After fizzling out to end the season and losing star point guard Kyrie Irving as well as key role players such as Aron Baynes and Marcus Morris Sr., most experts didn't expect the young Boston Celtics to sit at the second seed in the Eastern Conference 21 games in. Among those doubters is Celtics coach Brad Stevens who admitted after the team's impressive 108-95 win over the Denver Nuggets that his team is ahead of where he originally expected.
"We're way ahead of where I thought we would be results-wise." – #Celtics Brad Stevens
— A. Sherrod Blakely (@ASherrodblakely) December 7, 2019
The Celtics sitting in second place in the East is even more surprising when considering, after a hot start, shooting guard Gordon Hayward has missed the 13 games for Boston after suffering a left hand injury against the Spurs on November 9.
In the win, the Celtics' young duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 47 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. The Celtics ended the third quarter on an 11-0 run and were able to outscore Denver by 13 points in the third.
2018 was the first year under Brad Stevens where the Celtics didn't increase their win total from the year before. However, with the improvement of both Brown and Tatum, and solidified talent such as Kemba Walker and Gordon Hayward, the Celtics looked primed to make a possible Eastern Conference Finals run as they did in 2017-18.
This season, Boston is an undefeated 9-0 at home and have won five of their last six matchups. Next up, on Monday, the Celtics will put their unblemished home record to the test against the struggling Cleveland Cavaliers. Boston defeated the Cavs already this season, winning 119-113 on November 5.
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