The team from Boston are in a three-way tie for second place in the Eastern Conference along with the Philadelphia 76ers and defending champions Milwaukee Bucks.
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Stephen A. Smith believes that the Boston Celtics are the team to beat right now. Smith, who doesn’t shy away from a controversial opinion said that because of their defence and their coach, the Celtics are the best team in the NBA right now.
The team from Boston are in a three-way tie for second place in the Eastern Conference along with the Philadelphia 76ers and defending champions Milwaukee Bucks. The turnaround for the Celtics has been remarkable over the last three months and the current team look unrecognizable from the one that struggled to implement their style over their opponents at the beginning of the year.
Stephen A. Smith was highly complimentary of the team from the East and went on to praise the efforts of coach Ime Udoka and the star duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Speaking on ESPN’s First Take, he said, “Udoka, what he has done, I can’t say enough. This guy is legitimately a top 2 coach of the year candidate. This team, look at them defensively. They’re like a bunch of piranhas. They switch everywhere. You have 5 guys that get out on shooters better than anybody I’ve ever seen.”
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On the personnel, he stated, “Jrue Holiday, (Khris) Middleton, what they can give you, who’s a team that can combat that because of their defensive prowess, that would be the Boston Celtics. When you look at the Miami Heat with Herro, with Butler, even with Bam (Adebayo) because he’s like an undersized big, very athletic, great in the open court. But you’ve got a guy like Robert Williams a guy like that there, the pick-up of White has really brought this team together as well and elevated their play defensively.
And in the meantime, while all of that has transpired, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have elevated their level of play. So I want to see it be more consistent because you weren’t that way at the beginning of the season. But when it comes to the playoffs, the game slows down a little bit, you don’t get as many half-court opportunities, teams are able to get back and set their defence. And nobody wants Boston to do that, because if they do, that makes their defence even more formidable,” Smith said.
The resurgence of the Celtics has been one of the best stories of the season. The fans have started to believe again that this year could be something special and it now looks like even the analysts and the experts agree with that.
