The Celtics are doing what good teams are supposed to do, and that's feast off of the weak
Boston is now riding a season-best winning streak of four in a row. And with a relatively soft schedule on the horizon, the forecast for more wins on the horizon looks promising.
The Boston Celtics are in unfamiliar territory right now.
They are doing more than just playing well, with consistency on display at both ends of the floor.
They’re winning…a lot.
And while there are plenty of teams in the NBA with longer stretches of good play than Boston's four-game winning streak, what we’re seeing from this team is a significant sign of growth.
There’s legit value for Boston in winning a game over a back-of-the-pack team like Detroit, that goes beyond padding the win total.
Doing so in such a convincing fashion (the final score, 102-93, doesn’t do justice to the control Boston had, from the opening tip to the final horn) has value when letting up against bad teams has been your modus operandi all season.
And with Friday’s win, Boston (29-25) moves to four games above .500 for the first time this season, the kind of mile-marker that the Celtics should appreciate.
This win, much like what they’ve done to win six of the last seven, was an across-the-roster effort.
Boston’s usual stars did their thing and played well.
And role players off the bench, like Dennis Schroder (10 points), Josh Richardson (12 points, five rebounds) and Grant Williams (seven points) continue to provide steady play in what has been an unsteady season of ups and downs.
Here are the Stars, Studs and Dude from Boston’s win.
STARS
Jayson Tatum: Recently named to his third straight All-Star team, Tatum reminded us all game that he was the best player on the floor. Combining his usual perimeter game with driving lay-ups and dunks, Tatum led all scorers with 24 points on 9-for-21 shooting to go with nine rebounds.
STUDS
Hamidou Diallo: There wasn’t a lot for the Pistons to feel good about, other than the play of Diallo. He finished with a double-double of 21 points and 14 rebounds.
Robert Williams III: Jayson Tatum is convinced TimeLord’s time to be an All-Star is coming. And performances like what we saw against Detroit is a reminder as to why Williams’ play will eventually put him firmly in the All-Star conversation. Williams tallied a double-double of 11 points (he took five shots and made them all) along with 11 rebounds and four assists to go with five blocked shots
DUDS
Jaylen Brown: Brown came out uber-aggressive, possibly looking to show the coaches who did not vote him to the All-Star game that they made a mistake. Nope; not this year. Brown had 13 points but did so on 5-for-13 shooting from the field. He grabbed seven rebounds which was a definite positive. But this performance came up short - well short - of what we see when Brown is playing close to his best basketball.
Celtics’ end of the bench guys: If Brad Stevens ever needed added motivation to gut the end of the Celtics bench at the trade deadline, what we saw in Detroit more than qualifies. In what was a comfortable, easy-breezy win over one of the worst teams in the NBA, it suddenly became a game in the final minute of play despite being ahead by 22 points with four minutes to play which is when Celtics head coach Ime Udoka began clearing the bench.. Boston’s double-digit lead was down to seven points (100-93) with 14.5 seconds to play. Detroit missed its next shot, Boston got the rebound and the game at that point was essentially over. But for the end-of-the-bench guys to play so poorly down the stretch, was just sad to see for Celtics fans.