Boston Celtics Bench Can be the Best in the NBA

The Boston Celtics bench are shaping up to be one of the best in the NBA

The Boston Celtics and the Houston Rockets brought the NBA another game of the year candidate, but this time the Celtics came up on the losing end. It was a wire to wire game throughout, and brought all the offensive excitement you want with so much talent and so many three pointers.

For as great as the top talent of these two teams are, the benches actually managed to steal the show in this one. Eric Gordon lead the rockets with 29 points, and was a true difference maker with 8-13 three point shooting. The Rockets desperately needed Gordon to bring that scoring, because Boston’s bench had one of the most impressive games by any second unit in the NBA.

Brad Stevens changed things up a bit by only going four deep, but all four of Greg Monroe, Marcus Morris, Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier delivered in a special way. Morris was the team’s scoring leader with 21 points, followed by Monroe with 18, which was tied with Kyrie Irving. Rozier was just behind with 17 points and Smart brought everything wit 11 points six rebounds and five assists,

Three of the teams top four scorers in this one came off the bench, and the fourth was the most important defensive player in the game. Not a single one of the second unit players finished the game with a negative plus minus, and they truly did everything possible to win the game.

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When you take into account that Daniel Theis, who also broke out off the bench recently, did not play, and that gives the Celtics a five man second unit that can be a difference maker in every single game.

That unit gives the Celtics great defense from their guards, a lot of toughness on the inside with Monroe and Morris, and three point threats from everyone other than Monroe. They have the players that accommodate small ball situations, and are comfortable in a lot of different lineups.

The Celtics cannot expect that unit to keep up this kind of shooting, but they are sending the NBA a message that you do cannot just worry about the top end talent on the Celtics.

The best part is that when you have a starting unit as young as the Celtics, it makes all the difference when you have a bench that will give you an advantage. Irving and Al Horford do not have to deal with too much pressure, and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum do not have to go out of their comfort zone.

When you compare the Celtics to the top teams in this league, they have the kind of high end talent that is catching up. Right now, however, some of their top talent is too young to have the kind of impact that will push the Celtics to the level of the most talented teams in the league.

The bench then comes in to make up for that difference. The Celtics will inevitably have consistency issues, and any time they can go to their bench to help stabilize things, the starting unit is going to be a lot more comfortable and effective.

The bench needs to prove that they can maintain this, but we are finally at a point where things are going to settle. These players are finally going to have defined roles, and will no longer have to deal with being in and out of the lineup. Stevens will always get creative, but these guys are figuring out what they need to do in order to have a consistent impact.

Next: Can Marcus Smart repeat success against Harden?

A lot of things have to go Boston’s way for them to be true title contenders this season, and having the best second unit in the NBA come playoff time could be one of the biggest factors.

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