The Hospital Celtics Did It Again And Continue To Roll Through Anything And Everything In Their Path

Brian Fluharty. Getty Images.

On December 20th coming off a brutal collapse (again) against the Golden State Warriors, the Celtics immediately traveled to Sacramento for a B2B against the Kings, a team that was 10-3 in their own building at the time. This was a big game for a number of reasons, ranging from preventing a complete disaster of a West Coast trip to being our latest look at the time at the Hospital Celtics. One of the true wagons of NBA History, we watched that group with no Tatum and no Horford go on the road on a B2B and drop 144 points, shooting 55/52% from the floor with 22 3PM, 35 AST and just 9 TOs. It was a massacre.

On December 29th, on the second night of a B2B against the Toronto Raptors, Brad Stevens once again put out the call. Another game with no Tatum, no Porzingis, and no Horford, where we were going to need the Hospital Celtics to show up and continue their dominance. What did we see the Hospital Celtics do? 

How about another 120 points on 48.9/43.6% splits with 17 3PM and 29 AST in another win. This should surprise exactly no one, mostly because we already know the Hospital Celtics are easily a top 4 seed in the NBA. Beating the Raptors (now 7 straight) at home is normally whatever, but this was obviously not your typical game. 

In typical Celtics fashion, they couldn't make things easy for us, but by now we all should be used to being tortured for 2.5 hours, and as long as they end up in Ws I could give a shit. Drag me through absolute hell if it means at the end of the day it results in a win. 

When the Celts returned home from the 3-1 West Coast trip, we all said the same thing. Now was the time for them to take advantage of their schedule finally lightening up, and as we stand today they are 2 for 2. Not the prettiest or least stressful wins we've ever experienced, but wins nonetheless. If you're currently keeping track at home….

25-6 overall. 16-0 at home. 15-4 vs teams .500 or better. 5 game winning steak.

and they're even doing it on nights where 3 top rotation players are out, including their best player and a guy who fluctuates between the 2nd or 3rd best player. While on a back to back and their 7th game in 12 days. 

Who does that? Wagons. 

The Good

- I will forever look at Jaylen Brown's season in two waves. The first, was the pre-11/22 Bucks game. Those 13 games were a but brutal for Jaylen when it came to shooing the baskteball (44/34%), and while the defense and the passing was there, it was definitely a slow start for him by his standards. Not quite at the level the Celts were going to need as the #2 guy.

Then 11/22 happened. Jaylen dismantled the Bucks with relative ease (26/2/8 on 62/60%), and from that moment on has been playing some of the best basketball of his entire life. You thought All NBA Jaylen was good? We're watching what that next level looks like. 

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From 11/22 to today, Jaylen has played 16 games. Over those 16 games, the Celts as a team are 14-2. We're seeing Jaylen bump his production to 24.3/5.1/4.1 on 51/36% splits, answering the bell in multiple games where Tatum was out and he had to be THE GUY. Against SAC? 28/5/6 on 52% shooting and 0 TOs. Last night?

A nice little 31/10/6 game on 68/83% shooting, which was the third time Jaylen has ever gone for at least 31/10/5 in his career. Just like he does every night it seems, Jaylen carried everyone in the first quarter. His 15 points on 5-6 (4-4) is what got the Celts off to their great start, and we've now reached the point where Jaylen needs to be the #1 offensive option in every single 1st quarter moving forward. The numbers speak for themselves.

He leads the team in 1st quarter points (7.6) and shoots 55/45% from the floor while averaging just under 10 minutes a quarter. For whatever reason, Jaylen is almost always locked in right from the start. A performance like last night to open the game is the norm, not the exception. On a night where they didn't have nearly 60+ points of offense, getting an efficient night from Jaylen was pretty important. I'd say he delivered.

But what makes this leap from Jaylen so exciting isn't just the efficient scoring. We knew he could do that. The most impressive part of Jaylen's season so far continues to be his development as a passer

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The leap we all wanted to see Jaylen make as a playmaker is happening right before our eyes. The beauty is none of what we're seeing are these insanely complicated reads. I don't need Jaylen to be Tatum as a passer. I just need him to keep his eyes up and be a willing passer when all you need to do is make the simple play. Trade a low percentage shot for a high percentage pass every once in a while and see what happens. The exciting part is the performance we saw last night came without KP, a guy who has been Jaylen's primary playmaking security blanket. There were two passes specifically that stood out to me as examples of Jaylen's growth in this department.

