Boston’s Jaylen Brown drives past Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt during the Celtics’ 126-115 victory in Los Angeles on Monday. Boston owns the NBA’S best record at 23-6. AP Photo/Ryan Sun
There weren’t many questions left about the Boston Celtics entering their daunting four-game road trip last week, but road play was one of them.
Boston is undefeated at home this season, but had been largely mediocre on the road. Some of those issues were because of injuries and tough opponents, but there was something to prove over the past seven days against some of the Western Conference’s best teams.
The Celtics bounced back from a disappointing overtime loss to the Warriors in San Francisco to open the four-game trip by routing Sacramento and the Los Angeles Clippers, and then capping it with an 11-point victory over the Lakers on Monday.
Boston’s point differential for the trip was plus-67 despite the Warriors’ loss, and the team finished the trip with the best record in the NBA at 23-6. They hold the second-best net rating in the NBA and are top five in both offensive rating (second) and defensive rating (fifth).
“I mean, we’ve got a really good team,” Jayson Tatum told reporters in Los Angeles on Monday night. “We’ve got a lot of great individual players and we’ve been playing, for the most part, really good basketball. We expected that. We expected to be good and we worked hard this training camp and the beginning of the season. We obviously know what our ultimate goal is. We’re just trying to get better every day.”
The numbers right now match the eye test that talent-wise, the Celtics looks a cut above the rest in the entire NBA. There may be teams with similar records to Boston (Minnesota, Milwaukee, Philadelphia) but none of them has played nearly as tough of a schedule through 30 games. Despite injuries or tough opponents, the Celtics have come to play every night and haven’t been blown out in any of their six losses.
It’s not a perfect team but it certainly is the most well-rounded title contender this franchise has seen in a decade. With the buy-in evident across the team’s star power with sacrifice occurring up and down the roster, it’s on President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens and the Celtics front office now to double down with this group. The biggest obstacle this team may have right now in pursuing an NBA title could be when it comes to injuries. For that reason, it’s on this team’s brass to put safeguards in place to maximize the title window this season and reduce that risk.
Luckily for Stevens, he has options in place to achieve that goal without touching the team’s top six players. A $6.2 million traded-player exception will enable Boston to add to the roster without necessarily sending out any meaningful contributors. The Celtics still have three future first-round picks available to move along with a truckload of second-round picks. Obviously, the team is not going to empty their asset cupboard entirely in February but hoarding most of those picks when they could provide the team with bench upgrades or useful insurance policies is unnecessary.
The team pushed their chips into the middle already this season by adding Jrue Holiday to the fold in September and it’s now time to protect the unique opportunity that has been created. Whether that’s adding a more proven big to backup Kristaps Porzingis or Al Horford in the event of a playoff injury – or finding a potential playoff rotation contributor that provides a needed skillset beyond what Payton Pritchard or Sam Hauser offer – all options should be aggressively pursued in the next six weeks.
For as good as things have looked for this group through 29 games, sustaining it and translating it into playoff success should be the goal now. It’s tough to find a better top six in the NBA than the Celtics have put together, and rounding out the bench for Coach Joe Mazzulla if injuries arise is the final piece of the puzzle. Stevens has plenty of time to make that move (or moves) in the coming weeks but there’s no question now whether a final push should be made. This group has already answered that question resoundingly.
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