NBA on NBC analyst Reggie Miller is high on the Boston Celtics' potential in the playoffs. In a recent appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, Miller praised the Celtics' Jaylen Brown for stepping up during Tatum's absence and highlighted the depth of the team. He then said that the Celtics are the “scariest team in the Eastern Conference,” even with Tatum on the sidelines.
“The Celtics are the scariest team in the Eastern Conference, and the reason being is there's no expectations because people thought this was going to be a gap year. Yeah. About Tatum and the way that Jaylen Brown, he, his name certainly should be in the MVP discussion along with Cade Cunningham.”
He added, “With the Celtics, with or without Tatum coming back, the Celtics are a real threat to win the Easter conference…They're well coached by Coach Mazzulla. They're deep. They can play a number of ways. They can play big, small, and I think the pickup of Vucevic down low. You can play with this back to the basket. He could knock down threes. They play a certain way. They're gonna jack up a lot of threes. Most of their shots come from uh, 16 feet out. Or further and they get after you. Defensively, I'm just telling people I know they're high on the Knicks and they're high on Detroit and rightfully so. I give the, and Cleveland's on their way up as well. But people pay attention to Boston.”
The Boston Celtics are currently second in the East behind the top-seeded Detroit Pistons. They are up two games in the loss column over the third-seed New York Knicks. The Celtics have emerged as one of the biggest stories of the season, as many NBA fans and prognosticators believed that they would suffer a setback without Tatum in the lineup.
But Jaylen Brown has stepped up. He's averaging 29.2 points per game, 7 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game with 1 steal. Brown has also received help from Payton Pritchard, who's averaging $17.6$ points per game, and Derrick White, who's averaging 17 points per game. Additionally, a sharpshooter such as Sam Hauser has emerged as one of the best high-volume shooters in the league, as he shoots 39% from the three-point line. The Celtics also recently acquired Nikola Vucevic, who is averaging 11 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. The Celtics are heading to Phoenix to play the Suns tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern.
