The Celtics Winning Streak Has Hit 9 Games After Giving The Sixers An Ass Kicking For The Ages

Tim Nwachukwu. Getty Images.

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9 in a row. 11 of their last 12. 16 of their last 20. I mean my lord. As I said the other day after win #8 in a row, you will not find a hotter team in the NBA right now than the Boston Celtics. Fact, not opinion. They just keep going. Doesn't matter the team. An MVP hopeful in Nikola Jokic? No problem. One of the best offenses in the league in the Hawks? No problem. An MVP hopeful in Joel Embiid playing at home? Naturally, no problem. Not only that, but you're going to beat that last one by nearly 50 points. I'm sorry, I just don't quite know how to make sense of this all. For example, how would one explain this?

My Boston Celtics? The ones that are 14-15 on the road this season, are making NBA history by beating three straight road teams by at least 30 points? What the hell is going on. All of these numbers don't even seem real. If I had told you that the Celts would do this sort of thing, I would be blasted as a delusional green teamer. Going into Philly, and mostly without 2 starters blowing that team out by 50? No way. 

But look, this is now almost 8 weeks of this stuff. At what point does the sample size simply turn into who you are? I don't mean in a sense that they'll beat everyone they play by 30, but the brand of basketball? Why couldn't that be sustainable? They are winning with defense and ball movement. Last night their shot fell, which is about as rare a sighting as you're going to get, but that's what happens when you play the right way. Things break well for you. That's Basketball 101. 

Like I keep stressing, perspective is important. We all feel great right now and rightfully so, but perspective is key. The Celts are still the 6 seed. They trail PHI by a game and have a light schedule and all that, but this is not a team without questions. The shooting is still a concern despite last night. The short rotation might burn everyone out come Spring. They still have more climbing to do. All of that is true and shouldn't be overlooked. The only thing that's really happened so far is the Celts have played their way back from the dead and will most likely be talked about like any other Eastern contender if they continue to play this way. That's all fun and good, but they still need to go out and execute. I think most Celts fans understand that. Nobody is throwing a parade in mid February, but this team has earned the right to be talked about in a different light compared to where we were in December.

That was the challenge right? If they wanted the narrative around the team to change, they had to win. That's the only way that happens. So what have they done? They've won at an absurd rate, destroying everything in their path for about a month and a half now. I think we all want to see this bad boy hit #10 today, but before we get there we first must relive the complete and utter ass kicking that graced our televisions last night.

The Good

- You know what? There were a lot of great performances last night, I mean the Celts won by fucking 48 points, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to start us off with a nice family moment. It's always great when a father and son get to spend time together doing what they love. For Al Horford, that's spending time with Joel Embiid on the basketball court. You see offensively Al didn't do much, he made a couple threes, had a couple assists and finished with 9 rebounds. Nothing crazy, just more of the same.

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So why is he getting the top spot? Easy. He did what he always does, which is put Embiid in jail. I know this is a hard reality for some Sixers fans to deal with. Hell, some of them wrote like 2,000 words being upset by it

but like I always say, the proof is the numbers. All you have to do is let the body of work do the talking. Last night marked the 3rd time we've seen Embiid vs Horford this season. This is how that's gone

Game 1 vs Embiid : 26 possessions / 5 points / 1-7 shooting / Cs win

Game 2 vs Embiid: 14 possessions / 4 point / 1-2 shooting / Cs lose

Game 3 vs Embiid: 28 possessions / 8 points / 3-7 shooting / Cs win

In total, that's 68 possessions / 17 points / 5-17 shooting and a 2-1 record. 

You have to understand here, nobody shuts down Joel Embiid in 2021-2022……except Al Horford. Again. And Again. And Again. You can bet your ass the next team Embiid plays he'll have a monster night because he's a fucking beast. Al just owns him. Sorry if this offends. I don't know if this triggers Sixers fans so bad because they watch their crowd jewel get stuffed in a locker repeatedly, or if it's the fact that it's coming via a player they have a weird beef with? Either way, I love it, you love it, we all love it. The dude made 3 BASKETS in 26 minutes. Joel Embiid. One of the most unstoppable forces this entire season. 3 baskets. Let that sink in.

- As anyone who watches this team will tell you, they go as their two best players go. When they both struggle, this team looks like it shouldn't even be in the NBA. But, when they are both locked in and show up? This team reaches ungodly heights

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57 points on 19-34 (9-15) shooting with a total of just 2 TOs. At the end of the third quarter it was Jaylen/Tatum 57, Sixers 58. No, that is not a typo. That is the reality in which we live. 

What we saw in this game is how the Celts roster can exploit this Sixers team. If Thybulle isn't going to be able to limit either player, they are kind of cooked. Tobias Harris isn't stopping anyone defensively, neither is Danny Green. Once Embiid comes out, there's no elite rim protector to keep guys out of the paint/attacking. At least Drummond was able to do that. Now, all you have to do is stagger the sub patterns of your stars and look what happens. When Embiid steped off the floor and one of Jaylen or Jayson was on, the lead ballooned. Then when Embiid came back the Celts were rolling to the point where not even he made a difference defensively. I mean look at their shot charts!

They lived in the paint. Got there whenever they wanted because they attacked north/south. The way Tatum came out in that third quarter was exactly how we love to see him play. Once he lowers his shoulders and gets a defender on his hip, it's over. Tatum is now too strong. He's also no longer getting the ball swiped from him on drives which is a HUGE development. 

By playing inside/out, we saw what happened. Their three point shooting opened up. Some of Jaylen's threes were rather insane, but when you're hot you're hot. 

