Fresh off the largest margin of victory on the road in team and NBA history, the Boston Celtics seem to finally be settling into their groove.
Terry Rozier certainly feels that way, and he spoke his mind following the teams’ fifth straight victory, a 133-77 slaughter of the Chicago Bulls.
“It’s been good for us to win our last couple games, so everybody can shut up,” Rozier said. “Everybody was very annoying when we were losing. Very annoying.”
At least some of the criticism Rozier is referring to may have been warranted, as the Celtics started off the season in underwhelming fashion. Prior to the current streak, Boston sat at just 10-10 and was struggling especially on the offensive side of things.
After the first 20 games, the Celtics offensive rating ranked 27th in the league. In their last five, however, it skyrocketed to the top of the entire NBA.
Some of that is credited to playing bottom feeders in the Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, and Chicago Bulls, but the high offensive production wasn’t slowed against the Minnesota Timberwolves—a surprisingly talented defense since dealing Jimmy Butler.
Looking back into the season, Boston also already has legitimate wins to go on their resume. They’ve defeated the Philadelphia 76ers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Toronto Raptors, and Milwaukee Bucks as well as the Detroit Pistons twice. Add these things together, and suddenly it seems like that 10-10 team could have truly been suffering from nothing more than a slow start.
Matchups later on in December against the Bucks and 76ers will be a great measuring stick on how the hottest team in the league affairs versus Eastern Conference playoff teams.
