These Celtics owe it to themselves to push for a long playoff run

Jayson Tatum’s long morning workout in Detroit and the competitiveness that followed that night confirmed dreams that the Celtics could contend this season. Jaylen Brown looked like the best player on the floor early, Boston won the offensive rebounding battle again over one of the league’s most physically imposing teams and Brown barely missed a game-winning leaner over Tobias Harris that would’ve tied the season series 2-2.

Elsewhere, a fading Knicks squad remained 1.5 games behind Boston as their season continued spiraling. The Celtics rolled over conference rivals Miami and Atlanta on their recent road trip, and entered Wednesday in an effective tie with Denver for the top offense in the NBA and 14th in defense, amounting to a tie with Detroit for the best net rating (+7.4) in the Eastern Conference. And however much Joe Mazzulla stresses it could all disappear tomorrow, this Celtics team proved itself as a legitimate contender in the first half of the season.

Advertisement

“We have to make that decision every day, so I’m not sure we can say, ‘this is where we’re at now,’” Mazzulla said in Atlanta. “We could lose it all tomorrow, so it’s everything. It’s just the process that goes into winning, defending at a high level, understanding the details, rebounding, offensive execution, time-and-score, situational basketball, game plan execution. We have to make the decision every day to get better.”

Mazzulla and the players never considered this anything other than another season to compete. The payroll reductions, comments about prioritizing getting Tatum back on the floor and a relative lack of front court depth the front office assembled signaled another direction: a step back that never happened due to excellent coaching, individual player developments across the board and relatively full health throughout the first half.

Still, decisions loom about setting the Celtics up best for the long term, Boston is still relatively high above the tax, and the team could use another consistent rotation player especially if Tatum can’t return this season. Brad Stevens, Bill Chisholm and company…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/celtics-owe-themselves-push-long-113300498.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-01-23 11:33:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.