Celtics Win Streak

Editors note: This post started when the Celtics had won their 8th straight game, and was wondering if they could break their high win streak mark in the Kevin Garnett era. They did and now they’re trying to extend this streak even further with 14 straight wins and a realistic opportunity to continue this streak until a big showdown meeting with the Lakers on Christmas Day.

Celtics Try To Beat Last Season’s High Win Streak

The Boston Celtics are currently on a eight game winning streak. Last season, en route to a 66-16 record, the Celtics had win streaks of 10 games, twice having 9 game win streaks and one 8 game win streak.

So can this 2008-09 Celtics team break last season’s win streak mark?

The next few games for Boston are:

• Orlando at home
• Indiana at home
• Portland at home
• Indiana away
• Washington away
• New Orleans at home
• Utah at home

A three game home-stand against Orlando, Indy and Portland is up next and could extend their win streak to 11, breaking their high win streak from last season’s title winning side.

Let’s have a look at some of those opponents

Orlando Magic

The Magic come into Boston with their backcourt ravaged by injuries. They’re missing their starting backcourt of Jameer Nelson and Mickael Pietrus, plus their 6th man Keith Bogans. The Magic had a weak backcourt before the injuries, and a questionable bench, can they roll into Boston and win without their best backcourt players? That’s a tough ask.

Orlando do come into Boston in fantastic form winning 9 of their last 10 games. Dwight Howard, in particular, has been on a tear of recent with incredible performances against Indiana, Washington, Phily and Milwaukee. Howard will be a handful for Kendrick Perkins and the Celtics.

Indiana Pacers

The Pacers are off to an odd start. They have a positive point differential but stand only 6-10 for a winning percentage of .375. They’ve had a bunch of impressive performances against top sides like Cleveland, Detroit and Boston. In fact, the Pacers were one of only two teams (Denver the other) to beat the Celtics this season winning by 16 points on their homecourt. I can’t see the Pacers beating Boston this time around though, the Celtics will come out looking for blood trying to amend their early season result in Indiana.

Portland Trailblazers

Portland’s W-L now stands at 11 wins and 6 losses, which ties them (four way tie) for second place in the Western Conference, and do you know what? They’re not anywhere close to their top gear yet.

They’ve done this despite a rough early season schedule, despite injuries to starters Greg Oden and Martell Webster, despite Oden’s inconsistent production as a starter, and despite their defense struggling in the early going. All things are looking on the up though

• Their defense which was near the bottom of the league after the first 10 games has now moved up to 22nd in defensive efficiency. Over the past 6 games the Blazers have a defensive efficiency rating of 97.17 which is fantastic. Those six games are broken down by two demolitions (Miami+Chicago), and excellent defensive performances against Sacramento and New Orleans, plus one below par performance (other Kings game) and a bad performance in Phoenix.
• Martell Webster has resumed training and is close to returning. Greg Oden has already returned
• Greg Oden’s comfort level in the starting lineup has been improving, and more importantly his teammates comfort level with him in the starting lineup has been good. There is some concern about Aldridge’s dip in form but the began prior to Oden’s move into the starting unit.
• The Blazer have won 5 of their last 6, and 9 of their last 12 games.

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I’ll be keeping tabs on their win streak until it ends with updates after each game played.

I think Boston will break their high streak of 10 games from last season during this three game homestand.

Win #9 - At home versus the Magic, great game from the Celtics. They had one down period in the second quarter when Orlando’s big lineup caused them some problems, outside of that brief period, the Celtics throttled the Magic and never looked threatened.

Rondo was the star of the show for my money, his pressure defense on Anthony Johnson cut down the time Orlando had to use in their possessions, they were consistently working against the clock. One of the results of Rondo’s D, was the Magic regularly failing to get Dwight touches in the post early enough in the shot clock, which negated a strength of theirs.

Paul Pierce had to sit in the first half due to foul trouble but when he came back out in the third he came looking for blood. Orlando had cut a 15 point second quarter deficit to two points at halftime, and they had good momentum. Pierce stepped out at halftime and ended any hope Orlando had of keeping it a close game, Boston were up double digits again in no time and continued stretching the lead well into the fourth.

Ray Allen was excellent with 21 points on 8-13 shooting. He torched Orlando early and continued on from Pierce in the third after Orlando started to get back in the game, those Ray-Ray blows ended Orlando’s chances of winning. The Celtics backup big men deserve some kudos for their defense on Howard, particularly Glen Davis, they did well. Perkins also deserves a lot of credit for his continued success against Dwight Howard.

