 16. 

So far this season, we've seen the Celts rip off a 16-3 start, play just above .500 basketball for about 6 weeks, and another 16-3 stretch. There's a reason I always try and stress how important it is to keep perspective, both during the good times and the bad. The regular season is a marathon, and when you look at how they've done up until this point

it should start to feel pretty damn familiar from a season that I think we can all agree worked out pretty well all the way back in 2023-24

The only real difference was the collective shooting slump this entire roster went through in December of this season. That's pretty much it. Once again the Celts lead the NBA with 20+ point wins. They once again are the only team in the NBA to own a top 5 offense and defense. They own the NBA's best road record. They are 20-10 against teams .500 or better, which trails just CLE (22) and OKC (20). This current 6 game winning streak? All wins were by double digits. During this stretch they went into CLE and beat that ass, then whooped the 3 seeded Knicks twice.

Their 13-3 record during their last 16 games is the best record in the NBA. During this stretch, they are 4th in offense, defense, and net rating with a 60% TS% as a team and a collective 65% AST%. Opponents are averaging just 106 points a game during this run, which is the 2nd lowest total in the entire NBA. Opponents are shooting just 32.5% from deep, good for 4th. 

The overall point I'm trying to make is if we can assume a team is focused and locked in to start a season, and everyone pretty much agrees that after the All Star Break NBA teams start to care and try, then a 32-6 record during those two stretches should tell you everything you need to know about the defending Champs. While there are new media darlings this season, do not get it twisted.

Things still run through the Champs until proven otherwise.

Even a night like last night against TOR can tell you something. In this win on the front end of a back to back, the Celts were without 4 rotation players, including their entire frontcourt with Jrue, Al, KP, and Kornet all missing the game. The result? Another double digit road win. That shit is not normal, even if the Raptors may stink. 

What it does do is show you how versatile the Celts are. They have the ability to mold their lineups and approach to whatever the game needs at any moment. That's the strength of being solid 1-12 in your rotation while being led by a generational duo.

It was a fun one last night, so let's dive in.

The Good

- Outside of the ball security problems last night (6 TOs) which were kind of gross, I think it's fair to suggest we are witnessing Jayson Tatum play nearly perfect basketball during this stretch. Both ends of the floor have been lights out, his rebounding is back to being around double digits (3 in the last 4 games) and the passing, my God the passing has been sensational. 30 assists in his last 3 games AS A WING, just tremendous stuff

In a game like this, where you're so shorthanded and it's the frontend of a B2B, it's on the best players on the team to ensure that things stay the course. Given the Raptors beat the Celtics in Boston not too long ago, you could tell there was proper motivation for this one, and that starts at the top. When Jayson Tatum is locked in, everyone else follows suit. In a game he didn't even shoot all that well (7-18, 3-12) and only took 2 FTA, it didn't even matter. Tatum was STILL a team best +20 in his minutes…..because that's what he does. When he is on the court, he dominates. Sometimes that's through scoring, other times that's through defense, other times that's through passing.

What do we call that? A complete player. You don't have to take my word for it, just listen to the Raptors coach 

Given he was operating with 0 bigs available, it didn't surprise me that Tatum had a night where he spammed a lot of 3s, and honestly given the context around it I don't even really care. Considering they play tonight, I had no problem with him taking a bit of a less aggressive approach offensively, not really driving or attacking the rim but instead being more of a facilitator and 3pt shooter. 

Again, he was a +20 in his minutes so it clearly worked. 

He led the starters in rebounds and assists, opposing teams ONLY care about stopping him when allows everyone else to feast because Jayson Tatum might be the least selfish superstar on earth who will always make the right play no matter what, and in a game where you're shorthanded on the road and you need your best player to step up, he did. What more could you ask for?

I especially look at how he closed the game in the final 3 minutes. Defensively he was huge, offensively he made timely buckets and passes, he rebounded well, it was exactly what the Celts needed to prevent letting go of the rope down the stretch and maintaining their 7-10 point lead. 

There are a lot of reasons the Celts have looked like themselves over the last 20 or so games, but make no mistake. It starts with Jayson Tatum playing some of his best basketball of the season.

- I think our sample is large enough to where we can officially declare Derrick White has clawed his way out of his shooting slump. The Magnet Ball is back, and when that happens there's just no defensive solve for this team. If you're too concerned with stopping the Jays, they're going to make the easy read and find a player like White, who is going to do shit like this

How rare was Derrick's 22/3/5/3/2 with 6 3PM in this win? 

He's the first Celtic to EVER do something like that in an NBA game. This season, in the entire NBA, there have only been 3 other instances of a player doing it (Harden, Luka, Krejci).

