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Boston Celtics are doing the Impossible

By Joshua Bateman

BOSTON, MA - NOVEMBER 16: Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics dunks the ball during the game against the Golden State Warriors on November 16, 2017 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - NOVEMBER 16: Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics dunks the ball during the game against the Golden State Warriors on November 16, 2017 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The Boston Celtics are doing the impossible on their remarkable run

The Boston Celtics were already on one of the more remarkable regular season runs we had seen in a while. Not only did they respond to the 0-2 start and season ending injury to Gordon Hayward, but they have seen Marcus Morris, Marcus Smart, Al Horford and Kyrie Irving miss time. That is around $100 million on the sideline, and none of it mattered.

The way the Celtics were winning also made it more special. They had multiple double digit comebacks, and overcome a lot of miserable play on the offensive end, for almost the entire streak. The Celtics were playing a lot of bad basketball, and were far from their best, but they found any way possible to get a win.

Then, Thursday night came around, and that was supposed to be the end of that. The Golden State Warriors are not a team you can play poorly against, and expect to get a victory. The Celtics, however, took it much further. Forget about not playing well, the Celtics had their absolute worse offensive game of the entire season, against the best offense maybe of all time, and once again it did not matter.

What the Celtics did against the Warriors is as impressive a victory you can get during the regular season, and it is exactly because of how miserably they played. The numbers are borderline terrifying, shooting just over 20 percent from three and just over 30 percent overall. Those numbers should not be good enough to beat any NBA team, but the Celtics managed to make it work against the Warriors.

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Of course, the Warriors were far from their best, and a lot of that game was them losing it. Stephen Curry got in foul trouble, and did not get involved at any point, and they shot well below what is expected of them.

That being said, Irving was right there struggling with Curry. He went into the fourth quarter with just five points scored, and even without foul trouble, was not able to take advantage of Curry’s struggles.

Timing is everything in sports, and Irving showed why in that game. Both he and Curry were miserable throughout the game, and once we got to the fourth quarter it felt as though if either one of them went off, that would seal the game. Irving answered the call, scoring 11 of the last 13 points for the Celtics.

Irving stepping up over Curry late in the game is not what makes this win impossible, however. Instead, it is how they got there. The Celtics used a great run instigated by Terry Rozier to keep the game close by half time.

Then the third quarter came around, where the Warriors have been destroying teams. They got their lead up to 17 points, and everyone thought the game was about to melt down. The Celtics clearly did not have the offense to come back, and 17 points is far too much to expect from a defense.

Good news is Jaylen Brown does not care about anything that may be in his way on the court, and it was his turn to instigate the best run of the season for this team. The Celtics scored 17 unanswered points against a team that should be impossible against, putting the Celtics in a familiar position with a chance to win an ugly game in the fourth quarter.

The Celtics have won almost every single game of this streak winning ugly, and that is what is making it so impossible. The Celtics are playing poorly on so many measurable standards, but that defense is neutralizing everything and anything. The Celtics are using the league’s best defense to pull each and every team down to whatever level they are playing, and then their stars are closing games out like no other.

This run will eventually come to an end, but at this point you cannot look at any game on the schedule and expect it to happen. There is no higher level of opponent, because they beat the Warriors. There is no insurmountable lead because they have  17 point comebacks against both the Warriors and the Thunder. And there are no injuries you can expect to derail them, because they have seen every top player go down.

Nothing about this run is making much sense, but we are at a point where this Celtics defense has to be one of the most feared units on either end on the NBA. The Celtics have not been scary with an ability to blow teams out and run them off the court. That being said, it looks next to impossible to play your best against this Celtics team, and you do not want to get stuck playing this kind of mucked up game against the Celtics.

The Celtics are playing these games on their terms, and no one has been able to figure things out. They are doing this with contributions from each and every player, and it feels like players are just taking turns having that special impact that will lift them over the next obstacle.

Next: You just felt like a run was coming

Who knows what will finally be able to stop this Celtics streak, but no matter when it ends, they have cemented it as one of the most remarkable and difficult runs this league has ever seen in the regular season.

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