From Honoring A Legend To Kicking Ass On The Court, The Celtics Wrapped Up Their Historic Regular Season In Spectacular Fashion
Brian Fluharty. Getty Images.And just like that, the 2023-24 regular season has come to a close. At 64-18, this wasn't just the first season of exactly 64 wins in Celtics franchise history, it was undoubtedly one of the greatest regular seasons by any team in NBA history
Far exceeding what any of us thought might be possible back in October, the next time we see this team take the floor will be the start of the most important playoff run of our lives. Nobody enters the playoffs with more pressure than the Boston Celtics, and I consider that a privilege. Seasons like the ones we just lived through do not exactly happen often, which is why pretty much all year I've tried my best to remind everyone to appreciate what we're seeing. For many of us, it's one of the best seasons we've ever witnessed with our own eyes. And while there is certainly more to achieve to prevent it all from being for nothing, there's also nothing wrong with taking a second and stopping to smell the roses.
This was an incredible 6+ months of basketball. There's no two ways about it.
And while Game 82 certainly didn't mean anything, that doesn't mean it wasn't a huge day for all of us. Not just because we got to see the Hospital Celtics whoop some ass again, but because it was our chance to honor the GOATs of GOATs in Mike Gorman. The actual basketball game was secondary yesterday, and overall it was as emotional a day as you could possibly have.
We'll have plenty of time to talk about the Play In matchups and the potential playoff path, but as always before we look ahead we first must talk about yesterday afternoon.
The Good
- If you at any moment thought we would be starting any other place than Mike Gorman, you haven't been paying attention. Not only worthy of the top spot, I'm also not ready to let go
Ah shit, I'm crying again. I can't help it. I'd say if I had to describe what yesterday was like watching this game and seeing all the Gorman tributes/hearing him address everyone, it's probably this
Just waterworks city for the entire 2.5 hour experience. And even though we all know that Gorman will be calling the first round, it doesn't matter. I can't imagine anyone watching what happened yesterday and not getting extremely emotional. As I've said in previous blogs, my life does not know the Boston Celtics without MIke Gorman. He's everything.
For a guy who never wanted to take away from the moment, and is essentially famous for letting the game do the talking during a broadcast, it was fitting that the legend finally had a moment where everything could be about him. Nobody deserves it more and things will never truly be the same after this season.
Now all that's left is for the team to take his advice, and just go win the whole thing
- Now in terms of what we saw on the court? Pro Am Pritchard certainly did not disappoint
Coming off his 31/11 performance against the Hornets, Pritchard was back at it again with another career night that saw him not only destroy the Wizards, but also make some NBA history
As we've seen all year, if you are a fringe NBA guy and you find yourself on the court with Payton Pritchard, he is going to make your life hell. Considering that's what these last two games were, it's not really surprising to see Pro Am Pritchard light everyone up like this. It's what he does. He's arguably the best garbage-time player in the league once he gets his ultimate green light and is allowed to do whatever he wants on the floor.
The fact of the matter is, as a starter this season Payton Pritchard has produced not just at an All Star level, but an All NBA level
Is that only 5 starts? Yeah, so what? The numbers are the numbers. Were those starts against the Blazers, Pistons, Pistons, Hornets, and Wizards? I guess technically yes, but am I supposed to give a shit about that? That doesn't really change what we're seeing from Pritchard over this last month (15 games).
16.5/3.4/6.1 on 54/40% splits and 2.4 3PM with just 1.0 TO a game
and it's why I'm very excited to see him during this playoff run. We've never had a playoff run with this version of Pritchard before, and I can't imagine a player has more confidence than he does at this moment in time, and if things end up being MIA or PHI or CHI or ATL, those aren't terrible matchups for him. This dude feels as locked in as ever
- You know we're in Game 82 when we not only get Pritchard dominance, but Svi is coming out of nowhere and also having the game of his life
12 points in the 1st quarter, ending the game with 26/5/5 on 10-13 (6-8), this is all coming from a guy who is an end of bench player. Think about that for a second. It just helps show how freaking good every single NBA player is that finds themselves on a roster. At any moment, that guy can throw up 26/5/5 after basically not playing the entire season.
While I'm not ready to go nuts and say there will be a playoff moment for Svi, I do think we've seen enough in his limited minutes to think that there's a roster spot for him moving forward should he not have any other offers/wants to stay with this group. The size, the shooting, the athleticism, I dunno, I'm intrigued.
This is easily one of the best players Brad has ever found for the minimum, and considering how important minimum players are going to be moving forward, I feel like there's something there with Svi that you should hold onto as the tax bill gets higher and higher. I'll be honest, I did not have Pritchard/Svi combining for 60+ points at any point this season, so I'd like to thank the Wizards for allowing me to experience something like that.
- Fake games or not, you go out and drop back to back hames with 130+ points without your top 6 players active, that is impressive as hell. Yes, it helps when you face arguably the worst defenses of all time, but again I'm not here to care about the details. I'm here to appreciate greatness when I see it, and that is exactly what we're seeing
That's right. Mazzulla Ball
- You thought we were done with seeing guys make NBA history? Ha, you fool. Please put some respect on Neemias Queta's name
If you had to guess how many players in the history of the NBA have ever thrown up a 19/9 with 6 blocks in under 24 minutes, how many would you say there have been? 3? 5?
