The Celtics’ ‘real’ season is about to begin

Celtics

Our optimism for what is to come for the Celtics is tempered only by the knowledge that unexpected postseason plot twists are often just a turn of the page (or ankle) away.

By Chad Finn, The Boston Globe

April 11, 2025 | 10:24 AM

4 minutes to read

COMMENTARY

Just a pair of afterthoughts versus the Hornets remain in the Celtics’ 82-game warm-up act before they join the Thunder, Cavaliers, and, at least according to ESPN, the Lakers as the headliners on the NBA’s postseason stage.

The Celtics’ quest to become the league’s first repeat champions since the 2017-18 Warriors should be accompanied by cautious optimism, and such caution is necessary only because the NBA’s playoff gauntlet is the second-cruelest in sports, behind only the NHL’s ruthlessly compelling grind toward determining who gets to hoist the Stanley Cup.

Our optimism for what is to come for the Celtics is tempered only by the knowledge that unexpected postseason plot twists are often just a turn of the page (or ankle) away.

We can’t truly know how it is going to go over the next eight-plus weeks. But we do know this: Coach Joe Mazzulla and his team have done an extraordinary job of handling their business during the regular season, with one exception they seem to be trying to correct now.

First, the business handled: The Celtics have won 59 of 80 games, locking into the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference, despite just four players hitting the 70-game threshold: Payton Pritchard (78), Derrick White (75), Jayson Tatum (71), and Luke Kornet (71), with Sam Hauser (69) almost certain to join them.

Mazzulla has given generous rest to 38-year-old Al Horford (59 games) and 34-year-old Jrue Holiday (61, albeit with some lost to injury), and the benefit is already showing up, with both playing stellar basketball recently. Fifteen Celtics have started a game. Eight have started at least 15.

Often, the Celtics have throttled their opponents even with two or even three of their top six players sitting. They went 33-8 on the road, tying the 1995-96 Bulls for the second-best road record in NBA history behind the 1972-73 Lakers, with a plus-9.41 point differential away from TD Garden.

As one would expect of a defending champ, this is a superb basketball team, emphasis on team. One of the chief reasons why is because its best player is also an ideal teammate who prioritizes all of the right things.

Tatum’s scoring (27 points per game) is obvious. The rebounding (8.7) remains unheralded. The passing (6.0 assists per game, a career high) has vastly improved over the years, and he’s become an expert at the hockey assist, the pass that leads to the pass that sets up a bucket.

And I’ll never get why, in the never-ending discussion of the league’s best of the best, he doesn’t get credit for his tireless commitment to defense. Thank goodness he doesn’t take the Luka approach.

Tatum is also an effortlessly inclusive teammate — I’ve always appreciated how he’s befriended bench guys such as Javonte Green and Lamar Stevens over the years — which isn’t always how superstars operate. Tatum elevates everything, and this postseason might just be his to seize.

Brad Stevens has built a team of the highest caliber around Tatum and 2024 conference finals and NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown. I’ll admit it if you will: I did not expect Kristaps Porzingis — who dropped eight 3-pointers on the Knicks’ heads Tuesday night, several launched from downtown Poughkeepsie — to be playing at this game-changing level after his unusual leg injury in the postseason last year. His skill set is so rare that perhaps unicorns should consider changing their name to Porzingises. Think about it, unicorns.

It’s tempting to say White — who on many nights is their third-best player at worst, and still their best crunch-time decision maker — is the quintessential Celtic, all about winning and making the right play. And it would be true. But it also applies in varying degrees to the ageless Horford, and the low-key ferocious Holiday, and Sixth Man of the Year favorite Pritchard. And are there two better developmental success stories on any NBA roster than Hauser and Kornet, both of whom put in plenty of work at the Portland Expo before becoming important Celtics role players?

As for that aforementioned exception … well, I’m sure you noticed I put off addressing Brown’s knee situation, and let me tell you, I’m glad I did, because while I was pecking this out, the Celtics announced he would not play in the final two games.

Hopefully this ends up being a case of better-late-than-never, because it’s been painfully obvious that Brown hasn’t been anywhere near right lately as he deals with a bone bruise. It’s wise of him to watch film of Paul Pierce — that master of basketball geometry — to try to add a few tricks to his bag heading into the postseason, but it is not ideal that one of the most explosive athletes in the league has been moving like The Truth: The Clippers Years recently.

The Celtics should have rested Brown at least a week ago, but it’s obvious they kept running him out there in an attempt to qualify for an All-NBA team he probably wouldn’t have made anyway. Sitting out these last two games means he’ll finish the season short of the 65-game threshold to qualify.

Bummer for him, but it’s also the best for him and the Celtics. With the first round set to begin April 19, Brown will have 10 days to rest before a much bigger quest — the playoff journey toward Banner 19 — begins.

The road is long, just as it’s supposed to be. But these guys do know the route.