I suppose it might help if I tell you when that was.
The year was 2010-11.
Coming off a Finals loss in heart breaking fashion (sound familiar?
I lived off Monica’s and Umbertos with some Florentine cookies from Bova’s regularly mixed in.
I say focus on the 1960-61 ending.
If you’re curious, you should focus on the 1793-74 ending if the Celts stay at 56.
They’ve been around for 77 seasons.
That seems pretty good!
Of those 24 previous teams, 11 won the title.
I think we’d all like to see that number become 12.
I was nervous about every possession, every jump, every fall, every foul.
You just never know.
Thankfully, we survived and also were witnesses to one hell of a show.
No Jaylen, Smart, or Brogdon?
Let’s talk about it.
The Good
- Frankly, I’m still in shock.
I’m still not totally sure what I witnessed.
I’ve had to watch these highlights a few times this morning just to double-check they’re actually real.
I mean I dunno, you tell me
This really happened right?
Sam Hauser actually put it on someone’s head and then flexed.
He went for 26/5/2 on 10-16 (6-12) in his 36 minutes right?
I’m not imagining that either?
I mean holy shit.
I’m not saying that, many other people are, but I do kind of see their point.
The beauty of last night was we got so much more than that.
We got posters, we got thunder dunks, we got 6 3PM.
We’ll be fine."
Immediately he was mocked.
People said he wasn’t an NBA level player, that he couldn’t defend.
Nope, wrong again!
He’s shown to be more than capable on that end of the floor.
- I would now like this opportunity to discuss Robert Williams.
Not Tatum, not Jaylen, not Smart, not Al, not Derrick, not Brogdon.
Pick anyone you want really.
None of them raise the ceiling of what this team can accomplish more than a healthy Robert Williams.
How do I know that?
Because look at this dude
That’s Rob.
Not hampered, still kind of injured and maybe a step slow Rob.
That’s a holy shit this is the most terrifying two way presence in the NBA Rob.
The rebounding, the defense, the rim protection, and best of all, the passing.
Just ask Gordon Hayward.
25 minutes last night, and 31 in the game before against the Raptors.
The ramp-up is underway and he looks primed and ready for a playoff push.
That’s….gigantic.
- What I love about Payton Pritchard is the man just stays ready.
But when it came time for his number to be called he basically did what he always does.
We know Payton can shoot, but last night was also about him actually making plays as a playmaker.
He stays locked in.
- It’s very apparent when Jayson Tatum decides to play with a “no fucking around” mindset.
Love that for us.
Some of the greatest players to ever play this game.
Not a single one has averaged 30 for an entire season.
No player has gotten more buckets.
That may not be the “scoring title”, but it’s pretty fucking awesome.
It’s pretty clear that we are witnessing a generational Celtic in the making.
We have literally never seen anything like this lol
As always though, shoutout Isaiah Thomas.
- The Celts now move to 37-3 when they score at least 120 points.
Call me crazy, but that seems pretty good.
This Mazzulla Ball man, I guess you could say it works!
Last night was no different.
The ball movement in this game was pure Celtics porn.
The 19 TOs were horrible, but listen nobody’s perfect.
Locked in defense, rebounding, ball movement, loving and trusting.
That is Mazzulla Ball, and when this team plays that way they are virtually unbeatable.
- Speaking of the Celtics season, we now have an 81 game sample size to evaluate them on.
They’ve been dominant since the opening tip.
The last teams who were top 2 in offense/defense/net rating were the KD era Warriors and the pre-KD Warriors.
Those teams were pretty fucking good last time I checked.
- Another 16/6/10 for Derrick in his 27 minutes on 4-7 shooting.
There were some turnover issues of course, but overall?
It was the perfect cap to his breakout season.
That’s messed up.
That’s just the way life is going to be from now until the end of time.
I trust the Celts have won when the game ends and not a second prior.
Maybe you don’t suffer from this, and if that’s the case I sure am jealous.
What I just described to you was the play of Grant.
- Only getting 3 minutes of JD/Kab was nowhere near enough.
I’m going to need that to be like 33 minutes tomorrow night.
I need more JD lobs in my life, we saw the flashes last night.
The Ugly
- It goes without saying that 19 turnovers is fucking disgusting.
Making smart decisions with the basketball is going to be the #1 storyline to their postseason run.
This is it, this is what we waited all year for.
This is the opportunity that we’ve been looking forward too since June.
This is about to be the craziest 2 months of our lives.
