Watching The Celtics Kick The Absolute Shit Out Of The Warriors Will Never Get Old

Ezra Shaw. Getty Images.

Earlier this month, the Celtics went on a West Coast trip of MIN/HOU/OKC/DEN with a B2B mixed in that many considered an important test. Coming off their mostly shitty play to end December (2-3), they responded rather well. A 3-1 record that was one bad half away from being 4-0, I think any rational person would agree that trip was a success. The hope then was that they would be able to build of that positive momentum upon returning home to a lighter schedule.

Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened

Now a few weeks later, the Celts are once again out West for a tough road trip of GS/LAC/LAL/DAL with a B2B mixed in (the LAs). After screwing around at home during that previous stretch, these are all pretty significant games out West, especially if you care about hitting the 40/20 rule (you should). After another strong start to this trip just like the MIN win during the last trip, if anything I mostly feel annoyed. If the Celts don't fumble the last 20 seconds up 3 points with the ball against the Hawks, we're talking about riding a 3 game winning streak and winning 4 of their last 5. Back on their .800 pace.

But instead, they had to fuck around. That's the story of their season at home (15-8) compared to the road (15-5). And let me make myself very clear. I do not give a shit that the Warriors were missing so many players. Steph Curry played right? Wiggins was out there? Looney too? Those three have killed the Celts consistently since 2022, so tough shit. Beating the Warriors whether it was by 50 last year or 40 this year will always bring me joy. Knowing it was the Isaiah Celts that broke their 54 game home winning streak and the Tatum/Brown Celts that handed them their worst home loss in the Steve Kerr era makes me smile

Does that make up for what happened in the 2022 Finals? Of course not. But that's the beauty of the 2024 title. What happened in 2022 can no longer hurt me the same way now that this group has a title of their own. Now I can fully enjoy these belt to ass beatdowns like we saw in 2024 and 2025 without a care of the world and I have to admit, I don't hate it. 

Here's the thing though, these good feelings only last if the Celts stop doing this whole win a game lose a game bullshit. While it's nice they are now 12-1 after a loss, I'd like to start seeing them string a couple of consecutive wins together. Enough of the inconsistent one step forward one step backward dance. That's shit a Play In team does, not a title contender. 

It sure helps when instead of the entire roster being a disaster, everyone shows up. Crazy what a difference that can make! That's also partially what makes the Celts rut so infuriating. All they need to do is just not be the worst basketball team of all time. Stop shooting 39/24% every game and chances are you're going to get back to your winning ways. Just be average! Make your open looks! Take care of the ball! Play with purpose!

We got it all against GS and it should surprise no one that a beatdown came with it. Let's begin.

The Good

- Outside of a few of his early inexcusable turnovers, I thought Jayson Tatum set the perfect standard in this game. We saw it all the time because it's the truth. At the end of the day, this team will go as the Jays go. When they are engaged, locked in and executing, this team is unbeatable. When they lay an egg, it spreads to the rest of the roster. Their defensive intensity, their offensive approach, their communication, everything comes back to them and first and foremost, Tatum.

While some out there may be annoyed with his 3-10 from 3PA, I don't really see it that way. His 3PT volume helps keep defenses honest and opens up his drives, plus there isn't a 3PA we haven't seen him make before. Not every shot will be a wide open C&S 3PA, and while most of them were, I think if anyone, Tatum has the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his shot selection. Some will complain about this approach from Tatum last night, but I thought he had a pretty good balance in terms of his shot profile

Much better execution at the rim, some midrange mixed in when it was available, and his 3s came from a zone in which he's shooting above league average. 

In addition to all that, you had Tatum leading the team in rebounding and assists just like he always does, and he did it all in only 28 minutes. Not only was his production through 3 quarters important, but it was also big that he didn't have to play a single second in the 4th quarter. With 5 games in 7 days, finding ways to get Tatum rest will always be a good thing. 

For the second straight game Tatum was fantastic in the 3rd quarter, this time putting up 12 points on 5-9 (2-4), and that 43-24 quarter is what allowed everyone to have an early night. I'd say the encouraging part of both Tatum and the team's overall performance in that quarter was that there was no settling despite what took place in the first half. They all came out aggressive, they took care of the ball, and they played defense. Once again, I go back to the best players here. Both Tatum and Brown were great to open the 2nd half and the rest was history. It's contagious.

