This season, Boston has defeated opponents by nearly all-time highs. However, there are indications that when the heat gets really intense, they might break again.
The Boston Celtics added more luster to what is expected to be an unprecedented regular-season campaign while also driving out some of the ghosts of the 2022 NBA Finals when they defeated the Golden State Warriors 140-88 at the beginning of this month.
The Celtics recorded their third 50-point victory of the season, an NBA record, and the third-highest margin of victory in franchise history thanks to 27 points from 26-year-old Jayson Tatum and 29 points from Jaylen Brown. It was also their eleventh straight victory, a stretch in which they had annihilated their opponents by an average of 22 points, the largest margin of victory throughout a winning run of ten or more games in a single season in NBA history.
With the win, Boston’s record now stands at 48-12. They also restricted Stephen Curry to just four points in a convincing victory that forced Golden State coach Steve Kerr to sit his starters for the duration of the second half after the Celtics had jumped out to a 44-point lead at halftime.
Curry remarked, “That’s what we used to do to teams,” following the match.
However, the Celtics had demonstrated their championship credentials against the Warriors in just two games, and losses in their subsequent games exposed many of the problems that have caused recent playoff campaigns to conclude without a championship.
First, they lost 105-104 to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night after blowing a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter, which Brown referred to as “a mentality loss.” If Boston hadn’t been struggling to execute its late-game strategy, the loss could have been dismissed as a fluke in an otherwise hectic schedule.
The Celtics’ tendency to falter in the closing minutes of close games has been one of the main complaints leveled at them throughout the past two postseasons. This season, the Celtics haven’t played in many really close games, but when they have, the same old issues have surfaced. Considering the entire season, Boston’s pace—which is determined by averaging the number of plays every 48 minutes—places them 18th in the league. The Celtics’ pace is ranked 30th in clutch situations, which include the last five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime when the score is within five points.
Another prevalent critique of the Celtics in the playoffs is that head coach Joe Mazzulla decided not to call a timeout to draw up a planned play with the game versus the Cavaliers on the line. Rather, the Celtics gave the ball to Tatum, their best player, and let him do the heavy lifting. However, as a result, the All-NBA forward began to dribble down the clock and attempted a low-percentage, ultimately futile fall-away jump shot.
Two days later, at Denver, the Celtics outplayed the Nuggets 29–25 in the fourth quarter, showing improved performance. Still, it was insufficient to beat the defending champs. The most obvious cause of that loss was, once again, a problem they have encountered during the playoffs: they almost never start their greatest player when playing the best teams.
Against the Nuggets, Tatum shot a pitiful five of fifteen from the field. He committed as many errors as successful field goals. Two-time MVP of Denver Nikola Jokic finished with 32 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists on an incredibly effective 59.7% shooting percentage.
Tatum missed an open corner three-pointer in the final minute that would have given the Celtics the lead as they rallied late in the game. It demonstrated his clutch difficulties once more. Tatum is shooting 31.1% from field goal range this season and scoring just 2.5 points per game in key situations. Jokic, on the other hand, is averaging 3.6 points on 54.8% shooting in the clutch.
Tatum has obviously not yet reached his best. He’s only twenty-six. He is currently among the top ten players in the world, at the very least. He has also performed well in high-stress playoffs situations in the past, such as a 46-point showing in a 2022 playoff game against the Milwaukee Bucks that resulted in elimination and a Game 7 record-tying 51 points against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Conference semifinals of the previous season.
With the losses to the Cavaliers and Nuggets last week, Tatum’s chances of winning MVP this season were all but eliminated. He bemoaned the fact that he believed MVP voters would penalize him for his previous postseason setbacks, particularly his lackluster showing against the Warriors two years prior. Before those worries are dispelled, he might need to guide Boston to a championship—something he is capable of doing.
But in the last 30 years, only two teams—the 2004 Detroit Pistons and the 2019 Toronto Raptors, who had a prior finals MVP in Kawhi Leonard on their squad—have won the NBA title without having an MVP on their roster. The club with the top player wins a lot when it comes to the playoffs. When compared to the players that will most likely face them in the late postseason, the Celtics cannot currently claim to have the best player.
Tatum is hardly a one-man show, and Boston still boasts maybe the best squad in the NBA. Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, the preseason additions, have given offense and defense new dimensions. Porzingis, in particular, jumps out because he can score in the low post, which gives Boston a new weapon. When it comes to who makes the final shot in close games, Mazzulla should count on the 7′ 3″ big from Latvia, perhaps relying on his 66.7% clutch shooting rate.
In Phoenix on Saturday, Boston made a spectacular comeback, defeating Kevin Durant and the Suns 117-107 to avert the Celtics’ first three-game losing streak of the year. Tatum was also back to his usual self, finishing with 29 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists despite his still subpar 39.2% field goal percentage.
The Celtics are still on track to have one of the best regular-season seasons in recent memory, despite their recent defeats. They are eight games ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks in second place in the Eastern Conference and have all but secured the top spot. Their offensive rating is the highest in the league, while their defensive rating is ranked third. The five teams who finished ahead of them, all but one, went on to win championships in the same season, making their league-best average winning margin the sixth-best in NBA history.
Following Thursday’s loss in Denver, Tatum remarked, “That’s a really good team over there.” Excellent coaching. You have to defeat them since they frequently make the right plays. They are not capable of defeating themselves.
In making that comment, Boston’s best player identified the key distinction between his team and the current champions: the Celtics need to learn how to clear their own path if they want to have any chance of winning a championship for the first time since 2008.
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