Celtics haven't lost their aura even with roster turnover

A lot changed for the Boston Celtics between their two most recent matchups with the Washington Wizards. Back in April, Boston was gearing up for a playoff run with hopes of winning back-to-back NBA Championships.

Entering Wednesday’s meeting, the new-look Celtics were just 3-5 through their first eight games, in desperate need of a bounce-back win after an inexplicable loss to the Utah Jazz. They were far from the juggernauts they were in the spring, but still commanded the respect of their opponents, despite key losses like Al Horford, Luke Kornet, Kristaps Porzingis, and the injured Jayson Tatum.

“No, they have not [lost any of their aura], first of all,” Wizards head coach Brian Keefe said of the Celtics before Wednesday’s game. “We have great respect for the Celtics and what they’re trying to do… This is a very proud group, a lot of guys who have won a lot of games. So, no. I don’t think they’ve lost anything.”

At the time of Keefe’s pregame availability, Boston ranked towards the bottom of the league in key categories like points, three-point shooting, and defensive rebounding percentage. Yet, they were still somehow 14th in net rating, and the eye test would tell you that they’re far more competitive than other bottom-ranked teams in said categories.

“It’s because we don’t turn the ball over on the offensive end and we force turnovers on the other end,” Joe Mazzulla explained to Hardwood Houdini. “We’re winning the shot margin on an expected basis.”

Even with the change in personnel, the Celtics have maintained winning habits

Winning the shot margin (and all of the margins) has been a key aspect of Mazzulla’s philosophy during his head coaching tenure in Boston. The things he pointed out as to why they’re still middle of the pack in net rating despite their poor rebounding and unbelievably cold shooting are learned winning habits.

Habits that they once again delivered on against Washington.

Boston outshot the Wizards 95-80. A big reason for that was the chaos they caused on defense, leading Washington to turn the ball over 19 times, compared to the Celtics’ mere five.

This wasn’t uncharacteristic of what the Cs have done so far this season. They currently rank fifth in opposing turnovers per game at 17.1, allow the fewest shots per game at 83.3 (despite being a poor defensive rebounding team), and take the second-most shots per game themselves at 93.9.

Boston’s blowout win over the Wizards was a firm reminder that even though shots haven’t been falling, they’ve put themselves in a position to take advantage of when they do. It’s partially why they were able to blow out the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are coming off a 64-win season.

The Cs took eight more shots than the Cavs that night and forced them into five more turnovers than they coughed up themselves. Plus, they actually managed to hit a reasonable amount of their threes (36.7%), which certainly factored into the 20-point victory.

They generate the most threes in the NBA at 47 per game, but shoot the fourth-worst percentage on them.

Sure, that could be the product of a broken system, but when those shots are going to high-30s career three-point shooters like Derrick White and Payton Prithcard, it’s tough to blame the volume completely.

It feels more likely that those two guys will creep back up towards their career percentages than Boston all of a sudden struggling to win the shot margins.

Translation: The best of the 2025-26 Boston Celtics has yet to come.