The Boston Celtics are winning new admirers one game at a time.
Former Detroit Pistons star Rick Mahorn praised the Celtics’ new-look approach to winning Thursday during his appearance on Sirius XM NBA Radio. Having watched the Celtics’ narrow loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night, Mahorn praised Boston’s unconventional lineups and team-oriented style of play and said he believes the C’s can challenge for the NBA Finals this season if they stay the course.
“My thing with the Celtics is that you have guys like Marcus Smart, Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they have guys that can score,” Mahorn said. “They don’t really have that big guy, with Aron Baynes gone, Marcus Morris gone also with Al Horford (departed). So you have guys that you don’t normally see on the court (together), but they’re all like-sized guys, except Walker.
“But it’s the fact that they play defense. You talk in a game last night (Wednesday) where it was 107-104, and they were still in the game. And that’s the thing about this team. They play as a team. They don’t necessarily care who’s going to score. They’re having fun.
“So are you overrating or underrating them? They’re a team we can probably see in the Eastern Conference finals if not in the (NBA) Finals if they keep playing the way they’re playing and guys get healthy.”
Will the @Celtics early season record translate to success this spring? @badboyhorn44 says yes #Celtics pic.twitter.com/PUpTh4Xu1e
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) November 21, 2019
One only can wonder how the Celtics would have fared against the Clippers, one of the NBA Finals favorites, if injured forward Gordon Hayward had been able to play. Perhaps the Celtics would have won the game and made Mahorn even more bullish about their prospects for success.
Nevertheless, the Celtics’ 11-3 record is with the Milwaukee Bucks for the best in the Eastern Conference. The Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers coming into the season were the favorites to rule the East, but if the Celtics keep this up we’ll have no choice but to include them in the front-running pack. Should that happen, Mahorn’s insight — playing as a team and avoiding injuries — will serve as a good explanation why.
