There weren’t many questions left about this Celtics team entering a daunting four-game road trip last week but road play was one of them. Boston is an undefeated group at home this year but had been largely mediocre on the road. Some of those issues were due to injuries and tough opponents but there was something to prove over the past seven days against some of the West’s best teams. The Celtics answered the bell on that front Monday night against the Lakers, bouncing back from a disappointing overtime loss to the Warriors to cap a superb 3-1 road trip with an 11-point win.
Boston’s point differential for the trip was +67 despite the Warriors’ loss and this group finished this stretch with the best record in the NBA at 23-6. They currently hold the 2nd best net rating in the NBA and are top 5 in both offensive rating (2nd) and defensive rating (5th).
“I mean, we’ve got a really good team,” Jayson Tatum told reporters in Los Angeles Monday night. “We’ve got a lot of great individual players and we’ve been playing, for the most part, really good basketball. We expected that. We expected to be good and we worked hard this training camp and the beginning of the season. We obviously know what our ultimate goal is. We’re just trying to get better every day.”
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The numbers right now match the eye test that talent-wise, this group looks a cut above the rest in the entire NBA. There may be teams with similar records to Boston at the moment (Minnesota, Milwaukee, Philadelphia) but none of them have played nearly as tough of a schedule through 30 games. Despite injuries or tough opponents, the Celtics have come to play every night, winning 23 games and failing to get blown out in any of their six losses.
It’s not a perfect team but it certainly is the most well-rounded title contender this franchise has seen in a decade. With the buy-in evident across the team’s star power with sacrifice occurring up and down the roster, it’s on Brad Stevens and the Celtics front office now to double down with this group. The biggest obstacle this team may have right now in pursuing an NBA title could be itself particularly when it comes to injuries. For that reason, it’s on this team’s brass to seize the moment and put safeguards in place to maximize the title window this season and reduce that risk.
Luckily for Stevens, he has options in place to achieve that goal without touching the team’s top six players. A $6.2 million traded player exception will enable Boston to add to the roster without necessarily sending out any meaningful contributors. The Celtics still have three future first-round picks available to move along with a truckload of second-round picks. Obviously, the team is not going to empty their asset cupboard entirely this February but hoarding most of those picks when they could provide the team with bench upgrades or useful insurance policies is unnecessary.
The team pushed their chips into the middle already this season by adding Jrue Holiday to the fold back in September and it’s now time to protect the unique opportunity that has been created. Whether that’s adding a more proven big to backup Kristaps Porzingis or Al Horford in the event of a playoff injury or finding a potential playoff rotation contributor that provides a needed skillset beyond what Payton Pritchard or Sam Hauser offer, all options should be aggressively pursued in the next six weeks.
For as good as things have looked for this group through 30 games, sustaining it and translating it into playoff success should be the goal now. It’s tough to find a better top six in the NBA that this group has put together and rounding out the bench for Joe Mazzulla if injuries arise is the final piece of the puzzle. Stevens has plenty of time to make that move (or moves) in the coming weeks but there’s no question now on whether a final push should be made. This group has already answered that question resoundingly.
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