Boston Celtics tackle key weakness in recent games
By Sam LaFrance
What a time it is to be a Boston Celtics fan. The team is off to a great start, holding the league’s best record at 12-3. They’ve also won eight straight games, most recently, a 126-101 blowout win on the road against the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday night. The Celtics have the NBA’s best statistical offense ever with an offensive rating of 119.2. Star forward Jayson Tatum is making a strong case to be the league’s MVP this season.
The list goes on and on.
With that said, one knock on the Cs so far in this campaign is their inconsistency on the defensive end. The juggernaut offense has been good enough where Boston is still winning games despite mediocre defense.
They rank 16th in the NBA with a defensive rating of 111.5. That’s a five-point drop off from last year when they posted a league-best 106.2. Boston was able to lean on the league’s best defense to carry them all the way to the NBA Finals, where they eventually fell to the Golden State Warriors in six games. It made a lot of sense, when games get tighter in the playoffs, typically defense prevails.
However, fans shouldn’t be panicking with the 2022-23 Boston Celtics just yet. You can’t ignore that they had a lackluster start in terms of defense. In the opening six games, the Cs were eighth worst with a defensive rating of 114.6. As I mentioned before, the rating for the season as a whole is on the rise, now sitting at 111.5. If you take a look at a more recent window, things really get exciting.
The Boston Celtics are on the right track defensively again
Over the last six games, the Cs are fourth in the NBA with a defensive rating of 108.2. The Celtics look to be on the right track defensively, which is important because defense should be less of a variable. It’s something that should be sustainable and able to win games when shots just aren’t falling, which is something you have to expect from time to time.
With Robert Williams’ return from injury looming, Boston Celtics fans should be extremely excited. Last season, Williams proved to be an integral part of the league’s best defense, sending shots and discouraging opposing players from driving to the basket. His season as a whole was good enough to land him a spot on the NBA’s Second Team All Defense. Just imagine adding a guy with that much ability to a defense that’s finally finding its footing.