The Hawks get a steal and Young goes on a fast break here. And in this moment as he’s about to pass it to Huerter outside, look at the space between him and Al Horford. But the veteran fights hard on this close out and blocks what should have been an open three point look. Unbelievable effort.
Again, look at how he’s able to stay in front on this switch with Trae. As a much slower player and at 35 years of age, to hold his ground against one of the quickest players in the league… this is amazing.
Dude played a phenomenal game guarding the ball, holding his own on switches time after time.
But it wasn’t just him but rather, the entire team followed his lead.
This is one of the reasons why the Celtics are currently one of the hottest teams in the league, and they just may finally be looking like an Eastern conference contender.
Let me break it down. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
Boston is currently on an 8 game winning streak, and during that time, their defense has been insane.
Just for comparison, Golden State has the best defensive rating in the league with 104.1.
Well, over the last 10 games, which is a large portion of games, that’s ⅛ of the season, the Celtics have had a staggering defensive efficiency of 95.4.
They’ve been solid on this end of the court, but this 10 game stretch has been incredible for them. So now overall, the Celtics have the second best defense in the NBA.
And a team that plays great defense can be a contender in the playoffs.
Next, I’ve always been critical of this team when it comes to ball movement. Relying a lot on Brown and Tatum’s 1 on 1 heroics.
2020 and 2021 both seasons they were near the bottom, 25th in assists per game.
That’s exactly how they started this one as well.
But during this winning streak the Celtics are in the upper echelon in this category. Number 7, which is a huge jump and the positive change is evident.
We see a lot more of these swing passes from side to side, player to player, ultimately ending with a bucket.
This type of play makes a team that much more difficult to defend, and we can understand how the shift on both ends of the floor impacted this winning streak.
And speaking of both ends of the floor, I feel like their newest addition Derrick White, fits this team perfectly both on offense and defense.
A player who moves excellent both with and without the ball. Never wasting any time or dribbles. Attacks the rim and either finishes or finds the open guy. And despite not shooting the ball well last night he can definitely do that, and Boston will use him a lot come playoff time.
Equally as important, he will constantly be on opposing guards and give 100% defensively, so even in games where he doesn’t contribute a lot by scoring, White’s impact will show- as was the case last night.
And finally coach Ime Udoka believes that this shift happened in part because the team adjusted to the new coaching staff and bought into his system and philosophy.
The East has been extremely interesting and it’s great that we get another team in the mix.
I kind of wrote the Celtics off early in the season but I like their recent surge and this style of play. They are trying to prove me wrong.
Boston plays the new-look Philadelphia tomorrow and I’m curious to see how that goes.
That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.