NEW ORLEANS – For nearly seven weeks, the Boston Celtics searched long and hard for a 48-minute performance of quality basketball.
On Nov. 26, they finally found it.
Boston’s 124-107 road victory over the Pelicans signified a large step in the right direction for a team that struggled to find consistency through its first 20 games of the season. Boston dominated the Pelicans, making them look downright silly at times while playing with a lead for the final 46-plus minutes of the night.
This was, from start to finish, dominance.
“That’s it. That’s how we’re used to playing,” said Marcus Smart, who in recent weeks had publicly criticized his team’s effort. “That’s the team we know, and that’s the group of guys and the way we’ve played in the past.”
Al Horford concurred, adding, “We looked a lot like we did last year.”
A season ago, the Celtics looked like a team that played hard, played connected, and efficiently at both ends every time it took the court. They rediscovered those traits Monday night, and they did so from the opening tip.
“We came out from the beginning and kind of set the tone,” said Marcus Morris, “just moving the ball, getting guys shots, and just kinda letting it go and just flowing right into it.”
That’s what happened after Anthony Davis scored the first two points of the game.
Boston followed those points up with 10 straight points of its own to pull ahead 10-2. That lead swooned to 15 points during the opening quarter while the Celtics suffocated New Orleans with their active defense.
Boston forced New Orleans into six turnovers during the opening frame that led to 11 points. That trend continued throughout the rest of the night, as the C’s forced 22 turnovers overall that led to 32 points of their 124 points.
“I just liked the fact that our group defensively, we were as connected as we’ve been throughout these 21 games,“ said Horford, who scored a season-high 20 points while defending Anthony Davis throughout the game. “That was very encouraging to me. I hope now that we saw it, now we can build on it.”
Defensive connectivity wasn’t the only flash of positivity on which the Celtics can build. They also witnessed their ability to respond to adversity.
Throughout the first 20 games of the season, Boston had shown a propensity to allow opponents to go on massive, game-changing runs. The greatest evidence of that trend is the fact that five of its first 20 opponents build leads of at least 20 points. Monday night bucked that trend, and hard.
The Celtics built a 20-point lead of their own midway through Monday’s second quarter and they maintained control through the final buzzer. Their lead remained at nine points or more for all but 97 seconds of the final three quarters.
“Even when they made runs, we answered it, time and again,” head coach Brad Stevens proudly stated after the win. “It’s hard to maintain a lead in this league. I don’t think it ever got lower than seven, maybe six, but we always answered.”
What allowed the Celtics to answer the bell over and over? Stevens broke it down to the simplest of terms.
“As elementary as it sounds,” he said, “shot-making.”
Boston had plenty of that on this night. The C’s shot 49.5 percent from the field and connected on 19 shots from long distance. Four players scored at least 19 points, led by Kyrie Irving’s 26. Terry Rozier also pitched in 14 points off of the bench.
Jayson Tatum reflected on all of that shot-making after the game, saying, “I don’t think we had a game like this, where a lot of different guys were hitting this many shots. It helps everybody’s confidence.”
There’s that key word. Confidence is what this is all about.
It’s what Boston lacked for the majority of its first 20 games of the season, but it’s what the Celtics found while controlling the Pelicans in New Orleans.
It may be only one game, but those old Celtics – the ones who play hard, play connected and play efficiently for 48 minutes – have resurfaced.
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