The Boston Celtics are riding a five-game win streak, and they’re doing it the old-school way - locking teams down on the defensive end. For the first time since 2018, Boston has held five straight opponents under the century mark. In today’s NBA, where scoring is up and pace is fast, that’s no small feat.
The capstone of this run came Friday night at TD Garden, where the Celtics erased a 22-point deficit to stun the Miami Heat in a gritty, grind-it-out comeback. It wasn’t pretty early - Boston was ice cold in the first quarter, managing just 15 points while Miami looked like a team in mid-playoff form. The Heat came out swinging, hitting shots and applying suffocating defensive pressure that had the Celtics reeling.
But this Celtics team didn’t fold. They dug in.
The turning point came in the third quarter, when Boston flipped the script with a dominant 36-15 frame. That’s where the defense really showed its teeth - forcing tough looks, contesting everything, and turning stops into momentum. It was the kind of defensive surge that not only changes a game, but defines a team’s identity.
And while the offense wasn’t firing on all cylinders - only four Celtics hit double figures - they got a key lift from a fresh face. Nikola Vucevic, in his debut with Boston, made an immediate impact.
The veteran big man put up 11 points, 12 boards, four assists, and two steals in a well-rounded performance that showed exactly why the Celtics brought him in. He wasn’t just filling space - he was making plays on both ends.
Head coach Joe Mazzulla kept the rotation tight, using just four players off the bench: Vucevic, Payton Pritchard, Hugo Gonzalez, and Baylor Scheierman. Pritchard, in particular, stepped up in a major way, logging 36 minutes - second only to Derrick White’s 41 - and providing the kind of steady presence that’s become his calling card.
This five-game stretch hasn’t just been about winning - it’s been about setting a tone. The Celtics aren’t just outscoring teams.
They’re outworking them, outlasting them, and smothering them defensively. If they keep defending like this, they’re going to be a nightmare for anyone come playoff time.