Seven Celtics takeaways from entertaining homestand against NBA elite – NBC Sports Boston

[ad_1]

Well, that was (mostly) fun.

The most intriguing stretch of the Boston Celtics’ 2024-25 regular-season schedule is now in the rearview mirror. A two-week, seven-game homestand featured glitzy matchups and far more good than bad for the green team, but was nevertheless bookended by frustrating losses to arguably the two biggest threats in Boston’s quest to repeat as champions.

So, what did we learn in this stretch? What should the Celtics prioritize over the remaining 16-game slog to the playoffs?

Here are seven thoughts from the homestead:

1. Cavs and Thunder are for real

If the regular-season dominance of the Cavaliers and Thunder wasn’t enough to convince you that these two teams could be true roadblocks for the Celtics on their 2025 playoff path, then the two losses to those squads in this homestand certainly emphasized it.

We couldn’t be more impressed with the Thunder. Oklahoma City was playing its third game in four nights and coming off a gritty home-and-home with Denver, their primary competition in the West. What’s more, the Thunder were without All-Star guard Jalen Williams and were still the aggressors with the way they jumped Boston out of the gates Wednesday night.

The Thunder are super handsy, they somehow don’t foul, and they fully deter you from even trying to dribble towards the basket — as evidenced by the Celtics’ franchise-record 63 3-point attempts. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, meanwhile, manages to throw in every circus shot on the rare drive that he doesn’t get a whistle. It’s an infuriating team to play against.

The Cavaliers are cockroaches. They barely blinked despite falling behind by 22 points in the opening minutes in their last Boston visit. They rallied from another double-digit deficit in the second half and showed again how good they are at closing games, boasting a league-best .786 winning percentage in clutch games (22-6 overall) this season.

The Celtics made their playoff path look easy last year. It feels safe to suggest that this year’s trail has a lot more obstacles to navigate, and the Celtics will need to be even more dialed in…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://www.nbcsportsboston.com/nba/boston-celtics/cavaliers-thunder-al-horford-jaylen-brown-kristaps-porzingis/695844/?partner=yahoo

Author :

Publish date : 2025-03-13 12:52:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.