The Boston Celtics wrapped up their four-game West Coast road trip with a Christmas Day victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, taking three consecutive victories to reward a handful of encouraging signs.
Getting off to a slow start through a gut-punching overtime loss to a Golden State Warriors team seeded out of the top 10 in the Western Conference, the Celtics responded. Boston put up back-to-back 140-point-plus performances, first against the Sacramento Kings, then against the Los Angeles Clippers before the final bow on top — beating LeBron James and the Lakers.
With depth, third-quarter urgency and plenty more timely adjustments made to swing the pendulum back in Boston’s favor, Al Horford highlighted one key area that played a critical role in keeping the C’s in the win column.
“Our pace,” Horford told reporters during Thursday’s practice, per CLNS Media video. “I really like the way that our guys were really getting out on transition, and I feel we really challenge one another. It started with Jaylen (Brown). Jaylen was doing a great job really getting out on the open floor. … And then it became contagious. Jayson (Tatum) was doing it, Derrick (White) was making sure that he’s pushing the pace. Jrue (Holiday was) pushing the pace any chance he gets.”
It’s easy to rely on Tatum or Brown to play leader on a routine basis, but that doesn’t do anything for the overall growth of the team. Boston’s offensive unit — now more than ever under the Tatum-Brown era — has a handful of versatile scorers capable of being the No. 1 on any given night. That’s what makes the current approach of letting everyone get a piece of the pie much more lucrative for a team with make-or-break-level expectations.
The current starting five of Tatum, Brown, White, Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis offers a complete unit of All-Star-caliber talents capable of scoring inside, outside and defending — all at a high level. When looking across the league at what other organizations are attempting to make work, it puts into perspective how much of a luxury that is for the Celtics to have. And the separation of talent will only become more noticeable in the standings if Boston turns its recent adjustments into common habits.
Taking three of four is an obvious plus, but applying what the Celtics learned is what’s needed to make the necessary long-term improvements moving ahead into the still-early season.