Since White's rest day vs HOU on 1/27, he's played 11 games. In those 11 games, he's shooting 50/46% with 3.9 3PM. That's what I mean when I say the magnet ball is back. What the Derrick White release valve 3PM does cannot be overlooked. It breaks the spirit of the defense and the fans (if on the road). You can play 23 seconds of good defense, and the next thing you know White is making a massive late game dagger right in your eyeball that doesn't even come close to touching the rim. His makes are back to being pure, and that's all I need to see.

Then you factor in the rim protection? I mean what guard is doing this consistently??

It doesn't exactly feel like a coincidence that once White snapped out of his prolonged shooting slump that the Celts as a whole look like themselves. As we say, as Derrick goes this team goes. I'm at the point where I'm not sure there is another player on the roster that I want taking a big moment/clutch time 3PA than Derrick. He never misses it. It's very obvious that he possesses the Clutch Gene, and I LOVE that his teammates look for him in those moments. In a way, it perfectly encapsulates what Mazzulla Ball is all about.

Being a good teammate. Trusting one another. Shooting with confidence. Making the right play. 

I don't think anyone would suggest Derrick White is the Celtics best player, but in those moments the best players understand that with the opposing defense being keyed in on stopping them/getting the ball out of their hands, someone like Derrick having full confidence to take those shots matters. The fact that he has the skill to make them at a high clip is what makes this team unguardable. Unselfish superstars who will never hesitate to make the right play, even in the biggest moments of the game, is what sets this team apart. 

- On the road, down half of your top rotation, you know what that means. It means it's Payton Pritchard time and boy did he deliver

The 20 points off the bench is whatever. That's not new. The man is tied for the lead in the NBA in 20 point games off the bench this season with 18, so that's to be expected. That's what he does. Only having 1 TO in his 34 minutes is also pretty much the standard. 

What I loved about Pritchard's night came in two stretches. The first was the end of the 3rd where he perfectly executed a 2 for 1, first drawing in the defense and finding Hauser for a big time 3PM, and then the very next possession hitting a buzzer beating 3 of his own.

That took the lead from 7 to 13 entering the 4th, which would prove to be pretty massive. Those little moments are what swing momentum and are the plays around the margins that this team routinely makes when they aren't battling a collective slump.

The second moment was this OREB

I still have no idea how he came down with that ball, and even though the Celts didn't score on that extra possession, that doesn't even matter. What matters is the time and score. Buying those extra seconds off the clock is what helps you stay ahead of the scoreboard math and protect your lead down the stretch. It's the type of deflating play around the margins that can make all the difference in the world, and again, he's the smallest player on the court making that play.

When you watch Pritchard this season, I think it's pretty obvious that his leap this season is how he's been able to make a massive winning impact in other areas than scoring. The 3PT shooting will always be important, but his defense, rebounding, playmaking is where his true leap comes from. You just know he's going to grab a massive OREB in a playoff game, it might be the most obvious thing of all time. 

- I don't care who you are playing, if you're down 4 players and your entire frontcourt and you still hold an NBA team to 101 points, that is impressive.

It goes back to the stat I put at the top of this blog. While the shooting coming back has been massive, as we know if you don't defend, nothing else matters. The Celts defense has been the backbone of this turnaround, and I feel like they've answered the question most of us had when it came to their defensive issues. When they need to lock in, they can lock in.

Now, it should also be noted that the Raptors can't really shoot so that helps, but the Celts did also force 16 TOs.

They also managed to stay attached in rebounding (39 vs 40) despite playing SUPER small, and I credit guys like Hauser and Pritchard (12 rebounds) for doing their part to make up for the fact that they only had 1 big available.

- Outside of a not so great stretch to open the 2nd, much like Tatum I thought Jaylen Brown filled his role as one of the best players on the team as well. The expectations for him are similar to that of Tatum in that when the Celts are on the road and shorthanded, that's the time for the best players to backpack, and Jaylen did his job

25/5/4 on 10-18 (0-5) shooting and 4-4 from the FT line, outside of his TOs as well (3), I thought this was another solid Jaylen showing on both ends of the floor. 

He's now over 80% from the FT line over his last 11 games, the midrange efficiency is back, the paint/rim finishing is back, and really the only Infinity Stone we're still missing with Jaylen is the 3pt shooting. Since about mid January (15 games), he's only shooting 30% from deep on his 5.3 attempts. The volume number is right where it needs to be in my opinion, I'd just prefer if that could get up to 33-34%. It just needs to be a weapon he can go to that defenses have to worry about. That's what is going to open up his driving lanes into the paint, where he's at his best.

