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The Boston Celtics find themselves once again on the NBA's Christmas Day slate this 2021-22 season. It wouldn't be a normal NBA Christmas without including the storied Celtics franchise on the schedule. In the 2021 edition, the Celtics get a crack at the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks. In this specific post, though, we're looking at a Celtics Christmas wish list of sorts, but more on that in a second.
It won't be the ideal Christmas Day the NBA had in mind, as the entire league is pretty much dealing with a COVID-19 surge over these last couple of weeks. The marquee contest won't feature Bucks superstar and reigning Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. Meanwhile Boston is still down seven players (for now) ahead of Friday due to their entry into the protocols.
The Celtics have had quite an up-and-down season thus far and would ideally want to trend in the right direction the rest of the season. With that, Boston probably has a laundry list of things they want to wish from good ol' Saint Nick in order to turn their campaign around. Here are three things that need to be on the Boston Celtics' Christmas wish list.
Celtics Christmas wish list
1. Health
Well, this pretty much goes for every team in the league as, much like the rest of the world, COVID-19 has largely affected the NBA. Over 100 players are currently in the league's health and safety protocols. As mentioned earlier, seven of them come from the Celtics, which ties them with the Sacramento Kings and Toronto Raptors for the third most in the NBA. Only the Brooklyn Nets (11) and Cleveland Cavaliers (8) are ahead of them. Among those currently out for Boston due to the protocols include big man Al Horford, along with rotation fixtures Josh Richardson, Enes Freedom, and Grant Williams, among others.
With Boston being one of the more affected teams in the league, they definitely want to wish for good health for their team throughout the rest of the season. And this shouldn't just be for COVID, but their overall health in general. All-Star guard Jalen Brown missed a handful of games through November and December due to a hamstring issue. Nonetheless, Brown has been back for the last five games and is looking more like his All-Star self. The 6-foot-6 wing is averaging 25.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 3.8 assists and shooting 45.7 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from three.
Luckily for the Celtics, their other All-Star Jayson Tatum has been healthy all throughout the campaign. In fact, he is the only player who has suited up in each of Boston's 32 games thus far. The Celtics definitely want that trend to continue as they can't afford arguably their best player to miss a number of games. Boston is currently at 16-16 on the season and is clinging to the 8th seed in the East standings. Things could south real quickly if Tatum gets sidelined.
2. Jayson Tatum gets over his early-season slump
As healthy as he's been all year, Jayson Tatum hasn't quite had the MVP-caliber type campaign many expected him to have prior to the beginning of the season. There were people predicting Tatum as a dark-horse MVP candidate with Kemba Walker no longer in town. But so far, despite averaging 25.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 3.8 assists, the former Duke star hasn't quite lived up to that billing.
A lot of that has to do with his struggles from the field. Tatum scoring and assists have gone down a bit this season after averaging 26.4 points and 4.3 assists the previous campaign. Likewise, he is also shooting a career-low from the field so far, at just 41.9 percent overall and 32.6 from three.
Nonetheless, the 6-foot-8 wing seems to be finding his groove slowly, but surely, as his shooting splits have improved to 47-34-85 in 11 December games. His 3-point shooting isn't quite up to par just yet, but it is trending in the right direction.
With that said, Boston definitely would want Santa to give Tatum the hot hand at some point this season. The 2-time All-Star is definitely capable of going through a torrid shooting month just as he did in March and April of 2021, as well as February of 2020. If that happens, the Celtics definitely have a good shot of climbing up the East standings.
3. Another of their young guys steps up
Perhaps another thing on Boston's wish list is for one of their young prospects to have a breakout campaign. Robert Williams has settled into his role as a defensive anchor and is already a huge part of what the Celtics do. But Boston would probably want one of the Romeo Langford, Aaron Nesmith, and Payton Pritchard trio to eventually thrust himself into a larger role this season.
Nesmith hasn't had quite the sophomore breakout C's fans wished he had. Meanwhile Pritchard's numbers and minutes are down from his rookie campaign. So far, it has been Langford who's been getting some burn, averaging over 18 minutes a night and slowly gaining confidence with more in-game reps. The third-year guard's numbers may not stand out, but his efficiency has improved from his first two years in the NBA and his defensive energy has been a welcome sight for Boston's second unit.
If Langford continues to trend upward and one of Nesmith or Pritchard join the party, this should help the Celtics down the stretch this season and into the playoffs.
