14-6 since February 2nd; Is this team actually any good?

[kazuneko]

I had expected that the best that could come of this year was another high draft pick. I guess I still am inclined to believe that. That said, I must admit that I am a bit shocked about how the Cs have performed recently (14-6).
I live 5000+ miles from Boston and haven't been able to see a single game. Can anyone who has seen this team play explain what the heck is going on? Is this team actually any good?

 

[TheRooster]

They've got a bunch of guys who would be the 3rd - 5th best players on top teams.  That means that guys 3-9 are often better than the same guys from the opponent.  They play hard and they play together/unselfishly.  The coach is very good.  Isaiah Thomas injected life, confidence and 4th quarter scoring into the mix and it was contagious enough that they have survived in the first 3 games without him.  Finally the league has changed enough that their single glaring weakness -- lack of a rim protector -- is simply not as big of a problem as it would have been in the past.

 

[nighthob]

They have a good formula for regular season success. They're essentially a ten man bench in search of a starting lineup. Their starters, no matter which five they choose, kill themselves to prove that they should be the full time starters, and as a result stay within striking distance of the other team. But once the benches are in, Boston's demolishes the other teams' reserves because theirs are better. I'm not sure this works in the playoffs when good teams shorten their rotation to seven or eight guys and there are nearly always three starters on the floor, but during the regular season when teams play nine or ten guys the Boston approach is a winning formula.

 

[Nick Kaufman]

I had expected that the best that could come of this year was another high draft pick. I guess I still am inclined to believe that. That said, I must admit that I am a bit shocked about how the Cs have performed recently (14-6).
I live 5000+ miles from Boston and haven't been able to see a single game. Can anyone who has seen this team play explain what the heck is going on? Is this team actually any good?

 
I haven't seen them much either, but I am thinking that regression to the mean is probably a big factor. Throughout the season, the C's point differential indicated that their record was far closer to .500 than they actually were. It just might be that all the close games are finally breaking their way and this is all there is; the Cs are a close to 500 team that just enjoying some positive variance right now.

 

[TheRooster]

Don't forget that there are different guys playing now; Green, Rondo, Sullinger, Thornton are out while Thomas, Crowder and Jarebko are in.  Smart is playing more minutes than he did at the start of the season.  In other words, I don't think it is regressing to the mean.  It is a different team.  Not one that will win 70% of its games, but different and better.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

I haven't seen a ton of games but one thing I've noticed in my limited viewing is that they are executing Stevens' defensive scheme very well. Also, I think they've upgraded on defense with Crowder, Smart, and even Zeller (plus Bass is playing good defense).

That keeps them close and then they figure out who has the hot hand.

 

[nighthob]

Their perimeter D is much better without Rondo and Green. Smart/Bradley/Crowder are ferocious and able to slow down perimeter scorers without help from the PF/C spots (which they're not really going to get anyway). But at the end of the day it boils down to Boston's bench demolishing the other guys'. Not sure they can make that work in the postseason, though, where opposing starters will be logging 40+ minutes a game.

 

[Cellar-Door]

I don't know if it's a "good team", but it is probably decent, and in the past 20 games has been doing a few things really well.
2nd in A/TO ratio,
Lowest TO rate in the league
8th best DRtg.
 
However they also are pretty terrible at others:
24th in TS%
22nd in eFG%
 
It seems like this might be a pretty good defensive team, that is well coached.
However the offense is garbage because nobody can shoot.
It's a team that needs significant talent upgrades to be anything more than a 7-8 seed in a week East.

 

[ifmanis5]

That A/TO number is a huge turnaround. A Rondo joke here would be kicking a dead horse but also accurate. Even with their NBA Finals teams the turnover numbers were bad.

 

[the1andonly3003]

let's go win the Finals this season!

 

[snowmanny]

The last 20 games have been mostly against crappy teams: 13 of them against teams with losing records.  But they've actually played pretty well against good teams during this stretch.  At home they are 2-1 against teams over .500 and 7-0 against teams under .500.  On the road they are 2-2 against teams over .500 and 3-3 against teams under .500.  They are winning the games they absolutely should win and showing an ability to win away (edit:and beat some good teams) as well.

 

[Saints Rest]

I had expected that the best that could come of this year was another high draft pick. I guess I still am inclined to believe that. That said, I must admit that I am a bit shocked about how the Cs have performed recently (14-6).
I live 5000+ miles from Boston and haven't been able to see a single game. Can anyone who has seen this team play explain what the heck is going on? Is this team actually any good?

Apparently Chad Finn can try to explain:  http://www.boston.com/sports/touching_all_the_bases/2015/03/celtics_5.html