I liked that big lineup used by Orlando with Dwight+Battie and later adding Hedo+Lewis to the two bigs on the wings, and have wanted to see it more often for some time now, so that was interesting. I enjoyed seeing Lewis get a few touches in the low post against a perimeter player again, he’s got so much quality down on the block. Tony Battie came off the bench and was a major plus for the Magic tonight.

Orlando’s depleted backcourt was a huge hindrance to the Magic all game. Rondo tore apart Anthony Johnson on both ends of the court, and Ray Allen toyed with Redick. JJ Redick was only 2-5 for the game but it felt worse, each one of those shots must have been wide open because he had a bunch of opportunities to deliver a big three pointer and missed each time. Anthony Johnson could have fouled tonight on offensive fouls alone if the refs called him for slapping away Rondo’s hands, this is how badly a night Rondo was giving him. The Magics’ backcourt was terrible and the Celtics advantage in the backcourt won them the game.

It’s a pity this matchup happened when Orlando were short handed because they had a pair of excellent games against one another last season.

Game 10 – at home to Indiana, a chance at revenge for an earlier loss and the opportunity to match last season’s high win streak of 10 games. Should be a good game, I’d watch.

Indiana have an unenviable week ahead of them with four games in six days and all four against the three best (currently) teams in the NBA – Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. They’ve opened up the week with an impressive result, winning at home against the Lakers.

Win #10 It’s near the end of the third quarter now with Boston ahead 83-61. They’ve demolished the Pacers in the second half after a gutsy start to the game by Indiana. The Celtics have now extended their win streak to 10 games matching their season high from last season’s 66 win squad that won the NBA Championship.

Rajon Rondo was the star of the show with 13 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds and 3 steals in just 29 minutes. He took only 8 shots, making five, and hit 3-3 from the free throw line. One of those 8 shots was a heaved three to beat the shot clock, after the refs wrongly didn’t give him the foul in the act of shooting when he nailed a three. A sterling performance from Rajon.

Rondo wasn’t the only Celtic to have a big night tonight. Ray Allen was sublime and continues to look much healthier and more settled this year, he has 26 points on 9-15 shooting. Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Garnett dominated the paint with 15/10 and 20/11 performances. Paul Pierce had a quiet night and struggled with his outside shot.

Great win for the Celtics. They’ll be playing Indiana again over at Conseco Fieldhouse this weekend.

Full time box score for Rajon Rondo – 16 points, 17 assists, 13 rebounds and 3 steals.

Game 11 – Next up is the Portland Trailblazers who are currently on a 5 game East Coast road trip, and have opened up the trip with impressive wins in Detroit and Washington.

Win #11 – for the Game Time post click here

The Celtics have now beaten last season’s high win streak of 10. Great achievement early in the season by Boston.

Win #12 – The Celtics survive a tough battle in Indiana to stretch the winning streak to 12 games. Indiana end their horrific week of four meetings against the three best teams in the NBA by going 1-3.

Game #13 – The Washington Wizards in Washington. This should be another win for the Celtics.

The Wizards stand at 3 wins and 15 losses but have played much better basketball in the four games since Eddie Jordan’s dismissal. They are also the only team in the NBA who beat the Celtics twice in the regular season last year.

Still; (1) no Brendan Haywood, (2) Antonio Daniels isn’t playing as well as last season, (3) and of course Gilbert Arenas is out.

Editor’s Note: The Celtics have tied their franchise best start mark with 20 wins and 2 losses. The record had stood for 45 years going back to the 63-64 squad. That’s the year after Bob Cousy retired if my memory serves me. They should break the mark in Washington.

Win #13: The Celtics beat the Wizards in Washington with ease. Both Butler and Jamison had so-so nights, and the rest of the cast was incapable of matching the Celtics. It was a marked difference from last season when Brendan Haywood was healthy and patrolling the middle.

Game #14: The New Orleans Hornets in Boston. Unfortunately, Tyson Chandler is out injured with a stiff neck so Hilton Armstrong will start in his place. The Hornets split the season series with Boston last year after a come from behind home win, a game where Bonzi Wells played a huge role getting 7 steals and limiting Paul Pierce down the stretch.

Win #14: Excellent performance from the Celtics as they finish up with a comfortable win. They were always in control and always looked like they had another 2-3 gears to go to if New Orleans ever strung together a serious run.

