Three Celtics Things as the Boston Celtics gear up for a first-round matchup with the Indiana Pacers.
With the Boston Celtics getting ready to play the Indiana Pacers this weekend, here are three things on my mind.
Thing 1: Al Horford is still the most important player for the Boston Celtics
Celtics nation was worried about Al Horford for a bit. He looked out of sorts, and the impact was visible. He was the most important player for the Celtics last season, but the Celtics were 1.6 points per 100 possessions better with him off the court before the All-Star break this season. We thought maybe he’d lost a step.
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Yeah, nope. Since the All-Star break, the Celtics are 17.3 points per 100 possessions better with Horford on the court than when he’s off.
The offense and defense both fall completely apart without him. When he’s healthy, his versatility and IQ are still the factors that unlock this Celtics team.
Horford looked fantastic against the Indiana Pacers. He demanded the ball in the post when he had mismatches, and drove the lane when the Pacers gave it to him. He also had a pretty sweet looking block in transition.
The Celtics are the best version of themselves when Horford plays with that aggression. He didn’t have it early in the season, whether because of injury or just because the team was struggling to find its way.
But he’s upped his scoring average every single month. His 15.8 ppg average over his last 16 games (on close to 60% shooting from the field and over 40% from deep) has been a huge boon to a team still cementing its identity. If he can stay dialed in, it’ll help the Celtics survive the injury bug.
Thing 2: Marcus Smart’s injury is a big deal.
The Boston Celtics will be without Marcus Smart in the first round of the playoffs. There seems to be an air of casual nonchalance in some circles of Celtics Nation – a feeling that Smart’s services aren’t needed in round one. (Our own Tarringo Basile Vaughan covered this question in more depth).
That might be a mistake.
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Forget for a second that Marcus Smart is monster on defense who also just so happens to shoot threes effectively now (the clean 40% mark from deep in March being particularly reassuring). This goes beyond the X’s and O’s.
The Celtics have been a drama factory all season. While they have looked a lot more cohesive in this latter chunk of the season, there’s still this underlying tension. They know they’ve underperformed. They know the pressure is on them.
This is not a Paul Pierce–Kevin Garnett Celtics team where we all feel confident they’ll flip the proverbial switch. It’s possible they come out and look phenomenal, but it’s also possible the pressure forces them to crumble.
That’s a cynical outlook, but the Celtics have given fans no reason to give them the benefit of the doubt. With the team’s heartbeat sitting out rehabbing his oblique, the first round is scarier than some folks are recognizing.
Jaylen Brown seems like a natural addition to the starting lineup. He’s looked great in recent months, and (Smart aside) might be Boston’s best choice to guard Bojan Bogdanovic.
Gordon Hayward has been great in a point forward role off the bench as of late, so they’d probably like to let him continue there. But Jayson Tatum’s injury might force them to start Hayward, at least in game 1 (if that happens, they’re looking surprisingly thin all of a sudden).
Thing 3: You said what now, Kyrie?
Kyrie Irving interviewed Celtics legend Bob Cousy. Irving asked Cousy early in the interview, “how was it in the beginning stages having such great pieces on your team, as we have here?”
Look, I know Irving didn’t mean to draw a direct comparison between this reality show squad and the Celtics team that won repeated championships and put 8 guys in the Hall of Fame.
But he kinda did, didn’t he? We could play political analyst and examine this a million different ways, but “as we have here” wasn’t an accident.
Maybe that simply means Irving still thinks this team is stacked with greatness, and it’s a sign he’s confident headed to the playoffs. He has said recently that he’s not worried about the regular season results, insinuating that the basketball that actually matters is right around the corner. I guess that confidence is good, but process matters.
Danny Ainge also had a one-on-one conversation with Marcus Smart. Ainge told Smart that earlier in the season, when Smart was approaching Ainge’s three-point record, he wanted to trade him. And here we were all thinking Kyrie was the real source of drama on the team!
This is going off the rails. Moral of the story, the playoffs are finally here, Celtics fans should be cautiously optimistic, and Kyrie Irving is a confident, strange man.