The first came at the end of the half. Let's watch.

Alright, so why do I care about this one? For starters, we had another end of half/clock possession to evaluate. As you know, these have sort of been ineffective stalled possessions lately. I loved how there was no standing around just holding the ball. As Jaylen crossed halfcourt he's directing everyone where to be. Once set, there's an immediate cross into a left handed drive. The issue here is Schroder is already cheating over, anticipating that it's going to be Jaylen who takes the final shot. Right here, Jaylen needed to recognize that.

Look at his head, look at his eyes. He knows before he even gets past Barnes, that Schroder is cheating over and Payton is going to be open. I'll call that Growth Area #1. Then,  instead of driving into traffic, Jaylen hesitates a little bit and lets things develop. I'll call that Growth Area #2. An immediate on target pass to Payton, and he cashes it. This was significant because just prior we'd seen Pritchard miss some open looks, and I imagine his confidence was in the balance. Here, we have the best player on the floor, a guy who had been awesome offensively all night, be a willing passer in an end of clock situation because a better shot was available in an effort to get his teammate going. I'm going to call that Growth Area #3.

The second pass was of course the game winner

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Over the last few years, this is a contested Jaylen layup attempt. It's been his night, these are the moments where the best players take the best shots, and once Jaylen got downhill like that, it's a shot we've seen him attempt a billion times. This version of Jaylen? Once again his head and eyes are up, he knows what he has to do with the ball, and once it's ready to execute he delivers an on-the-money pass to a teammate for an even better look. 

Again, Jaylen gets the ball and his head is immediately up upon driving

This is one of the easiest reads an NBA player will ever have. He can see Barnes sprinting over to rotate well before he even gets to the paint, which signals to his brain that Luke is going to be wide the fuck open. There's no weakside help since Schroder has to worry about Bald Derrick, and you can tell Jaylen is thinking pass the entire way, especially as he enters the paint. At this moment, he knows he has it

and the rest is history. 

While those two passes may seem insignificant or easy to those who may not watch a lot of Celtics basketball, we know how big of a step they are when it comes to Jaylen's growth as an offense initiator. 

Now, in complete transparency Jaylen also did have 7 TOs in this game which was bad, and we'll talk about those, but overall? The exact type of performance we all thought Jaylen had to have with guys out.

- I'm at the point now where I don't really care which Celtics make the All Star team. Do they get 2? 3? Who are they? Who gives a shit. What I care about is how they are playing, and I don't need someone like Derrick White to be selected to the All Star team to tell me he is playing like an All Star. I have eyes.

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Just yesterday I wrote about how I'm fairly certain that Derrick White possesses the clutch gene. That as the game gets to winning time and the pressure mounts, he gets better and better. So what does he do?

How about a team best 9 points in the 4th quarter, with all 9 of those coming in the final 4:42 minutes, the very definition of clutch time. That crazy 3PM to put the Celts up 1? Clutch. White's driving layup to put them back up 3 with 1 minute left? Clutch. 

Despite his tough 5-19 (2-10), Derrick finished with 21/5/7/3/2 and showed up when things mattered most. So at the end of the day, who gives a shit if he doesn't make 1 of the 12 All Star spots. We know what we're watching, and the only thing that truly matters is the production, which has been at an All Star level. 

- With the B2B on deck and Horford/KP both out, this was going to be a heavy Luke Kornet minutes game simply because of the bodies the Celts had available. He didn't play against the Pistons to stay fresh, and I'd say he answered the call and then some

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20/8/3/3?? On 9-11 shooting?? I don't know where the hell this came from, but I'm thinking we witnessed Luke Kornet's best game as a Celtic. 

Listen, if any NBA team finds themselves needing to heavily rely on their 3rd/4th big in a playoff series, they're going to have issues. That's true for the Celtics, as well as pretty much every other team in the league, maybe outside of MIN and Naz Reid. That guy rules. 

But at the moment, we're in December. These are the innings eater type of performances you're hoping to get from your reserves, and I'm sorry but you could do a whole hell of a lot worse in terms of a 3rd/4th big than Luke Kornet. He's not exceptional at any one thing, he's just solid. There will be moments he gets burned defensively by quicker players, there will be rebounds he definitely should get that he won't which will be annoying, but again, he's a 3rd/4th big. 