It was another sterling defensive performance from the Celtics. They shut down all of New Orleans shooters and then KG shut down David West, effectively forcing Chris Paul to play 1-on-5 which was never going to work out for New Orleans. Chris Paul failed to unlock the Celtics defense and could get very little out of the halfcourt, with Rondo doing a good job defensively and the Celtics help defense always a step away. As a result, star small forward Peja Stojakovic finished with a season low 2 points (previous low against Houston – important note for New Orleans). David West shot a miserable 38% from the field and was by far the Hornets second best player.

The Hornets did miss Tyson Chandler and ended up getting out-rebounded 48-42 in his absence. Kendrick Perkins noticed the empty paint and took full advantage with 9 points, 13 rebounds and 6 of those boards coming on the offensive end.

Paul Pierce was the star of the show for Boston. He knew he could take Peja Stojakovic off the bounce at any moment, and that nobody could stop him once he got into the paint. He finished with 28 points on 17 shots, adding 6 boards and 6 assists.

Rondo had an uneven performance and had several mental lapses, but his defense on Chris Paul was impressive.

Celtics win by 12

Here’s an interesting stat from Marc Stein’s power rankings

You have to go back to the 1991-92 season to find the last time a defending champ won 14 games in a row. And you have to go back to the magical season of 1985-86 for the last time the Celtics did so. Wicked.

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Wow, we’re witnessing an incredible run by these Celtics right now. I didn’t expect this streak to extend so far but it is and I’m enjoying keeping track of it. Now let’s have a look at the next 6 games and what their chances are of winning 20 straight games.

• At home to the Utah Jazz
• Away at the Atlanta Hawks
• At home to the Chicago Bulls
• At home to the New York Knicks
• At home to the Philadelphia 76ers
• Away to the Los Angeles Lakers

The game against the Lakers begins a four game West coast trip and a stretch of the season where Boston have 8 of the next 10 games on the road. But let’s stay away from that difficult stage of the season and concentrate on the immediate games.

Game #15: The Utah Jazz beat the Celtics in Boston last season and came within a whisker of beating them at home.

The Jazz present two huge problems for Boston and they are (1) Deron Williams, and, (2) Their offensive sets. The Jazz were the only team in the league that could consistently run their offense to a high level against Boston.

The main reason was Deron Williams who tortured Boston last season. He was too big and smart for Rondo to stop, and he regularly worked his way into the paint and found his teammates for easy baskets. His two performances against Boston where some of the most dominant performances against the C’s all season.

Boston also struggled with Memo Okur and Boozer who were able to pull the Celtics big men out of the paint because of their shot making prowess. This hurt the Celtics help defense and opened up the paint for cutters … which brings us to another problem Utah caused for Boston, their players never stopped moving and made it difficult for Boston to load up on Williams, and/or to go to their zone defenses. The Jazz cutters found their way to the rim for easy shots with regularity.

So clearly the Utah Jazz cause Boston some problems and normally a formidable opponent for Boston. I say normally because the Jazz have been fighting injuries all season and come into Boston shorthanded and lacking their star big man Carlos Boozer. Deron Williams is also playing himself back into top shape and isn’t at full steam yet. Other players like Okur and Kirilenko have missed time but have been playing recently.

A quick primer on how these injuries are effecting the Jazz – Orlando went into Salt Lake City without Dwight Howard and beat the Jazz. That was the fourth loss Utah suffered at home this season, matching their total for last season in only 14 contests. Ronnie Brewer also missed the match due to injury, no word on his return just yet.

Since Utah are shorthanded and in mixed (inconsistent) form, I find it hard to see how the Jazz beat Boston. I think the Celtics win another one here.

Before I move on, I want to quickly note some of the advantages Boston have in this matchup after spending so long talking about how Utah caused them problems.

The single biggest advantage Boston have is their wings – Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Nobody on Utah’s roster can effectively defend either of these players and both are liable to go off for 30 whenever they play Utah, and could do a lot more damage if they went about their business in a single minded fashion (I think Ray dropped 50 on them when in Seattle).

Both Ray Allen and Paul Pierce are capable of beating their mark off the dribble and getting into the paint, and thus force the Jazz defense to collapse and fall off balance. This makes it very difficult for Utah to compete at a high level on the defensive end. It also gives Boston a huge advantage late in games because they can get a good shot on every possession, much like they did by running the offense through Paul Pierce in the fourth quarter in Utah last season.