- With Jaylen's night, it was a bit of a different approach. He only took 14 FGA (made 8), and he spent the majority of his possessions abusing the Warriors out of the post either as a scorer or a passer. With no Draymond available and no Kuminga to worry about in terms of length, possession after possession all we saw was Jaylen bully the opposition to good results

Some of the best plays of the night came out of this offense

Another night of 5 potential assists (Tatum led with 8), I thought Jaylen was much better in his approach compared to what we saw against ATL. The team as a whole was also much better at surviving the non-Tatum minutes that were led by Jaylen, especially when it came time to exploit the non-Curry minutes. That group was great about not wasting that opportunity, and honestly, it was the reason they were able to build their early cushion. Their 10-1 run once Curry got his first shift of rest was huge, and the Celts were able to repeat that effort every time he went to the bench, whether Tatum was on the floor or not.

A showing like this from Jaylen interests me for a few reasons, mostly because I see it as a way to limit possessions where he sometimes gets into trouble especially against physical defenses that love to reach and have good length on the perimeter to bother his handle.

Changing things around and letting him operate through the post is interesting. More times than not Jaylen is going to be stronger than his opponent, and given how much better he's reading the floor and opposing defenses, I trust him to make the right decision out of the post whether that's to shoot or create for others. It also limits his possessions where he's across from a defender and is trying to break him down off the dribble, which against a team like GS is pretty dangerous given they tend to give him problems once he drives into the paint.

Instead, finding an advantageous matchup with Jaylen in the post is a pretty efficient way to operate offensively. This season Jaylen is averaging 1.16 PPP while shooting 54% in post ups, ranking in the 82nd percentile. Last night was the perfect example of what that can look like.

- Given their defensive struggles in recent weeks, as a general rule I will not thumb my nose up on holding a team in a game in which Steph Curry played to just 85 points on 34/26% splits. Not a single quarter of over 24 points allowed, the Celts only committed 8 fouls and for the first time in a long time it felt like we were getting 4 full quarters of good defense. You can probably count on one hand how many times that has happened this season, so to see it in Game 1 of a big West Coast trip was pretty significant.

And we can be honest, some of those GS misses were wide open. Whatever. Whenever that happens to the Celtics I'm told it's actually the opposing team playing good defense, so I get to say it was all good defense last night.

- One of the frustrating parts of the Celts' rut and what it has done to their record is it overshadows just how good Kristaps Porzingis has been since his return from injury. With each game, he seems to be getting more and more comfortable and more in game shape, and the results are about as ideal as you could want from him in his role

This is what I respect about KP. He goes out and speaks honestly about how the team is playing like dogshit and how nobody was playing hard, and then he makes damn sure his play is up to par. I mean look at this 

The thing with KP is you have no idea how available he's going to be. You know at some point, there will be a play that results in him missing a week here or there. But while he's on the floor? KP has been great. I'll take 18/7 on 45/39% with 2.4 3PM in around 28 minutes a night with good rim protection. Even in their losses like TOR/SAC/OKC, Porzingis was solid.

Watching him play, it's very clear why he's the guy that takes this team to a new level. The three level scoring, the ability to just throw it to him on the block and let him score or get to the line, the rim protection combined with the 30ft range, the entire KP season has been better than I think I expected.

He came back earlier, his play right away was better than I thought it would be, and now here we have the consistency being better than I expected. KP is a guy who not only talked the talk when things looked like shit, but ever since he's also walked the walk. Hard not to respect that. 

- I'm not sure who needed a vintage Mazzulla Ball performance more. The players, the fans, Joe himself, Brad, take your pick. What I do know is that it was a great time for everyone to go back to their normal selves on both ends of the floor.

Guess what? The approach in this game was the same thing we saw against ATL. It was the same thing we saw against ORL. The difference? In the GS and ORL win, the Celts didn't miss every shot they took. In the ATL loss, it was right back to sub 30% shooting and bonehead basketball.

So for the 1000000000000000000th time, the Celtics do not need to change their scheme. All of this nonsense during their rut comes down to one simple thing, execution. When the Celts make their open looks, they rarely lose. When the Celts don't get zero production from their bench outside of Payton Pritchard, they rarely lose.

Sam Hauser finally came back to life and finished 4-7 (3-6), Kornet filled his role perfectly in his 12 minutes with easy lobs and solid rebounding (7). Al hit a corner 3 and was also great defensively in his 20 minutes. I'd say every bench player that touched the floor was solid in their minutes, which has been a bit of an issue with this team lately outside of Pritchard. Too many no shows and not enough execution. Crazy to think that once that execution shows up, the team looks a whole lot better.