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To get this type of showing on a night where your two other centers are out is impressive. Nothing crazy, just some easy dunks and putbacks, but that's all I ask for in moments like this. Be passable defensively, rebound, and finish off easy dunks. It's not like the Raptors are all that imposing in the frontcourt, so it was nice to see Luke be able to take advantage of that. 

- The Celtics are now 55-5 over the last 2 years (including playoffs) when they hit at least 120 points. That feels pretty good. Oh, and in terms of the all important 40/20 rule, the Celts now just need to go 15-13 in order to check off that box. That also feels pretty good.

- It's hard not to love how the Celts are moving the ball right now. During this 5 game winning streak, the Celts rank 4th in the NBA in assists per game at 30.6. They're 2nd in the NBA in secondary assists (4.4) per game and 4th in assist to pass% (10.8). For this to happen, it's not just one or two guys making a playmaking leap. It's a collective effort. It's playing the right way. It's embracing Mazzulla Ball. 

- I wouldn't say it was an overly efficient night for Holiday (5-15, 3-5), but he was another guy that did his part to make timely baskets. One thing that continues to stick out to me about his season is how automatic he is as a catch & shoot guy. Jrue is now up to 44.4% on catch & shoot 3PA this season, so I'd like to see his volume bump up a little bit from the 1.9 3PA it's at now. This is basically right where he was as a Buck last season (1.8, 45%), and really I'd say Holiday and Derrick are the only players who never really had a 3pt slump. Holiday has been solid in pullups as well, so I guess what I'm saying is the time has come for him to be even more aggressive with this type of shot.

- Another clutch time win, making the Celts now 10-5 in clutch time games. Keep this in mind the next time the Celts lose a close game and everyone loses their minds.

The Bad

- Of course, blowing a 20 point lead is never going to feel great. Undermanned and on a B2B, you still should not be blowing a 20 point lead at home. So how the hell did that happen? Well it's never just one thing, so let's break down each contributing factor.

It starts with the lack of defense. After holding the Raptors to just 20 points in the first quarter, they then never held TOR to under 32 points in a quarter the rest of the way. I would say the perimeter defense left more to be desired considering the Celts gave up 17 3PM and 38% shooting, which is an area they've struggled with this entire month. They're 25th in the NBA in opponent 3P% (39.6%0 in December (and still went 11-2), which isn't exactly great.

So the lack of defense was definitely an issue. From there, you then look at the ball security. As we talked about against the Pistons, the worst thing you can do against a bad team is to give them confidence, and the easiest way to do that is to turn the ball over. In this game, the Celts finished with 16 TOs which led to 22 Raptors points. That is an INSANE number, and how they clawed back into this game. The biggest culprit was the 3rd quarter (6 TOs), with Jaylen having 3 in that frame that were all pretty terrible. Rushed plays where he was a little out of control, the very things he's been so good at avoiding showed up in that frame.

Well then you turn to the 4th and it's the same thing. 4 more TOs in that quarter (2 more from Jaylen), and before you knew it the Raptors were confident and erased a 13 point Celtics lead turning it into a 2 point Raptors lead in just 4 minutes. 

- Pretty insane to see 2 goaltends get missed in a single game. I feel like that never happens.

- The shooters are still going through it. After their dud against the Pistons, Pritchard/Hauser followed that up with a 6-15 performance last night. At some point I imagine they'll snap out of their collective funk, but we aren't there yet. To still be winning these games seems a little crazy, and the only way they are going to get back to the efficiency we expect is to keep letting it fly. As long as they are open (which they are), I still want them shooting with confidence. I'd also just like to see a few go in too.

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- What the hell is up with Jrue missing those end of game FTs. A classic example of the Celtics never making things easy on us. I mean that's an 85% shooter and I feel like this isn't the first time this has happened this season. Sure the Celts got their own prayer with the Schroder miss, but let's cut the shit. The Celts went 17-20 from the line which is awesome, so of course the only misses we saw had to be in the biggest moment where there was still potential for disaster. This team man. 

The Ugly

- You know the rules, the team wins 5 in a row and we get this section off. They've earned it.

Looking ahead, as long as the teams around the Celts are going to keep winning, they have to keep pace. The nice two "easy" games at home are done, and now the Celts have a 4 of 5 stretch on the road, followed by a B2B with MIN/MIL

Finish this stretch 5-2 or better, and I'd call that a win. The West Coast trip was impressive, but it's not the only road test of the year. Take care of this stretch and things look much better in mid January.