Nope.
The answer is one, and his name is Neemias Queta
I'll tell ya, nothing gives you a hit of dopamine quite like playing the Hornets and Wizards in back to back games. Another team that didn't really have a center on the floor gave us the same results as the last time we saw this happen in Game 81. Queta simply looks like a man amongst boys and bullies his way into whatever he wants. Another guy who more than earned his guaranteed deal, it does feel like there can be a role for Queta moving forward, especially with the future of Luke Kornet TBD. If he gets paid by someone else, the idea of Queta sliding into that 3rd center role isn't all that crazy.
Again, this is all coming against fringe NBA guys, but we've already established that we don't give a shit about that. From showing signs in preseason as a legit OREB big to making NBA history in Game 82 is a pretty awesome story for a player who is well on his way to carving out a role with the main roster.
- Maybe the most important thing of all is the fact that for the most part, the Celts walked away from he regular season healthy. Xavier Tillman tweaked his ankle, but I would imagine that's fine by the playoffs. This was of course the #1 worry for every single Celtics fan heading into the year and then all throughout the season, and I would say this is probably the healthiest Celtics team we've ever had entering a massive playoff run.
There's no Rob knee issue. Jaylen didn't cut his hand watering plants, nobody in the top 6 tweaked anything. This is it. They are healthy and ready to roll, which at the end of the day is all you could ask for.
- After the Hornets game gave us a decent scoring differential boost, it all came down to yesterday to make sure that the Celts did what they had to do in order to stay ahead of the 1972 Bucks. Who knows if any of this will ultimately matter, but I'd rather they handled their shit than not
As you can see, mission accomplished. I am now once again asking the Basketball Gods to simply give the Celtics the same ending as every other team in NBA history who has at least done what they have done this season. No team that crossed over 11.16 scoring differential didn't win the title. No team that crossed 15.21 scoring differential at home didn't win the title.
I'm not asking for any special treatment. I'm not asking for anything more. Just let us be like everyone else. I am begging.
The Bad
- I think I'm addicted to Oshae Brissett misses. I can't help it. It's all just so fascinating to me. A guy who seems to have a great first step, is active as hell on the glass and plays with great energy simply cannot put the ball in the basket no matter what he tries. It's like a car crash that I can't look away from.
Another 2-6 from the floor and 0-3 from the FT line, I seriously can't comprehend how someone misses this consistently. There's never even a random night where he's hot from the floor like what happens to basically every other NBA player. I know his season splits tell me he shot 44/27% from the floor this season, but there's no way that actually happened.
What makes it so bizarre is there are a ton of things I love about Brissett's game, and I think he does provide value. I just cannot understand his lack of buckets. His FGA don't even feel close, regardless of what zone they come from. A total of 3 of his 4 misses came at the rim yesterday, which seems to happen all the time.
I can't ever remember there being a Celtic that would have so many positive plays ultimately end in disaster. It's truly a unique situation of an inability to get buckets, that at this point I think it should be appreciated?
- Pretty lame of the Wizards to be try hards and make all their shots towards the end of the 4th quarter which robbed Pritchard of his triple double. Grow up losers. Have a sense for the moment for me one time. You weren't going to win the game, just let Pritchard have his moment and let the crowd give him the respect he earned.
I did think for a moment there that something bad could happen as a sign of leaving him out there to rebound hunt and the Basketball Gods would not look kindly on that, but instead the Wizards just never missed. Maybe that was there way of saying "not today", but honestly that was annoying. You can't hit shit all game and then weirdly score 33 points in the 4th quarter shooting 51/50%? How dare you.
- 16-21 from the FT line for a cool 66%. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that's good, because it's not.
- It's really starting to hit me that come October, there will be no more Mike Gorman. And just like that I'm tearing up all over again.
The Ugly
- I know all the Maine guys have their title game tonight so their minutes were limited yesterday, but living in a world where Jordan Walsh played 17 minutes and only took 2 shots is unacceptable. Honestly that's probably the most annoying part of these last two games. What's with the icing out of Jordan Walsh on the offensive end? He touched the ball what, 4 times yesterday? Right after nobody passed him the ball against CHA?
Completely unacceptable behavior if you ask me. Games like these last two are the exact situation you force-feed Jordan Walsh and get him reps. I already know he can run up and down the corner and just go hide in the corner. I would have liked to see him put in actual actions so we could have seen what that looked like, but I guess we'll have to wait for next season for that.
And now we wait. I think it's logical to assume that the Celts will face either PHI or MIA in RD1, but that's the beauty of the Play In, anything can happen. I don't think teams enter those games trying to position for seeding, it's more just about assuring that you actually get in, so I wouldn't waste too much time worrying about who it ends up being. The Celts get who they get and that's that. For them to advance they are going to have to play well and to their potential regardless of the opponent, so now all that's left is just to sit back and let it all play out.
Because once Sunday hits, it's on.