Today, the Celtics beat the Jazz at home, and the record reached 46-28, equalizing the Bucks and only two wins away from the Heat team in the East.
In the past week, the Celtics have beaten the Warriors, Nuggets and Jazz to win a total of 70 points; the range is even larger, with 22 wins in the past 26 games, 14 victories against playoff teams, the strongest defense in the same period, the best limited shooting rate and three-point shooting rate, the third place in the net win score.
Return from Boston?
In fact, at the beginning of the season, this team was still shadowed. In the early days of the new coach Uduka as manager, the team's defensive efficiency was only 110.6, ranking 23rd in the league, and it was often a big drop behind at the beginning. What made this team soar from the play-off position to the current position? The first, of course, is defense.
In terms of the interior, Horford has a strong chassis, responsible for top defense and single defense; Rowe has a long and swift arm, responsible for the periphery with the other side, and by the way, he plays his own defensive sweeping skills: blocking, copying, rebounding - in the past two months, Lowe has often "checked for leaks and filled in the gaps", and also played an average of 11 rebounds, 1 steal and 3 blocks per game. Uduka's trust in and proper use of Lowe energizes the Celtics' past weak interior line.
On the outside, it is starred by Smart. As long as "Boston Curry" awakens from "superstar fantasy", he is the green army's most trustworthy outside gate. Unlike his predecessor Bradley, Smart is very good at dealing with strong defenders, and can even change to the No. 4 position, which is the same as Brown, coupled with Tatum, whose pace and arm length are superior, these three can basically cover all positions on the opposite side except the center forward.
Of course, the change of defense is of course easy to be hit by the big and small, so the Celtics change defense in place, give priority to finding a half-circle front pass, forcing and even luring the other party to hang the pass - once the ball enters the penalty area, the assistant defense comes, and the Lowe, who is responsible for sweeping, starts.
This is where the Celts excel:
Change defense + assist defense, this season so far defensive second, defensive three-point league top five, defensive two-point league first, block league second. If you want to score in front of the Celtics, you can only rely on your own ability to single-handedly attack, and it is difficult to play with the Celtics - the Celtics only let the opponent less than 22 assists per game, the league first.
But it's not easy to break the game by individual ability, and not every team has Durant.
Let's talk about the offensive end.
Counting today's big wins, Tatum (24 years and 21 days) and Brown (25 years and 151 days) became the first pair of teammates under the age of 26 in NBA history to cut 25+ in five consecutive games in the regular season.
Although he struggled extremely hard at the beginning of the season and more or less drove the whole team to be quite emotional, at this stage, Tatum is in the best state of his career, he is like a writer who has broken the window paper and then thought about it, and the works that have been handed down are naturally a matter of course.
Although the equally brilliant Brown was heard by many (who felt that he was the head of the Green Army), Tatum was objectively the leader of this team, and many times, his will determined the direction of the game. Key offense offenses, unreasonable three-pointers, offensive rebounds that determine the game, Green Army No. 0 never shy spectacle.
Last season's playoffs, he led the team alone to Durant is memorable, and now as the team further strengthens, Tatum definitely has reason to look forward to the next level.
Unlike Tatum, who was expected to enter the league, defense is a stunt on which Brown became famous, and on closer inspection, he and George and Leonard have a very similar development trajectory, making a fortune in defense, gradually developing offensive skills, and slowly infiltrating their influence in the team and even the league.
In these two seasons, Brown began to show his ability to play a Variety of Celtic offensive tactics. With Tatum's ball-holding attack in positional warfare to attract defense, Brown played more easily. Now that you've seen Brown's ball, you'll definitely be impressed by his self-confidence: he's not very enthusiastic about taking the ball and pulling straight, but he likes to use his skills to break through and "play" with his opponents, quite calm and comfortable.
In addition, several turnovers on the trade deadline also took the Celtics to the next level, especially after completing the introduction of old players Daniel Theis and Spurs Derrick White, and the lineup was upgraded.
Theiss is the perfect inside rotation, White provides an outside patch, empty cut and a certain amount of control, and his Spurs sober mind can calm the team down when it is "crazy". Since being traded to the Celtics, the team has a record of 14 wins and 3 losses.
Finally, I end with a sentence from Zhang Jiawei (only because he mentioned my favorite Clippers):
When the Celtics hit the Eastern Conference Finals two years ago, I felt like a Western version of the Clippers — tough, dangerous, wing-wing monsters with two offensive and defensive ends that could solve problems, Jaylen and George could play the weak side and chase, and Tatum was like a less floor-flowing Leonard. This year, the Clippers are not expected to be able to be healthy and full-time in the playoffs, but the Celtics seem to be healthy in the second half of the season.
Come on, Celtic!