The NBA Finals aren’t until June, but it’s never too early for a team to hold itself to championship standards. The Celtics did just that, finishing a four-game road trip a perfect 4-0.
They capped it off in Toronto on Wednesday, when they erased a 22-point deficit less than 24 hours after an emotionally charged win over Jaylen Brown and the 76ers.
“We had every excuse in the world,” Derrick White said.
Boston was on the second night of a back-to-back, its third game in four days, with Paul George out. But letting up easily isn’t something the Celtics are programmed to do.
White and his teammates know the standards in Boston: “The DNA [is] when we put that Celtics uniform on, go out there and win.”
A Finals Feel in Philadelphia
Tuesday’s opener of the back-to-back was no typical regular season game.
The matchup was a national spectacle. In late October, Brown suggested Jayson Tatum knew more about his trade than he let on. Tatum said there was no “beef or ill will,” to which Brown replied, “there’s no beef, but it might be a little lamb chops and gravy.”
Beyond the player drama, the game also featured the two teams with the best records in the Eastern Conference.
“I walked out, I couldn’t tell if it was November 10th or June 10th,” Tatum said after the game. “It felt like a f—ing Finals game.”
The Celtics built an early double-digit point lead, but saw that erased late in the third quarter. Ghosts of a 22-point second-half collapse against the Detroit Pistons on opening night crept into Celtics fans’ minds, but the team exorcised those demons.
The efforts from three members of their 2024 championship team, Tatum, Payton Pritchard, and Sam Hauser, fueled a 12-3 run to close the quarter strong. From there, the forgotten man in the Brown trade, Paul George, took over. He scored 14 of his game-high 36 points in the fourth quarter as the Celtics’ offense exploded and they left the 76ers in the dust.
“I remember when Brad Stevens said a couple of years ago that they all count as one,” Tatum said in response to a question about how he stays above the noise surrounding the game. “Tomorrow’s game counts the same as today’s game.”
That statement win to claim the best record in the East was a great moment, but it’s hard to come down from a night like that quickly. The Celtics had less than 24 hours to do so.
Down 22 in Toronto
The end to Boston’s road trip tested them both physically and mentally.
On tired legs and without George, who was out with an illness, Boston fell behind quickly. The Raptors, shooting less than 32 percent from deep entering the night, drained a franchise-record 10 threes in the first quarter.
However, great teams overcome obstacles rather than making excuses.
After falling behind 59-37 halfway through the second quarter, Tatum scored 10 straight points in a 29-6 run that carried into the third quarter, helping Boston take the lead.
The Celtics ultimately won after a back-and-forth game. They also erased a six-point deficit in the final five minutes, but head coach Joe Mazzulla credited the second-quarter run for the win. And with that, he said the victory means only as much as they take away from it.
“It means something, and it means nothing at the same time,” Mazzulla said. “We have to be able to take the psychological lessons that we learned from it: the poise, the patience, the understanding of the game of runs.”
White, who recorded 19 points, 7 assists, and 4 blocks in the win, talked about the mental battle that took place to persevere in a mentally and physically challenging spot like that.
“Anybody could get up for a game like yesterday,” White said. “That’s like what you dream about, especially the atmosphere and the energy around the building. Then you come on the road, and Toronto is a really good team; obviously they’re missing a lot of players, so it’s a little letdown, so that’s where you got to find that extra gear, find that next level to get a win like this.”
Early, But Encouraging
The Celtics know as well as anyone that championships aren’t decided in November. The franchise has 18 of them, after all.
Mazzulla credited the second-quarter run, not the late-game finish, for their win over Toronto. The same goes for a season: championship habits are witnessed in June, but built throughout the season. The Celtics’ ability to overcome the emotional roller coaster of Tuesday and Wednesday night is something to be learned from.
After a 4-0 road trip, which included three games in four days, and a charged game for a national audience, the Celtics enter the weekend sitting at 10-2. It’s the team’s best start since the 2023-24 title season.
They are one of two teams to rank in the top six in net, offensive, and defensive rating. The other is the reigning Western Conference champs and current Finals favorite San Antonio Spurs.
No one is scheduling parades yet, but the Celtics are once again defying expectations as they pursue another championship.
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