After the Jaylen led non-Tatum lineup minutes were pretty gross in the 2nd quarter, for the second straight game that lineup led by Jaylen was awesome to start the 4th while Tatum got his rest. Jaylen was 3-4 for 8 points in his 8 4th quarter minutes, and it provided that stability to be even with the Raptors until Tatum re-entered the game which at the end of the day is all this team needs to do when Tatum sits. 

Considering the non-Tatum lineups with Jaylen usually include Jrue and KP, that group having success in the highest leverage part of the game is notable to me. In the non-Tatum minutes this season with Jaylen on the floor, the Celts have a 124 ORTG on the season

If you also remove KP from those lineups, so no Tatum/KP but Jaylen on the court, the Celts offense has a 125 ORTG

That, is what plays a large role in this team being a wagon.

- Shoutout Jordan Walsh for what I thought were the most impactful minutes of any deep bench player. I have no idea why he didn't play in the second half considering he was solid defensively, brought the right energy, and the team was so shorthanded.  'm not sure why he's fallen out of the rotation in games like this when his on the court play this season has been more than fine, and I hope that's not the case moving forward. His development is pretty important, and I feel like he's earned at least 10-15 minutes in these types of games.

The Bad

- With not having any bigs available, there are some things you can assume are going to happen. The fact that the Raptors scored 68 points in the paint is pretty pathetic, and while part of that may have been the lack of rim protection, I actually think it all started with the poor perimeter defense. Time and time again we saw the Raptors put the ball on the floor and go right by their primary defender. There was no real perimeter resistance which allowed for easy buckets at the rim, and honestly it reminded me of the stretches of the season where the Celts defense struggled.

We saw numerous possessions of Hauser getting taken off the dribble, I didn't think Jaylen's perimeter defense was all that great, and in the end it's why the Raptors finished with 50% shooting. Had they not been complete dogshit from deep (5-33), this is an entirely different ballgame.

So while the 101 points are nice, I still am going to need a better effort defensively on the perimeter. The fact that there was no backline help would have you assume that guys would be more locked in defensively, but in reality it was basically a cakewalk into the paint/at the rim. That's going to burn you against a better team.

- While Tatum at the 5 intrigues me, the results certainly weren't all that great. Considering he also played in lineups that included 4 Maine Red Claws you can't look too much into it, but it did feel like this was the first time in forever that we've seen Tatum at the 5. It may not have blown doors last night, but I do want to see more of it in certain spots, just to get the reps in.

- Tatum/Brown combining for 9 of the 14 TOs isn't exactly what I would call "good", and a lot of them are the braindead CTE level basketball types of turnovers that drive us all insane. I can handle stepping on the sideline or maybe a travel. It's the live ball dribbling/poor passes that drive me insane. They are way too smart of players to continue to be this careless, and their TOs have sneaky been on the rise these last few games.

They have the ball way too much and have been too good all year in terms of their TOs for this to be their norm, so I'd like to see that be cleaned up.

- Baylor Scheierman, I dunno man. On one hand, it's Year 1. On the other hand, he just has not shown flashes of a guy that is anything more than a AAAA player. Billed as a shooter, he's 1-15 from deep as a Celtic. Given he's already on the older side, I'm not sure what things end up looking like for him. Is it Brad's first miss? Time will tell, but things haven't looked all that great in his limited spots.

- I know this sounds mean, but a game like this is exactly why Torrey Craig is here. Shorthanded, bad team, this is what end of the bench buyout guys are for. Part of that responsibility is making your open 3s. He finished 0-5 and was mostly pretty "meh" in his minutes, and while it might be unfair because he just got here, that's not really the point.

This is not the Bulls. To play on this team, there is an expectation of filling your role. If he's not going to make his 3s, I don't need him stealing minutes from Jordan Walsh's development. The outside shooting is supposed to be what separates him, and we did not get that last night by any means.

For anyone to suggest that Craig is going to steal Hauser's playoffs minutes, I mean what are we doing? He's a fine player, but that all depends on his ability to make open 3s. If he's not, he doesn't need to play over younger legs.

The Ugly

- Nope. You know the rule. We're done here until they lose again.

Now with TOR out of the way, we can turn our attention to a fantastic test in the Pistons. Winners of 7 straight vs Winners of 7 straight so something's gotta give. My guess is the Celts will have everyone back, maybe Jaylen sits as a precaution, but there's no doubt this game tonight will be great. If the Celts go out and continue to play this current brand of basketball we've seen over the last month, things should be just fine.