The Celtics have done just about everything right through 12 games, and the schedule has done just about everything wrong to them.
Boston is 10-2, the best mark in the Eastern Conference, and the start has come with a heavy dose of travel, short rest and back-to-backs that would wear down almost anyone. They’ve already gone through three back-to-back sets, and the last two came with games in two different road cities on consecutive nights.
That’s only the beginning of the grind. Before November ends, the Celtics still have three more back-to-backs on the calendar. The month itself is a monster: 16 games in 30 days, 12 of them on the road, which is a franchise record for any month.
The travel is even uglier when you zoom out. Boston has two separate stretches of seven games in seven different cities. The team will spend 21 days on the road, hit all four time zones, make the trip north of the border to Canada on Wednesday night, work through the entire Texas triangle and log more than 15,000 miles.
After that latest stretch, the Celtics finally got back to Boston on Thursday morning following 13 straight days with either a flight, a game or both, a run that began on October 30. And the roughest part of the month is still coming.
For all of that, Boston has handled the early season stress as well as anyone could ask. The Celtics swept a recent four-game road trip, and three of those wins came by blowout. They now own the best net rating in the league, and their point differential is tied with the Spurs for the top spot in the NBA.
The only blemishes so far came on opening day in Detroit, when they let a big second-half lead slip away in a wonky afternoon game, and in Houston on the second night of a brutal back-to-back, with Paul George not playing. Outside of those two losses, Boston has been perfect.
That kind of run can’t be easy to sustain with this much mileage piling up, and at some point the Celtics may have to think about preserving legs and stealing rest where they can. Joe Mazzulla and his team won’t make excuses, though, and if they keep surviving this stretch the way they have so far, they’ll put themselves in excellent position for the rest of the season.
In Other News...
Celtics Could Face A Risky Decision On Tatums Closest NBA Friend
Paul Georges recent bounce with Boston has been tied to something simple enough to sound obvious and still matter a lot: health. After dealing with injury issues that slowed him before, he said his improved play with the Celtics has come from finally feeling right again, which is exactly the sort of reminder that can reshape how a team evaluates a veteran. For Boston, it also keeps the focus on a familiar kind of calculation, where talent, timing and durability all have to line up.
Bradley Beal is part of that conversation because of his connection to Jayson Tatum and the idea that the Celtics could someday circle back if the circumstances were right. Tyronn Lue recently said Beal is dealing with knee issues and may need time to recover, which only adds another layer to a situation Boston would have to monitor carefully. If Beal gets back to full health and ever becomes available at a low enough cost, the Celtics could be forced to weigh whether the fit is worth the risk. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Already Have One Huge Edge In The East
The early NBA season was supposed to bring a little more balance to the East, but that shift has not really shown up yet. A handful of teams that were expected to push into the contender tier have been uneven, and the conference still looks a lot like it did a year ago, with Boston sitting at the top of the pack.
For the Celtics, that matters because the path through the East still appears to run through them, and not much has changed to suggest otherwise. While other clubs sort through their issues, Boston continues to look like the team with the cleanest overall picture in the conference, which is a pretty useful place to be this early in the season. [Read more 🡒]
Jayson Tatum's Real Celtics Power Is Suddenly Up For Debate
Isiah Thomas added a familiar layer to the Celtics ongoing conversation about star power and front-office control, suggesting that Jayson Tatums voice may not have carried as much weight in a hypothetical Jaylen Brown trade as some might assume. The broader point is one Boston fans know well: even franchise faces do not always get the final say when it comes to major roster decisions, especially when the front office believes a move is necessary.
The uncertainty around Tatums involvement is what keeps the discussion alive, because the exact extent of his input remains unknown. What Thomas made clear, though, is that decisions of that magnitude usually live with the people running the team, not the player at the center of it, which is why the Celtics history of big trades still hangs over any debate about how much influence Tatum really has. [Read more 🡒]