BOSTON – Just like they avoided potential “trap games” leading up to Thursday night’s game against Golden State, the Boston Celtics have also managed to avoid the trappings that come with their success.
The Celtics (13-2) have the best record in the NBA, and yet listening to them you would think they were just a .500 team trying to stay afloat.
Much of their talk after games centers around the need to get better, recognizing areas in need of cleaning up.
You know, the things that teams wanting to string together wins – not teams that are doing it like Boston – focus on.
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It is that desire to continue getting better even when they are pretty damn good right now, that keeps the necessary edge this team needs in order to continue being successful particularly when it comes to their ultimate strength as a team - defense.
“Guys are very locked in with what we need to do,” Al Horford told reporters on Wednesday. “We want to be a great defensive team. That’s why we try to be better each game.”
That’s why no amount of praise or platitudes from the best club in the Bay, the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors, can throw this Celtics crew off stride.
The Celtics are locked into the process of performing better from one night to the next, of doing the work required to be great.
Because as much as some might see them as not being an elite team now, there’s no need to beat them over the head with that intel.
They already know that as good as their record is, there were several moments during their current 13-game winning streak when they could have easily lost.
What if DeMar DeRozan put a little more lift on the shot he took at the end of the Raptors’ 95-94 loss to Boston?
What if Marcus Morris had his hands up when he lunged towards Kemba Walker’s potential game-winning step-back jumper and was called for a foul?
But rather than worry about ‘what ifs,’ this team is more about ‘what’s next?’
For them, it’s a matchup against the Golden State Warriors, who are the team everyone in the league continues to chase.
And while Cleveland remains a viable title contender, and Toronto and Washington are still legitimate powers in the East, there is a growing sense that Boston’s time to be great might be sooner than later.
They have a talented nucleus of veterans in Al Horford and Kyrie Irving, with a vibrant young cast of talent led by second-year wing Jaylen Brown and rookie sensation Jayson Tatum. The rest of the roster is filled with below-the-radar talent that’s playing exceptional basketball which has catapulted Boston to the top of the NBA.
“It sure looks like Boston is the team of the future in the East,” said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. “With their assets that they still have and their young talent and their coaching and Kyrie (Irving) is amazing. That looks like a team that is going to be at the top of the East for a long time to come. Whether their time is now or in the future, that’s to be determined. But they sure look like they want it to be now.”
That would require them to get past his Warriors team, the gold standard by which every team stacks itself up against.
But the Celtics, as we have seen, are a different kind of team.
Because as much as folks want to bill Thursday's game as a potential NBA Finals preview, the Celtics aren’t falling for that trap – or the trappings that come with their success.
