CELTICS ON VERGE OF BEING CONTENDERS

CELTICS ON VERGE OF BEING CONTENDERS

At this time last season, the Boston Celtics had just defeated the Denver Nuggets, 104-100. Avery Bradley and Marcus Thornton had 17 points apiece, and three others — Jae Crowder, Jared Sullinger and Tyler Zeller — each added 14 points of their own.

That combination of young players, most of who had come off the bench, led the Celtics in improving their record to 18-30.

Fast forward to today’s Celtics, and they’ve essentially done the opposite of that: They currently sit at No. 3 in the Eastern Conference’s standings at 29-22, tying the Atlanta Hawks.

They’ve quietly crept up the East’s standings, besting out the Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers’ records.

That being said, no one is really making much noise about the Celtics, but it’s about time we all do.

For one, they have, as aforementioned, an All-Star point guard in the undersized, 5-foot-9-inch Isaiah Thomas. Not only is it Thomas’ first All-Star selection, but it’s also the first time the Celtics have had an All-Star since Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo in 2012-13.

Thomas has been the outright star of a Celtics team who didn’t have a clear leader. He’s the only one on the team to have surpassed 1,000 points so far this season and to average over 20 points.

Not only that, but his 21.4 points per game ranks him 13th on the league’s list of top scorers, ahead of Carmelo Anthony and just behind Klay Thompson.

It’s clear Thomas is the key factor for the Celtics’ success so far this season and as of late especially, but it’s not all him.

The Celtics started up the second half of the regular season Jan. 18 against the Dallas Mavericks. They lost 118-113, but they did so in overtime. Since then, the Celtics have won seven games and lost two more — both of which were decided by six points or less.

In that string of games, the Celtics have received pretty consistent scoring efforts from a handful of players besides Thomas: Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Kelly Olynyk, Marcus Smart, Jared Sullinger and Evan Turner. The first three are all of the Celtics’ other double-figure scorers, but the last three all have scoring averages hovering around 10 points.

That combination of balanced scoring has been a big factor in the Celtics’ recent success.

They’ve scored over 100 points in 12 of their last 13 games. The only game in which they failed to hit the century mark was in Tuesday’s 97-89 win over the New York Knicks, so they weren’t far from it.

In their last loss, a 119-114 defeat by the Orlando Magic, there was a very uneven distribution on the Celtics. Only three of their players scored in double figures, and those total were all above 20 points. So it just goes to show that it’s that even combination of scoring that has really got the Celtics to where they are currently.

With that string of high-scoring games, the Celtics are now averaging 104.6 points per game, tying the San Antonio Spurs for fifth best in the league.

The Celtics aren’t going to suddenly become a contender in the East. It’s an absurd thought to have when considering LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are still a thing.

The Celtics simply don’t have the necessary talent and experience to do that, but they can certainly make it tougher for the East’s other potential playoff teams.