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The Boston Celtics have developed into a group of superheroes, as they’ve risen from the dust of a troublesome beginning only to become the most prevailing force in the NBA over the past two-plus months, winning 20 of their last 23 games.
This past week, they did what superheroes do: they came down from the sky and swept their way through four Western Conference foes without showing a trace of struggle.
They started off their four-game road trip on Wednesday night with a 110-88 thrashing of the Golden State Warriors, owners of the best home record in the NBA. They tore through Sacramento Friday night with a 126-97 slashing of the Kings. They hammered the Nuggets with a 124-104 win Sunday night in the Mile High City. And to cap it all off, they struck down the Oklahoma City Thunder with a 132-123 win Monday night while playing on the second night of a back-to-back.
With each win, Boston's camaraderie seemed to grow stronger whether it was on the court, on the sideline, or in the locker room. They were playing for one another, celebrating each other’s successes, and enjoying every moment of their developing brotherhood.
“I think that we have proven ourselves right in terms of just having confidence, in terms of being there for one another,” Grant Williams said Monday night, after tallying career highs of 20 points and 10 rebounds against the Thunder. “I feel like this team is growing closer and closer every single day.”
Williams seems to be one of Boston’s main chemists when it comes to bonding the team together. He’s always showing support, constantly making people laugh, and his smile brightens up every arena that he enters.
Being the self-professed nerd that he is, Williams even gave each of his teammates nicknames based on characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which he read off his phone during Monday’s postgame interview.
Of course, now we're obliged to share them all, so enjoy:
- Marcus Smart – Incredible Hulk
- Al Horford – Captain America
- Jaylen Brown – Black Panther
- Aaron Nesmith – Drax
- Sam Hauser – Hawkeye
- Luke Kornet – Groot
- Nik Stauskas – Ant-Man
- Rob Williams – Thor
- Daniel Theis – Captain Marvel
- Jayson Tatum – Vision
- Payton Pritchard – Quicksilver
- Matt Ryan – Star-Lord
- Malik Fitts – Doctor Strange
- Brodric Thomas – Rocket
- Derrick White – Iron Man
- Grant Williams (himself) – Spiderman
- Ime Udoka – Nick Fury
Sticking to the superhero theme, Williams had also requested his teammates to call him “Batman” after helping to slow down Denver’s Nikola “Joker” Jokic Sunday night, as the C's held the reigning MVP to an 8-of-23 shooting effort.
“My dad came up with that over a year ago,” Williams said of his DC superhero nickname, which has gone viral on social media over the past couple of days. “We played Denver, he was joking about it saying, 'We should just call you Batman from now on.' It wasn't just because of the whole Joker thing. It was more so I'm not like the most athletic, I'm not the most incredible, but brains and then like everything else you work with, that was the Batman kind of spiel.”
Whether you’re on board with the superhero theme or not, there’s no denying how such frivolities can help bring a team closer together. And there’s no complaining when that team is winning at a ridiculous rate.
At the moment, the Celtics are playing like a bunch of superheroes, and their chemistry is nothing short of Marvel-ous.