The Boston Celtics have been the NBA's best team through two months, and it appears you can thank their crushing NBA Finals loss to the Golden State Warriors for that.
The Celtics hold a 21-6 record through two months of basketball. Despite facing adversity up the wahoo, Boston has looked focused and driven, and has been led by a superstar pairing who are combining to put together their best individual seasons. Jayson Tatum is a legitimate MVP candidate, averaging a career-high 30 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.1 steals per game. Jaylen Brown has done just as much good, averaging 26.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.0 steals per game.
In overcoming the loss of head coach Ime Udoka, the absence of star center Robert Williams and the uncertainty of a 34-year-old interim head coach -- the Celtics have relied upon remembering their lowest moment from one season ago.
"Everybody thought we were going to win, everybody was expecting us to win and we didn't," Brown told The Athletic on Monday. "So, that's where the disappointment, the anger at first -- and then afterward, it's humbling, you work. It's embarrassing, almost in a sense, and that's where the growth comes from, right?
"Everybody sees you, the whole world is watching, and they just all saw you lose. The whole world saw us lose and (there's) a lot of humility in that."
So how did the Celtics grow from that? Tatum believes it came from each player making an individual effort to get better.
"This summer, talk to anybody on the team individually (and it was about) being better individually so we could come back as a better team, so we could get back," Tatum told The Athletic. "We knew we had the talent. We knew we had the team. And we were hoping that guys were gonna be healthy.
"Nobody could've seen the coaching situation, but I just think we were so determined that we weren't gonna let anything -- regardless of losing our coach two days before media day, Rob (Williams) being out -- we were just so dedicated and so hungry to figuring it out, to not wasting a season, because we knew what we were capable of. So I give everybody credit. It just brought us even that much closer together, honestly."
The Celtics suffered another loss to the Warriors on Saturday, perhaps providing a shot in the arm to a team who has hit their stride early in the season.
