Boston Celtics: 23 games in 42 days will show how legitimate this team actually is

Though the Boston Celtics hold the NBA’s third best record in 2019-20, their legitimacy as one of the league’s elite teams will be tested during their grueling schedule in January and February.

At 23-8 the Boston Celtics find themselves as current holders of the Eastern Conference’s second seed. They are on pace for 61 wins and have become one of the biggest “feel good” stories so far into the 2019-20 campaign.

And, yet, even with all this, one could certainly question how legitimate their “upper-echelon” status is.

Throughout their 31 games, the C’s have only squared off against eight teams that currently hold winning records. They place dead last in the association with games played and even saw a between-games break in mid December that lasted for six days.

Look C’s fans, this is not me trying to downgrade Boston’s success throughout the early parts of the season. The team has seen many triumphant victories and have gone through their fair share of adversity (i.e. the injury bug).

Still, it must be noted that, so far, their season has been somewhat of a breeze in comparison to other legitimate contenders — such as the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers who both have played 36 games, the most in the association.

However, tonight marks a change in the weather for the Boston Celtics, as they embark on a grueling stretch that sees a multitude of games and minimal mental health days till mid-February. Until the 13th of next month, Beantown will find themselves playing a total of 23 games in 42 days (two of which are back-to-backs), eleven of them against current playoff teams and 10 of said contests will be played on the road.

They will be traveling to 11 different cities and will not find consecutive days off until February 14th (right in time for the All-Star break).

John Schuhmann of NBA.com goes into greater detail on how brutal these string of games look to be for the shamrocks.

"“The Celtics have the league’s only five-games-in-seven-days stretch of January, and it’s their first five games of the month. It’s two home-road back-to-backs with a game in Washington in between. Four of the five games (and seven of the Celtics’ first eight January games) are against teams with losing records, but the most important game of the stretch is the final one: in Philadelphia on Jan. 9.”"

While this stretch of games is nothing the players should necessarily be looking forward to, it will be a good indicator as to how tight and sound this unit actually is/ can be come playoff time. Adversity can sometimes bring a team closer together which, in turn, can do wonders to their chemistry.

The Boston Celtics have dealt with their fair share of adversity in the early stages of this season, as numerous key players (most notably Marcus Smart, Gordon Hayward and Robert Williams) has missed ample time. However, despite this, the team has managed to hold onto their winning ways, as they never let a losing-streak extend to more than two games.

Hopefully with this stretch of games, it will bring the team closer together, as they will all share one specific common enemy — 16-games and 9,000 miles of air travel. The Boston Celtics have proven to be a force to be reckoned with throughout the early stages of this season with little challenges along the way. Hopefully their success continues during their tough road ahead.

If it does, it could serve as a true indicator for both the team and its fans that this 2019-20 Celtics squad is legitimate and should prove to be a menace come playoff time.