- Let's talk more about their approach because when you play the Sixers, this is what truly matters. You cannot trade inefficient looks for Embiid buckets. So what did they do? They started the game with extremely efficient looks and never trailed. Did you know this was the first wire to wire loss the Sixers have had in 70 games? The Sixers and Celtics have played 568 times in their history. Last night was the largest margin of victory we've ever seen. In 568 games. 

In order for that to happen, the Celts had to show up in the first quarter, something that's been an issue against the Sixers. Last night they attacked early, got good momentum and then unleashed hell from three. They finished 10-18 and that was that.

- The defense, we need a minute to talk about the defense. In a game in which Joel Embiid played, the Sixers did not break 90 points and finished with 28/25% splits with 9 TOs. It was their worst shooting performance of their season. You wanted a test for this defense, well they've now gone through the 7th ranked offense, the 3rd ranked offense, and an unstoppable force in Embiid and are 3-0. Outside of garbage time buckets against DEN, none of them break 100.

In fact, in their last 12 games, the Celts have only given up 100 points a total of 3 times (one of them was DEN). So basically, 9 of the 12 teams are scoring under 100 points. That is insane in the year 2022. Even crazier when you also factor in the high powered Hornets offense is included in that as well. The level at which we are seeing this Celtics team defend is at a point where there is not a matchup I don't feel confident in. They can stop any style. The biggest thing you see is they are moving as a collective unit. Everything is on a string, rotations are crisp and on time, they are helping the helper with no hesitation. Everything you think of when you envision an elite defensive unit is what the Celts have been doing for the last two months.

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It's completely changed their season. They still can't really shoot, so they win in other ways. Shooting is less of an issue if the other team can't score. Last night they did a great job of giving Embiid different looks. Sometimes it was a double immediately on the catch, sometimes they let Al do his thing, sometimes it was a delayed double that forced him to turn it over. That's how you have to approach Embiid, you can't give him the same look every time down, he's too good. The Celts know that, so they adapted.

- Making a franchise record 25 3PM is just flat out ridiculous. Not sure what else has to be said. Think of how many Celtics games you've watched in your life. Probably a lot. In not a single one of them did they ever make 25 3PM. The same team that went like 4-41 earlier this season somehow went 25-45. You make sense of that.

- Before we begin, I would like everyone to join me in collectively thanking Brad Stevens. Why? Because he brought us Derrick White, who was a +41 in his 28 minutes. That seems good!

Nothing flashy, just solid play. A guy filling his role to perfection. Someone who keeps the ball moving and knows how to use his size to finish at the rim.  Don't care in the slightest that he's now 2-13 from three over his last two games and you shouldn't either. White set the tone for the second unit and then once the kids got their turn to play, all hell broke loose.

You had Aaron Nesmith coming out of nowhere with great energy, putting up 18 points off the bench. Not only that, he was making his threes!

Then came Sam Hauser. The dude wakes up in the morning locked and loaded ready to make threes. Is it possible the shooter the Celts have needed this whole time has just been in Maine? Seems like it

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All I could do during their fourth quarter dominance was sit and laugh. It was like we were watching completely different players. 

- Man does it seem like Daniel Theis has not missed a beat. He comes back, plays 19 minutes and has 5/9/2 with 4 blocks and 5 fouls. The Daniel Theis special. He's the perfect reserve big for this team and that's why I don't understand the people who didn't like this trade. It got you off Dennis and Enes and brought back a player we know fits. All he does in his first game is exactly what they needed him to do. 

- Also, how about Grant becoming one of the best three point shooters in the entire league? He made 4 more last night and this is not hyperbole. This is reality.

- Once again the Celts hit the magic number of 20 assists. They finished with 28 and are now 30-18 when they get to that 20 number. Who would have thought that ball movement = wins. Oh, that's right, everyone. That's what was so frustrating about watching this team refuse to pass at times. Everyone could clearly see that when this team moves the ball, they win. It took a while but the players are finally starting to catch on and look at the results. They never lose. 

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- Just how insane have the Celts been lately? Of all the crazy stats to hit our timelines last night, this one takes the cake for me

2x the next highest which is the 41 win Grizzlies? 4x the next highest in the East? My fucking god what even is this. Again, if you were to tell someone the Boston Celtics would be doing this at any point this season, they would laugh in your face. But it's real. Very, very real.

The Bad

- Obviously, the Smart injury. Really fortunate the All Star break is around the corner but man does this have me nervous. Things had been going a little too well I guess, this was a nice little reminder that you're always a turned ankle away. I'll admit in real time it looked way worse than just a rolled ankle so that's a relief, but now you just hope it's not a bad high ankle sprain or anything. It especially sucks given the fact that Marcus has been playing the best basketball of his career. He changed everything for this team when he got back into the lineup on 1/23, so lets hope this is nothing that lingers.

- I know going into these games we have to accept that Embiid is going to get bailed out repeatedly, but it's just so goddamn annoying. He's allowed to create all the contact he wants, but you breathe on him and it's a foul. The NBA needs to grow up with that shit. Chances are teams are going to actually foul him plenty. He doesn't need the help. 

- I dunno what else you want me to talk about here, the Celts won by a billion and were elite on both ends. I guess we can just call it,

The Ugly

- NOPE. NOT TODAY SATAN. SEE YA NEVER.

With one more game before the break tonight at home against DET, pretty sure this is the definition of a trap game. You don't want to go into the break giving this game away. You'll probably be without Smart/Rob, but it's the Pistons. The Celts should be able to handle their business given how well they are playing, but you have to stay locked in. You can't be thinking about the beaches just yet. Win tonight, then vacation. Every challenge we've asked of this team over the last 9 games, they've answered. They are continuing to build a body of work that you can truly believe in, so let's keep that train rolling.