BOSTON -- The Los Angeles Lakers came to town and got crushed by the Boston Celtics.
Up next was Memphis, a red-hot team on the rise with a next-level rookie leading the way, who got one of those back-of-the-woodshed beatdowns.
The Celtics are coming off their best back-to-back performances this season and are looking to continue that strong play away from the TD Garden with the next three games on the road, beginning with Friday night’s matchup at Orlando.
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Indeed, there is an undeniable amount of pressure on them to continue on their winning ways.
And the key to that success lies in their defense; specifically their ability to apply pressure at a consistent level.
The last two games have seen the Celtics deliver the defensive hammer in a way we have not seen with this kind of consistency.
Boston Celtics
Yes, it’s only two games.
But here’s the thing.
You can probably count the minutes in those two games that Boston hasn’t played with a sharp edge defensively, on the one hand.
And the numbers only amplify how well they have ratcheted up their play at that end of the floor lately.
In the last two games, Boston’s defense has averaged 25.0 points off turnovers which is tops in the league, 22.5 fast-break points which ranks second in the NBA in the last two games, and they are limiting opponents to just 10.0 points via fast-breaks which is the league’s fifth-lowest average in the last two games.
Blanketing teams with pressure defensively has been something Celtics head coach Brad Stevens has been imploring his players to do all season.
“Without any resistance, they catch it inside the three-point line or at the three-point line without any resistance, then we’re in trouble,” Stevens said. “Our best rim defense is keeping the ball away from it.”
And lately, the Celtics have done this at an elite level with their position-less brand of basketball paying dividends by being able to switch constantly defensively and not being burned by a bad matchup.
Daniel Theis has been particularly impressive recently.
This season, Theis has a defensive rating of 103.4 but in the last two games, his defensive rating is a strong 78.9.
And when you start looking at Boston’s other core players, they too have seen a noticeable improvement in their defensive ratings such as Jayson Tatum (101.8 defensive rating this season, 80.2 in the last two games); Gordon Hayward (104.7 this season, 91.3 defensive rating the last two games); and Kemba Walker whose defensive rating of 108.6 has taken a major nose dive the last two games, to 94.8.
“We have to be a defense-first kind of team; we are,” Hayward told NBC Sports Boston earlier this week. “When we let our defense leads the way for us, good things usually happen.”
Don't miss NBC Sports Boston's coverage of Celtics-Magic, which begins Friday at 6 p.m. with Celtics Pregame Live, followed by tip-off at 7 p.m. You can also stream the game on the MyTeams App.