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SALT LAKE CITY – Try to comprehend what the Boston Celtics just accomplished.
... we’re still waiting...
... and waiting...
Just give up.
You can’t comprehend it. We can’t comprehend it. No one can comprehend it.
How did these Celtics just drive their way through a four-game, West Coast course that featured obstacle after obstacle, and yet cross the finish line unscathed?
“We just have a locker room full of character,” rookie Semi Ojeleye explained. “Coach trusts us, the guys trust each other, and when you have a team like that, you always have a chance to win.”
Even if no one outside of the locker room believes the same.
Wednesday night put the cherry on top of one of the most impressively resilient – and downright shocking – road trips the NBA has seen in quite some time. Yet again, the Celtics were drastically undermanned, and yet again, they shocked their opponent on national television.
Jaylen Brown swished home a game-winning 3-pointer during the final second of Wednesday night’s matchup with the red-hot Utah Jazz to secure the 4-0 trip. The win marked Boston’s second triumph of the swing that arrived on national television and against one of the hottest teams in the league, with the first being against the Trail Blazers Friday night in Portland.
Had a healthy Celtics team swept this trip, it wouldn’t have made headlines. But when this group, so battered and bruised, completed the task? That was more than noteworthy; that was eyebrow-raising and jaw-dropping.
The Celtics took off from Boston one week ago. When they did so, the odds of them returning unscathed were next to zero thanks to a rash of injuries.
Kyrie Irving. Marcus Smart. Daniel Theis. Marcus Morris. Al Horford. Brown.
That’s the list of players who either did not travel with the team for this trip or missed a game or more during the West Coast swing. Those players could arguably be described as six of Boston’s top eight in the rotation.
Irving, Smart and Theis missed all four games of the trip. Morris missed two, and Horford and Brown each missed one. Still, somehow, the Celtics managed to grind their way through and come out victorious at the end of all four games.
“Celtics fans know that we come back from behind, we don’t get too wound up, and we’re resilient,” Brown said shortly after his game-winner Wednesday night, “and I think that’s just the whole undertone of the whole season: resiliency, and I think that’s going to take us far.”
It certainly did on this trip, and it goes well beyond injuries. The C’s faced other significant hurdles out West, such as the talent of their opponents and the details of their schedule.
As previously stated, Portland and Utah were two of the hottest teams in the league prior to their respective meetings with Boston. The Trail Blazers had won 13 of 14 heading into Friday’s matchup, and Utah had won 23 of 27 heading into Wednesday night.
Make that 13 out of 15, and 23 out of 28, following their run-ins with the feisty C’s.
It also must be noted that Portland is keyed by Damian Lillard, who could very well finish in the top five of this year’s MVP balloting. Utah, meanwhile, is headlined by a top Rookie of the Year candidate in Donovan Mitchell, and a leading Defensive Player of the Year candidate in Rudy Gobert.
Didn’t matter. Not to these Celtics.
Lastly, Boston traveled nearly 4,200 miles and through three time zones over the course of six days for these games, and one of the contests was played on the second night of a back-to-back.
None of that mattered, either. Not to this resilient group.
These Celtics banded together to show the Western Conference, the NBA and the nation that they can’t be overlooked, regardless of how ravaged they may be by injuries. Their locker room is full of character, including Aron Baynes, Shane Larkin, Greg Monroe, Abdel Nader, Semi Ojeleye, Terry Rozier and Guerschon Yabusele, all of whom stepped up at various moments of this trip to fill the voids left by Boston’s injured players.
With all of their contributions, combined with some late heroics like Brown’s thrilling game-winner Wednesday night, the C’s will now fly Thursday morning back to Boston with four wins in their back pockets.
Who would have predicted this a week ago, honestly? No one.
Try to comprehend what the Boston Celtics just accomplished. You can’t.