The Boston Celtics, led by a Gordon Hayward resurgence, are beginning to look like the contender many thought they’d be prior to the season
The overall opinion through much of the 2018-19 NBA season thus far regarding the Boston Celtics hasn’t been all that bright. The Celtics are currently 5th in the Eastern Conference and have taken a backseat when it comes to the best teams in the league.
However, quietly, that has begun to change. Soon enough, so will the narrative.
Since Thanksgiving, the Celtics have the best record in the NBA. That’s a span of 22 games for most teams, in which the C’s have gone a league-best 16-6. And it’s not that the Celtics are just winning games, but they’re winning games in a dominant fashion.
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In those 22 games, the Celtics have the NBA’s best offensive rating, 7th best defensive rating and best net rating (by a large margin). Perhaps the one thing that has to be seen even more encouraging for the Celtics should be the recent play of Gordon Hayward.
For much of the season, Hayward has been much of a work in progress as he continues to play his way back into form after missing all of last season due to injury. As of late, though, he’s looked more and more like the player he was before the injury.
That, perhaps more than anything, has had a bigger strain on the Celtics this season. And might be one of the reasons why they got off to such a slow start, considering that many expected this team to roll their way through the Eastern Conference.
In the month of January, Hayward is averaging 19 points, five rebounds and five assists on 58 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range. The team is also 4-0 in such games.
For context, Hayward was averaging just a little more than 10 points per game on 40 percent shooting from the field in the three months before. Even though it is just a four-game sample size, the fact that Hayward even, at the very last, has just begun to turn the corner on the season has to be considered a great sign for the Celtics.
Over the last 20 games, the Celtics have been the best team in the NBA. Boston is only 4.5 games back of the top seed in the East, and with the way that they’ve played as of late it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see this team begin to make a run up the conference.
For the majority of the season, many have been waiting for the Celtics to make a move. While it hasn’t really come in the way of moving up in the Eastern Conference standings, they’ve already begun to make that move.
Soon enough, it should come up in the standings. But, make no mistake, the Celtics are coming. They’re looking more and more like the team we all expected them to be, and if Hayward is going to play up to his talent, then all bets are off and this team’s ceiling moves even higher.
The Boston Celtics, slowly but surely, are looking more and more like the contender many perceived them to be prior to the start of the season, and the rest of the NBA should be put on notice.