Wow, that was a drubbing if I’ve ever seen one. The Boston Celtics continued steamrolling the NBA as they crushed the Atlanta Hawks 126-101 without even having Marcus Smart or Malcolm Brogdon in the backcourt.
This Celtics team is a legit contender for the NBA Championship in spite of all of the negative press and attention with the Ime Udoka developments.
Personally, I thought that everything surrounding Udoka was going to drag the C’s back down to earth as not only would that have been fitting for the modern-day Celtics (as every Celtics fan will tell you), but it also is what happens to every championship pretender when it faces extreme adversity.
It’s the nature of the sport for the best teams to rise to the top and the lesser teams to sink to the bottom as the adversity, hardships, and challenges of the NBA season piles on. Just look at the Clippers, Lakers, Nets, and Timberwolves.
Each one of these teams were picked to win it all by some media pundit or journalist after the moves they made in the offseason but have all failed to live up to expectations with their brittle, over-hyped rosters. I mean, the Clippers, Lakers, and Nets are the worse culprits as even though they have acquired some of the greatest players of all-time, they failed to assemble a complimentary roster around said greats.
That just defeats the purpose of acquiring the legends in the first place.
But that claim can’t be attributed to the Celtics. They are contenders, not pretenders as they were last year.
The C’s outscored a dangerous Atlanta Hawks team by 25 points, even though the Hawks backcourt boasted of two All-Stars (Trey Young and Dejounte Murray) and the Celtics were missing the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Marcus Smart, and elite PG Malcolm Brodgon. That takes an incredible amount of dedication and perseverance, and especially so when the Celtics scoring came mostly from their bench.
Yup, it was 6-10 guys like Sam Hauser (15 PTS, 6 REB, 0 AST), Luke Kornet (15 PTS, 8 REB, 1 AST), and Payton Prichard (14 PTS, 3 REB, 4 AST) who were the driving factors in the Celtics victory as they were swooshing down 3-pointers and jump shots like crazy.
Of course, Jayson Tatum (19 PTS, 7 REB, 8 AST) and Jaylen Brown (22 PTS, 5 REB, 0 AST) had good games of their own to cement the victory, but they were not the instrumental forces against Atlanta as they normally are.
That honor would go to the role players yesterday.
Oh, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out how fantastic Grant Williams was out there too. Still starting as a PF with Robert Williams out, Grant Williams was a shooting machine out on the court last night as he went 4/7 (57.1%) from the arc and 6/10 (60%) from the field to amass a grand total of 18 PTS, 1 REB, 1 AST.
He’s quickly developing from a hardworking, defensive minded pest of last postseason into a sharpshooting phenom that can single-handedly win games for Boston. And, if Williams is able to continue this trend, then he may very well keep his starting place over Al Horford when Robert Williams returns.
Nevertheless, I hope this win just shows the rest of the NBA and the media world how deep this Celtics team really is. When the Celtics can get nearly 15+ points a night from their 7-10 bench players, have two elite point guards missing, a defensive monster center also out, and still beat one of the best teams in the East by 25 points, it just proves how explosive their depth really is.
Thank goodness they didn’t go and trade Smart, G. Williams, Prichard, 4-7 1st-round picks, etc. for Kevin Durant this past offseason (as I wrongfully was urging) or else this team would never have been able to pull off a performance like this one. They have a togetherness and comradery that is not only supplementing their performances on the court but is also helping to alleviate the negativity that the Udoka fallout could have caused.
This really could be the Celtics year to finally break the 14-year long championship drought and leap over their championship-winning archrivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, as the only team in NBA history to win 18 NBA championships.
As for the Hawks, there’s not really much to say.
Trey Young (27 PTS, 5 REB, 9 AST) and Dejounte Murray (19 PTS, 3 REB, 5 AST) had decent nights, while Clint Capella, John Collins, and De’Andre Hunter all chipped in with at least 7 points and 3 rebounds from their frontcourt positions. They were simply beat by a stronger, faster, more dynamic, and just plain better team.
Like I said earlier, this game was the embodiment of the difference between a championship pretender (Hawks) and a championship contender (Celtics).
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