Earlier today, the Celtics visited denver highlands, ushered in the challenge of the Nuggets led by Jokic, originally thought it would be a scorching game, the result did not want to end the first half of the Celtics to achieve a 25-point lead, the maximum leading score once came to 28 points, the opponent was powerless, and the green shirts who laid the lead early, and finally hit the Nuggets 124-104, ushering in a wave of 3 consecutive wins at the same time, but also gave the opponent a wave of two consecutive losses, Let the Timberwolves, who were previously seventh in the West, successfully surpass the Nuggets and reach the top six positions.
As a regular in the playoffs of the past few seasons, the Celtics also suffered great turmoil in the case of the first round of outing last season, general manager Danny Angeli resigned, and coach Stevens also stepped down as a manager and entered the team's management as the team's general manager, and the vacant manager position was given to the previous Spurs' chief assistant coach, Uduka. Under the leadership of Uduka, the Celtics did not play their due influence at the beginning of the season, and even fell out of the top ten positions in the East at one point, in 21 years they only achieved a total of 17 wins and 19 losses, but as the season progressed, the Greenshirts finally found their form, after entering 22 years, they achieved a 27-9 record, including a wave of 9 consecutive wins, even the 76ers, Heat, Bulls, Nets and other powerful teams are swallowing defeats in their fights.
The reason why the Celtics were able to suddenly awaken was largely because they regained the defense that had previously settled down, as of now, The Celtics' defensive efficiency has come to the league's first 105.5, after the All-Star weekend, the Celtics achieved a 10-2 record, the same period of record is second only to the Timberwolves' 11-2 losses, during which their average points per game is only 104.3, ranking first in the league, opponents average as many as 11 points per game, so the Celtics from the previous down-and-out giants, turned into a championship-winning team again.
Including Jaylen Brown, Smart, Horford, Robert Williams, the Celtics do have many chess pieces on the defensive end, but because the new coach Uduka is also the "first time on the big girl", the first time as the manager of the NBA team, he does need to spend a certain amount of time to let the team slowly run in, abandoning the tactical system previously created by Stevens, but on the defensive end, Uduka still lets the team continue to maintain the previous oppressive defense. With Horford and Robert Williams on the inside, the Celtics traded Derrick White, an outside gate, from the Spurs before the trade deadline to pair him with Smart.
Uduka, who was very familiar with White during his previous tenure as a training assistant at the Spurs, also completely activated his potential on the defensive end after the franchise of the beloved disciple, although White's offensive status declined after joining the Greenshirts (37.3% shooting percentage and 21.7% three-point shooting rate were career-low), but in the 16 games he played for the Greenshirts, the team only lost 3 games, at least in terms of his best defense, White did bring great help to the team.
The Celtics, who are currently fourth in the East with a record of 44 wins and 28 losses, if they find their confidence on the defensive end, they really have a chance to become a big dark horse team that cannot be ignored in the playoffs, and if the Greenshirts really make their way to the East Finals this season, we should not be surprised.