The Boston Celtics are an illusive team. One night they’re winning an NBA Championship and the next they’re losing to the seventh ranked Hawks by a single point. They’re easy to root for and easy to condemn when you know they could have done better.
That is why one play from a game against the Golden State Warriors at TD Garden proves exactly what the Celtics are about. A team where you wonder if they’re going to make it, but also wonder why you ever doubted them when they do.
The play started with Celtics Center Al Horford’s rebound after a Warrior Trayce Jackson-Davis dunk. Horford passes the ball to Derrick White who runs it down the court and passes it to Jayson Tatum. Formation on the court consists of four Celtics carefully placed on the perimeter and one Celtic in the middle– like a domino formation. The Warriors look confused and are quickly trying to figure out their defense strategy before it’s too late.
With Andrew Wiggins on Tatum, he passes it to Celtic Neemias Queta who has Moses Moody and Jackson-Davis on him. He gives up his chance for a two-pointer and passes it back to White.
White attempts a three, but it falls short and bounces off the rim. A Jrue Holiday offensive rebound passes back to Horford who passes it back to an open Holiday when Wiggins fails to defend him. Holiday attempts the three pointer as Stephen Curry attempts to block Holiday. However, the shot falls short, again, and bounces off the rim.
As soon as White realizes his three wasn’t going to make it, he runs down the wing and under the basket. White gets the offensive rebound and the crowd grows louder in cheer. White passes it back to Holiday who chucks it past three defenders to Tatum. Tatum uses that same force to throw it to Horford.
In a split second, Horford passes it back to White who fakes Jackson-Davis out and runs down the paint but faces a block by Moody. By some stroke of luck, it falls into the Hands of Holiday who throws it back to Tatum.
Now, with just 3.9 seconds on the clock, Tatum does what Tatum does and makes a three pointer to save the day.
They leave the Warriors in confusion, an assumption that you can make based on their haphazard defense and the time out they took after the play. But in true Celtics fashion, they lost this game by some six points, proving just how unpredictable this team can be.
It’s clear that the Celtics’ strongest suit is their offensive strategy and persistence when it comes to making baskets. They’re ranked second for offensive ranking on StatMuse with an average of 121.3 points per game.
If you watched just one Celtics game last season, you might have heard the word sacrifice float around in post-game conferences and casual conversations. The Celtics have carried their understanding of this word into the 2024-2025 season.
Another play against the Raptors last night proves the Celtics’ players acceptance of sacrifice. A game that almost went into double overtime but was saved by a Tatum three pointer made with (literally) half a second on the clock. It was the result of a broken play in which Tatum had to make a last minute decision. Does Tatum continue with the planned play and pass it to Jaylen Brown after he was thrown to the ground with no referee call? Or does he sacrifice the play and possibly an embarrassing miss?
People on social media were flooding the comments with assumptions of Brown’s feelings toward Tatum making that shot. Faceless profiles spoke for Brown, who apparently seemed upset that he wasn’t the hero of the game. However, knowing what we know of the Celtics’ attitude toward sacrifice, I don’t think there is any truth behind this.
Perhaps that foul should have been called and perhaps Brown had some resentment toward the referee, but Brown understands the sacrifice he has to make for the team. The NBA audience should stop looking at plays as individual efforts but rather a team effort of sacrifice.
One of the biggest complaints I hear about basketball is that it is boring. I can’t entirely disagree with this. Defensive strategy has been decreasing since the mid 2010s and there is seemingly no reason for teams to chase a title if they’re not at title caliber. Upsets occur but don’t hold much significance in the regular season. In short, I can understand if there is very little desire for non-basketball fans to watch unless you’re a fan of the city. However, plays like this and a tenacious attitude toward the game remind me of the exciting things basketball can bring. When you get the chance to really analyze a play like this, it can open your eyes to the beauty of basketball.
The Celtics take on the undefeated Cavaliers Tuesday night at the Garden. With the Celtics keeping us on the edge of our seat with nearly every game and the Cavs taking the second best undefeated record in NBA history, it’s a game worth watching.