Three-game win streaks haven’t been a huge deal for the Boston Celtics over the past few seasons. Even with this season serving as a “gap year,” Boston has now pieced together two separate trios of wins, after knocking off the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night, 113-99.
This current streak, maybe due to recency bias, feels different from the first. Maybe it’s because the Celtics rose above .500 for the first time with Tuesday’s win, but they seem to be figuring themselves out here.
The Opponents
First and foremost, it would be absolutely ridiculous for me to write about this without acknowledging the competition, or lack thereof, that the Cs have faced. The Nets, Memphis Grizzlies, and LA Clippers are a combined 5-25 over their last ten games.
Boston has simply handled business in the manner fans would hope they would against these struggling squads.
You can only play who’s in front of you, after all.
The Advanced Stats
They’ve handled business, but they’ve done so in style. Over these three games, the Celtics rank second in offensive rating (128.1), ninth in defensive rating (109.5), and second in net rating (18.6). They trail only the 14-1 Oklahoma City Thunder in the latter.
Even if you take a broader sample size, like the last seven games, Boston remains in the top 10 in all three categories. They’ve shown flashes of their ceiling over these past two weeks, to say the very least.
During the current win streak, the Celtics have scored the ball efficiently. They rank second in assist-to-turnover ratio, 10th in true-shooting percentage, and third in both rebounding percentage and offensive rebound percentage. In other words, they’ve shared the basketball, taken care of it, made their shots, and have done a great job of grabbing their own misses when they actually happen.
The Players
The resurgences of Derrick White and Payton Pritchard have been discussed at nauseam over the past week or so. We media folk love a comeback story, what can we say?
In all seriousness, the praise has been deserved. Both guards have worked their way out of their respective shooting slumps and are now giving the Celtics the sort of production that we all expected to see.
Pritchard is averaging 25.3 points per game on 51% from both the field and the three-point line, while White trails close behind with 19 points per game on 44/41 splits. Considering that these two combine for 16 three-point attempts per game this season, it’s been massive for them to see the shots start to fall. It’s also helped the Celtics shoot over 40% for all three wins.
Boston’s starting backcourt is also playing a huge role in the team’s high assist rate, combining for 11 per game during this stretch.
Plus, White’s been everywhere defensively, wreaking havoc for opposing players with three combined stocks (1.3 steals, 1.7 blocks) per outing.
Outside of White and Pritchard, the Cs’ platoon of defensive-minded wings has filled the rotation nicely. Jordan Walsh, Josh Minott, Baylor Scheierman, and Hugo Gonzalez (who’s failed to see the floor in the last two games) continue to offer Joe Mazzulla a few different options each night.
It seems that at least two of these guys can put together solid enough outings to help the team win on any given day. As much as that sounds like a “the bar is the floor” type of compliment, it shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Heading into the season, Walsh and Scheierman didn’t look ready for real minutes, Gonzalez felt destined to spend much of his season in Maine, and I hadn’t even heard of Minott when they signed him this summer (hand up, that’s on me).
As for the star man, Jaylen Brown, he’s remained solid as a No. 1 option, despite his efficiency falling off a bit lately (46% from the field and 32% from three). He’s still averaging 27.5 points per game on 50/35 splits for the season -- something we can all appreciate, for sure.
There's still plenty of season left to played and better teams to face off against, but the Celtics are showing signs of potential and fans should be excited.