I said that the Celtics could not defend Deron Williams but that is not totally true. One player had success against him but only played him for about 6 minutes out of the 96 available minutes in the two games last season. That player was Tony Allen, and his defense on Williams sparked that Celtics fourth quarter rally in Utah and helped key the win. Allen is the only Celtics player who is both quick enough and strong enough to contain the combative Williams. It’ll be interesting to see whether or not Doc gives him the nod in a few days time, I hope he does.

Game #16: In Atlanta against the Hawks.

The Celtics mauled the Hawks in three regular season meetings last season and creamed them at home in the playoffs, but they did have some very poor performances in the playoffs against Atlanta.

After the playoff battles from last season, and this year’s earlier meeting, this game will surely have a playoff atmosphere to it. It’ll be hard fought and an emotional game.

The Celtics outclass the Hawks in ever way imagineable and if they play smart and play their game they’ll trounce Atlanta. If not, it could become a close contest.

Game #17: At home against Chicago

This is an easy game for the Celtics. They love playing teams like Chicago, teams who don’t have enough shooters and allow their help defenders to collapse into the paint and make life miserable for the opposition’s star player. This could be a repeat of their earlier season meeting, in other words an ugly ugly contest.

The Bulls big men aren’t good enough to compete with Boston’s, expect to see a big advantage for the C’s in the paint and on the glass.

Game #18: At home to the Knicks

This is a trap game. New York is one of those teams Boston should and likely will beat, but they’re explosive and if they get hot they could give the Celtics one heck of battle.

Their two three point shooting big men of Tim Thomas and Al Harrington will be keys to this contest. If they’re on, it’ll be a close game. If they’re off, it’ll be a rout in Boston’s favour.

Game #19: At home to the Sixers

Another team that the Celtics defense matches up well without because of their lack of shooters.

The Sixers however are a hard to team to judge because they’ve just let go of their head coach Maurice Cheeks and could end up riding an emotional high into this game, and possibly be deploying a much changed (improved?) game plan.

While the Celtics’ defense has caused the Sixers problems, the Sixers grittiness defensively and on the backboards has also caused Boston some problems. There are few teams in the NBA who can match the C’s combativeness in the paint, and Phily are one of them. The Sixers also have two long athletic defenders on the wing to guard Boston’s main guys … and have one more advantage in Andre Miller who had an impressive string of games against Rondo last season, and appears to be one of those guys that Rondo just doesn’t play well against for some unknown reason.

Game #20: The Lakers in Los Angeles on Christmas Day

Wow, this is going to be a fun game. A rematch of last year’s finalists, with an improved Lakers side following the return of Bynum/Ariza, and with the added possibility of Boston riding a 19 game win streak? Oh how sweet a game this could be.

This is the fight everyone has been waiting to see. Has Bynum’s presence helped close that gap and can they now beat the Celtics? Or are the Celtics still superior?

This is the matchup of the season. Very exciting and it could go either way.

Conclusion: I like the Celtics chances of beating Utah, Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia in the next five games. I think it’s likely they roll into LA on a 19 game win streak, only adding to the occassion of a fantastic matchup with the Lakers.

The Games

Win #15: At home against Utah

It wasn’t the prettiest of games with both teams combining for 22 turnovers inside the first 18 minutes, and with numerous defensive lapses and poor decisions …. but it was always interesting because of the talent on the floor and the good plays that they did make. The Celtics were always in control but they had enough bad stretches (2nd Q was awful) to allow Utah to hang around. Utah fought valiantly but didn’t have enough horses to get it done, they were always climbing a mountain and never had enough to reach the peak.

This was another Rajon Rondo mega-performance. He put on a show and outplayed Deron Williams to finish with 25 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. He did have 6 turnovers but his 3 steals + work on the boards helped offset that. Rondo did a fantastic job putting Deron under constant pressure and made him work on both ends.

Paul Millsap deserves a hand for a great performance which saw him put up 32 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals and 2 assists. He was Utah’s best player.

Kirilenko came off the bench and caused some problems with offensively with his cutting and constant action to go to the rim, but his all round game wasn’t there tonight. He didn’t do enough on the boards or give Utah a secondary playmaker to play alongside Williams. As for Deron, he had a solid game.

Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Garnett took advantage from the first moment until the last in the paint, dominating Utah on the backboards (+20) and giving them control of the night. The Jazz missed Boozer and didn’t get enough from Okur/Kirilenko.

Utah’s wings – Brewer, Miles, Korver, Harpring – all had rough nights and none of them performed to the high levels they’re capable of playing at.