- I'm trying to stay on planet earth when it comes to Jordan Walsh and Baylor Scheierman, but I mean….it's getting harder and harder

are there rotation-level players somewhere in those clips in a few years? Really that's all I'm looking for from either guy. Can you develop into a playable NBA player. That's the goal. I will say, the Jordan Walsh improvement as a three point shooter most certainly has my attention. Things look fluid as shit when he takes a 3PA now, and you can see the vision with him knowing that he's already pretty decent defensively.

With Baylor, we're still very firmly TBD, but I will say the G-League stints seem to have made him feel more comfortable. Compare his mop up duty last night to the mop up duty we saw to start the year and it looks like a completely different person.

- Just a reminder that despite all the doom and gloom about the 2024-25 Celts, they still lead or are tied for the lead for the most 20, 30, 40, and 50 point wins in the NBA.

If you're interested in more, it's also pretty impressive that last year they secured their 30th win in Game 39, and this year despite the health and horrific shooting for 6 weeks, they did it in Game 43. They have a point differential of a 60+ win team right now (+9.6). 

Just take a deep breath. Things are OK.

- Much better all around performance from the Stock Exchange. A combined 7-10 (4-7) with just 3 TOs and they held Steph to 6-15 (4-12). Given Jrue's fuck up vs ATL and Derrick's overall slump, they picked a great time to snap out of it and get back to the standard we've come to expect from each guy. 

Of everything we saw, I do think both guys seeing the ball go in at the rate it did provided the biggest relief. These guys simply have to get back to hitting their open 3s at a more acceptable clip. Especially Derrick. What was noticeable was the fact that they didn't really take low percentage looks. Derrick's 3PA were much more in control, as was the same with Jrue. Holiday never really takes "bad" 3s in the same way Derrick does, but I thought both of their shot profiles and decisions when it came to knowing when to let it fly was about as good as it gets.

- 7-8 form the FT line, only 9 TOs, won the rebounding battle 5038, won the points in the paint battle 52-26, won the fastbreak points battle 11-2, the Celts were much, much better in this game around the margins.

Basketball doesn't have to be complicated. Play with force, take care of the ball, rebound, make your open shots. It's really that simple.

The Bad

- It's nitpicking, but there should never be a start to a game in which Tatum has the same amount of TOs as FGM and Derrick has 2x the TOs as FGM. For a stretch there it looked like we were in store for another CTE performance against GS, and it's why things were relatively close for the first half of the 1st quarter.

Once the Celts stopped turning it over and actually saw the ball go in things were fine, but even on the plays they didn't turn the ball over like when Jaylen would drive into the paint and lose the ball before regaining it and finding a teammate, they just didn't look all that sharp to start offensively.

- Every time I see Wiggins throw up a 1-11 (0-4) performance like we saw last night I get extremely triggered about his 2022 Finals performance. One of the fakest things we've ever seen. God dammit.

- One issue that seemed to have carried over from the ATL loss is the OREB/2nd chance points problem. The Warriors finished with just 10 OREB which isn't a terrible number, but it led to 17 2nd chance points which is a tad high. 

I just firmly believe that giving Steph Curry teams multiple chances to score is overall not a great idea. Sure it didn't matter in this game, but it's about the bigger picture. Being bad on the defensive glass and allowing so many 2nd chance points is how you lose games you shouldn't (See: ATL loss).

The Ugly

- Look, the Celts won by 40 and were up by as much as 45. There isn't going to be a lot to complain about. But you know what I will complain about? This team's inability to throw an entry pass. They can't do it. It's one of the most inexplicable things about them. It doesn't matter who is throwing it, we're at the point where it's a 50/50 shot as to whether or not it ends in a turnover

This is happening every single game. I have no idea how to track this individual turnover, but I would bet my life the Celts lead the league in entry pass turnovers. Please get it together.

So look, starting this West Coast trip off with a 40 point win is about as good as it gets, but none of that matters if they can't back it up. A tough LAC/LAL B2B awaits, and knowing that the Celts will be without KP/Al for one of them makes it an even tougher challenge. We know what this team is capable of on any given night, but now we just need for them to get their consistency back. If that happens, things will go the way we all need them to go for the rest of this trip.