The Boston Celtics had one of their better games of the season Monday night.
After a subpar West Coast road trip that saw the Celtics go 1-4, Boston responded in a major way and took down the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks at TD Garden, 117-103.
Boston's defense had been on the rise, but took a step back on the road trip. Unsurprisingly, Celtics head coach Ime Udoka wasn't pleased with the squad's effort and ripped into the team with a lengthy film session. But it sounds like it all worked out.
"We've been talking about it all year, our identity and who we want to be. We showed them film of (Russell Westbrook) getting down the lane and flexing and doing his antics there," Udoka said after Monday's win. "We showed them (LeBron James), guys basically moving out of his way and I had a very animated film session off of that trip showing all five games and so whether it was Donovan Mitchell in game one or Phoenix in game five. We showed a lot of film, 100 plus clips. We didn't like some of our lack of physicality and we talked about that."
An animated film session in some cases could alienate a team, but instead the Celtics seem to have come together and understand where Udoka was coming from. Boston forward Jayson Tatum certainly appreciated the open chat.
"We came back from a 1-4 road trip so you can imagine that there's a lot of things to be shown, a lot to be talked about. And 1-4 wasn't going to be pretty and it was honest and it was direct. It was open and it was what we needed. It wasn't a time to sugar coat anything," Tatum said. "We didn't play how we wanted to, especially those last three games. You're not going to win every game. You can live with the ones you lose when you play the right way and give yourself a chance but those last three we didn't give ourselves a chance and had a lot of careless mistakes and he showed it to us and we had to own up to it."
Celtics forward Grant Williams was on the same page as Tatum and saw a difference with the team in Monday's win over the Bucks.
"He challenged guys down the line. He didn't leave anybody off the hook. We all respect and love that. We took that to heart and came out and had a lot more fun you could see it on our faces that same type of intensity we carried over from walkthrough," Williams said. "Guys were prepared from the jump, having great conversations and great dialogue and then allowed that film session to carry over to today."
Monday night's bout with the Bucks definitely was a huge win. And while all of Boston's issues may not be solved immediately, it sounds like things could trend in the right direction.
On top of all that, the team is getting healthier and got all-star guard Jaylen Brown back against the Bucks. Boston currently sits at 14-14, but good times may be on the way.