Win #16 – An excellent game of basketball. A tough grind it out physical battle. The fourth quarter was close, lot of lead changes and split momentum, two teams just going hard at one another. Very enjoyable.

The Hawks deserve a hand for how well they played Boston tonight. I’d also like to say one other thing, this game and this Hawks team are phenomenally different from last year’s squad and also how they match up with the Celtics. Very impressed tonight by Atlanta.

I think Marvin Williams improved defensive performance is the biggest reason why Atlanta are causing Boston so much trouble this season, and why Atlanta is performing so well this season in general. Last year the Hawks had only one above average perimeter defender in Joe Johnson, and the wing alongside him was generally there for the taking. This caused them huge problems against Boston because they have two top notch wings in Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. But that situation no longer exists. Marvin Williams and Joe Johnson are now one of the premier defensive wings tandems in the league. This new advantage has stopped/limited one of Boston’s advantages.

Anyway, back to the game. This was one of those nights were both squads were a little lucky to still be in the game. Both teams gave uneven performances and normally the type of mistakes which can cause a big deficit, but since it was such a low scoring grind it out type of affair they both managed to hang in through their mistakes.

For Boston, those mistakes were twofold:

• Their bench played very poorly. Not one of their players gave a solid performance.
• The Big Three had shot 11-38 from the field and had only 3 assists early in the fourth quarter. They couldn’t score and they weren’t creating for their teammates. This made the bench’s poor performance even more important.

Boston did however get two very good performances from Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins. Perk’s defense tonight was simply fantastic and he made a game winning block to top it all off. He finished with 8 points, 10 boards and 4 blocks. Rondo looked a little hesitant at times, wary of Josh Smith perhaps, and didn’t attack the slower Mike Bibby often enough, but overall he had a very good game. He was winning possessions for the Celtics left and right and also got his team much needed easy baskets at important times. He finished with 15 points, 6 boards, 7 assists and 4 steals.

Despite the Big Three’s struggles through the fisrt 38-40 minutes of the game, they did come through in the clutch shooting 8-9 from the field plus three assists. The C’s were led by KG’s cltuch 5-5 performance. Garnett had a pair of lovely jump hooks in the lane, which Josh Smith simply can’t do a damn thing about, not that he should feel bad about it though since nobody in the league can (KG please use that shot more, yes?) …. as well as a big alley oop dunk from Rondo to give the C’s a cushion late on in the game.

As for the Hawks; Bibby had another poor game against Rondo, their bench didn’t bring enough to the table and forced their five starters to play close to 40 minutes, Josh Smith hit an early jump shot and well you know the rest, Al Horford couldn’t buy a bucket, Marvin Williams had one very aggressive offensive stretch but was too passive for most of the rest of the night, and the Celtics did a phenomenal job of shutting down Joe Johnson.

Despite all of this they had an opportunity to send this game into overtime with their best player at the line with two FTs and only a second and change remaining, unfortunately Joe split the pair. It has to be said that Joe never looked comfortable taking that shot, try to find a camera replay, a close up on his face, you can see it straight away. Joe is a cold-blooded killer when it comes to finishing teams off so this caught my eye, ’twas unusual.

The Hawks effort was incredible. Their defense, their hustling on the boards, their physicality, their unwillingness to back down. Even though they lost tonight, they sent a message across the league. I think this game will be good for them, it’ll teach them a lot.

Next up is Chicago

Editor’s Note: The Celtics’ 24 wins and 2 losses start has now moved them ahead of the 72 wins Chicago Bulls start of 23-3. Very impressive.

Win #17: The Celtics win out comfortably against the Chicago Bulls. They were led by impressive performances from Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins. Ray had a hot first quarter where he scored 15 of his 27 points. Rondo similarly had 8 of his 15 assists in the first quarter, and had a dominant game overall. Perkins had a season high 25 points plus 8 rebounds.

Win #18: The Celtics beat New York

Rondo had another good game. The Knicks defense turned him into a scorer and he took full advantage of it.

The Celtics margin of error was massive tonight, and they handled the Knicks with ease.

Win #19: The Celtics beat Philadelphia.

Seriously, who cares? Bring on LA! That’s what we’re all waiting for.

Game #20: Detailed Game Time post on the Christmas Day game in Los Angeles

Conclusion

Congratulations to the Boston Celtics for a magical 19 game winning streak.

It was the fourth best win streak of all-time

It was the best win streak in Celtics history

It helped the Celtics to League’s best mark of 27-2

It created a new Celtics record for the best start in franchise history