NBA
The Boston Celtics Prove They are Much More Than Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown
Mike Thomas spent 23 years on staff and 16 years as the sports editor at The Herald News in Fall River, Mass., before joining Sportscasting in 2020. Mike has a deep knowledge of and passion for the NFL and NBA, and he excels at interviewing sports celebrities to find out their Super Bowl picks. A New England Newspaper and Press Association award-winning columnist and an avid sports memorabilia collector, Mike enjoys keeping up with all the sports news and the works of former Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly. You can find more of Mike's work on Muck Rack.
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There’s no hotter team in the NBA than the Boston Celtics. The Celtics won their ninth straight Friday night, defeating the New Orleans Pelicans 117-109 on the road. Boston boasts an NBA-best 13-3 record.
While Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown typically get most of the credit for Boston’s success, the Celtics are far from a two-man show. They’re proving it this season.
The Boston Celtics have become one of the deeper teams in the NBA
The Celtics addressed their biggest need in the offseason — depth. A year ago, they engineered what might be the mose impressive in-season turnarounds in franchise history. After a 25-25 start, they finished 26-6 to wrap up the second seed in the playoffs.
They battled through a grueling postseason run with an eight-man rotation that may have caught up with them in the NBA Finals. The Golden State Warriors outlasted them in six games.
Boston addressed its bench situation by trading for veteran guard Malcolm Brogdon. They also took a deeper look down the bench and turned to one of their own in Sam Hauser. After averaging 6.1 minutes last season, Hauser has come up big for Boston in his 16.7 minutes this season. A pure shooter, Hauser is shooting 51.2% from the floor and 47.9 from three-point land. He’s putting up 7.8 points per game.
While the Boston reserves are shining, Tatum and Brown continue to do their thing. Tatum is playing at an MVP-type level, averaging 30.3 points and 7.4 rebounds. He’s expanding his game by taking the ball to the basket more and is becoming one of the better defenders in the game.
Brown is putting up career-highs of 25.3 points 6.9 rebounds. Tatum and Brown are showing they are arguably the best duo in the NBA.
The Celtics are proving they are much more than a two-man show
The Celtics are an impressive bunch. Two of their three losses have come in overtime. In all three of the losses, the Celtics had double-digit leads.
Boston heads to Chicago on Monday to face the only team that beat them in regulation. The Celtics have shown they can beat you in so many ways, and it doesn’t have to be Brown or Tatum taking charge. The Celtics made 20 three-pointers in Friday’s win over the Pelicans. Tatum and Brown combined for five.
Derrick White led the way with six. Al Horford had four. After the game, the Celtics had four of the top 16 three-point shooters in the NBA. Tatum and Brown aren’t even on the list.
Grant Williams is seventh overall, while Hauser is 10th. Horford is 12th and White is 16th as the Celtics continue to light it up offensively.
These Celtics are winning games this year that they would have lost last year at this time. Despite the strong start, Brown knows they can’t get too excited.
“We can’t try to look too far ahead and forget about the details that need to be taken care of right in front of us,” Brown said, per ESPN after the game. “We can’t take if for granted and get excited. Every day counts. Every game game counts. We’ve got to continue to find ways to win. Tonight, we had some rough patches but it was a good example of still finding a way to get a W.”
