Boston Celtics: 4 things Cs All-Stars need to do in season’s second half
While the Boston Celtics’ two All-Stars scored a combined 43 points in the NBA’s grand annual exhibition and shone on the national stage with the same under-the-radar underdog aesthetic they during their postseason statement in 2018.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have two of the most Kobe-like games in the entire association, being able to stop on a dime and seamless drain spinning fadeaways while also possessing rim-rattling athleticism in transition that the Black Mamba flashed during his legendary career.
That they had such an incredible performance was a nice tribute to the legacy of Bryant, who had a mentor-mentee relationship with Tatum. Bryant tributes are all over the All-Star Game in a post-Mamba world, with both the 2020 and 2021 renditions of the contest including a fourth-quarter culminating when the target score that’s 24 points more than what the winning team after three quarters would need is reached.
That said, individual performances weren’t what defined Bryant’s legacy, even though his 81-point game is admittedly a unique feather in the cap for his career.
It was his championship rings that put him in the conversation for being a top 10 player in the history of the game. Right now, Tatum and Brown have yet to reach an NBA Finals despite coming so close in two of the last three years.
2018 was forgivable because no one in their right mind had the Cs streaking to a game 7 with LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers (even though the team was essentially built at the trade deadline after an exodus of veterans), but the 2020 Eastern Conference finals were winnable…and that may have been their best chance to seize the east with the Brooklyn Nets now looking like a borderline insurmountable challenge.
In 2021, the Cs are no longer taken seriously as a threat to win it all due to a far-less-than-ideal first half of the 2020-21 season. That narrative can easily be dissolved with a strong second half to the season.
Assuming Danny Ainge fails to make a significant transaction, here’s what the Boston Celtics’ two All-Stars must do in the season’s second half: