Tag: 2021-22 NBA Season

Boston Celtics’ remarkable turnaround this season continues with sweep of Brooklyn Nets

After such a dominant showing, are they now the title favorites?

If there has ever been anything like the Boston Celtics’ midseason pivot from an occupant of the dreaded treadmill of mediocrity to a bonafide NBA title contender, we certainly cannot think of an easy comparison in the history of the modern NBA.

There have of course been bigger momentum shifts from one season to the next (in fact, the Celtics were that team the summer they won their last title in 2008 compared to the campaign immediately prior to it), but what Boston has done in their 2021-22 season is truly historic, having dragged themselves up from the Eastern Conference’s 11th-place position to finish the regular season with the second-best record in the East, then sweeping the preseason favorites to win the title — the Brooklyn Nets — in four games.

The hosts of the NBC Sports Boston “Postgame Live” show Chris Forsberg and Amina Smith spent a fair amount of air time reveling in that turnaround and Boston sent Brooklyn fishing on Monday night.

Check out the clip embedded above to hear what they had to say.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Payton Pritchard credits Grant Williams loquacious nature for keeping the team focused on winning

Role players can compete for minutes while fighting to win with the right leadership, which Pritchard sees Williams as having.

It was not that long ago that the more impatient fans of the Boston Celtics were ready to ship forward Grant Williams to any team that would take him. The former Tennessee player struggled in his second season with the team to adapt to a different role and showed only minor signs of growth as a player.

But Williams has shown he can be a serious contributor with one of the best shots on the team and flexible, effective defense on the other end. He has become an invaluable part of Boston’s rotations. Speaking with the media after practice on Thursday, teammate Payton Pritchard was asked what he can say about that growth this season.

“Unbelievable,” replied Pritchard. “This year, Grant worked his butt off (during) the offseason.”

2022 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart credits trust, his basketball IQ for the defense that won him the award

His vocal style of play on that end earned him the endorsement of his teammates, particularly Timelord.

Earlier this season, the Boston Celtics found themselves with two realistic candidates for the NBA’s 2022 Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) award in veteran point guard Marcus Smart and rising big man Robert Williams III. But the narrative began to shift decidedly in favor of one soon after the other came out in favor of his teammate winning the award.

“I think Smart deserves it, to be honest,” said Timelord back in early March, to many people’s surprise. And while it was undoubtedly the Oklahoma State product’s on-court play that earned him the word despite what some sour detractors are suggesting, having Williams endorse him for the DPOY award certainly didn’t hurt.

Asked about Timelord’s endorsement and how his vocal style of play on defense earned it after winning the award, Smart replied “My IQ is extraordinary, especially on that end.”

Boston Celtics’ Marcus Smart makes cut as finalist for 2022 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award

The Flower Mound native is one of three candidates for the award.

The NBA has announced the finalists for its end-of-season awards for the 2021-22 season, and veteran Boston Celtics point guard Marcus Smart has officially made the cut as one of the three finalists for its Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) award according the league.

Per the NBA, Smart is one of a trio of finalists for the 2022 DPOY award along with perennial Utah Jazz big man candidate Rudy Gobert and Phoenix Suns wing Mikal Bridges. Smart has real momentum to become the first non-frontcourt player to win the award since fellow Celtics alum Gary Payton, Sr. did in 1996, a drought lasting a quarter of a century.

Among the categories listed (DPOY, Most Valuable Player, Most Improved Player, Sixth Man of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and Coach of the Year), no other Celtics were listed.

And while the majority of those awards were rightly outside of the reach of the members of the Boston-based franchise, there was at least a solid case for Celtics head coach Ime Udoka to be in the mix for Coach of the Year.

Instead, that race has been trimmed down to Taylor Jenkins of the Memphis Grizzlies, Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat, and Monty Williams of the Phoenix Suns.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Ime Udoka, Al Horford talk about Horford’s high-level play heading into Nets-Celtics series

The Celtics veteran credits the team’s medical staff in particular,

While fans of the Boston Celtics finally seem to be catching up to what veteran big man Al Horford brings to the table that does not show up in a box score this season, the University of Florida product has been filling up the box score as well over the Celtics’ 2021-22 campaign with a renewed vitality about him.

Some of that has been attributed to the time he took off while with the Oklahoma City Thunder last season at the end of the season, but it has been sustained for the duration of this season as well. The issue of Horford’s late-career renaissance has been a topic of growing interest as a result, and Boston head coach Ime Udoka opened up about it after practice on Saturday.

Asked specifically when he realized the veteran big man was going to play like the player he’d been in his previous stint with the team, Udoka replied “as soon as he was in the gym for open gym.”

Boston Celtics’ best dunks from the 2021-22 NBA season

All the best flushes from the regular season.

If there is any single basketball play that gets the fans in the stands and watching at home into a game, it’s a slam dunk thrown down with authority. And in the Boston Celtics’ 2021-22 NBA season, there have been a host of them keeping the crowd engaged through the course of the regular season.

We have seen plenty of oops thrown to starting center Robert Williams III and backup big Daniel Theis, and more than a few posters thrown down in transition by All-Star forward Jayson Tatum and his star counterpart on the wing Jaylen Brown.

Even reserve big man Luke Kornet even managed to throw an oop from teammate Sam Hauser.

To get yourself into the mood for Sunday’s first-round battle with the Brooklyn Nets, check out this video of the Celtics’ best dunks in the 2021-22 regular season.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Robert Williams III highlights: Best plays from his 2021-22 regular season with the Boston Celtics

All of Timelord’s best plays from the 2021-22 NBA regular season.

Even though he did not get a chance to finish out the 2021-22 regular season with the Boston Celtics due to his torn left lateral meniscus, starting Boston big man Robert Williams III had himself a career season nonetheless.

The Texas A&M product appeared in a career-high 61 games even with the injury, and posted career highs in points (10.0), rebounds (9.6), assists (2.0), steals (0.9), and blocks (2.2) per game all while keeping personal fouls to 2.2 per contest, and turnovers to just 1 per game. Timelord shot his absurdly high percentages from the floor this season yet again, connecting on (surprise!) a career-high 73.6% of his field goals and 73.8% of his free throws.

If you want a glimpse at his best plays from the 2021-22 NBA season, check out the clip embedded below put together by YouTuber Tomasz Kordylewski.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Reacting to the Boston Celtics’ remarkable turnaround since January: From 11-seed to ‘best team in basketball’

Making the leap from outside the play-in to just outside the East’s top seed in just four months is very impressive.

The Boston Celtics had themselves a historic turnaround midseason under first-year head coach Ime Udoka, seeing the team make the leap from the Eastern Conference’s 11th-place position to nearly stealing the top seed to close out the 2021-22 NBA season is not a feat we see with frequency in the league the Celtics now sit near the top of.

To soak in the significance of such a shift, virtually unprecedented in team history, the hosts of the NBC Sports Boston “Post Game Plus” show Chris Forsberg and Amina Smith were joined by Boston alum and fellow broadcaster Kendrick Perkins to talk the season in context after the Celtics’ 139 – 110 blowout of the Memphis Grizzlies.

The trio also share the words of coach Udoka, Payton Pritchard, and Al Horford on the most unusual season they had a role in helping to make happen.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Celtics secure East’s second seed to close 2021-22 NBA season; will face Nets or Cavs in 1st round

Their first-round opponent will be the winner of the seventh and eighth seed play-in game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Brooklyn Nets.

The Boston Celtics secured the Eastern Conference’s second seed for the 2022 NBA playoffs Sunday night with their 139-110 blowout win over the Memphis Grizzlies’ reserve players. Memphis rested its starters in anticipation of a deep run in the 2022 NBA playoffs.

A little more than halfway through the fourth quarter, Boston deployed the reserves to get its starters additional rest, comfortable that they’d secured the East’s second seed and a matchup with the winner of the current seventh and eighth seeds.

This means the Celtics will face either the Brooklyn Nets or the Cleveland Cavaliers, who will face each other in the play-in tournament to earn the seventh seed.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Celtics Lab 101: The protocols return, the Wiz go down & building our All-Defensive teams with Josue Pavon

Rewarding defensive performance across a season is always a fraught venture, but this episode, we did our best to give Boston their flowers.

As the 2021-22 NBA regular season draws to a close, so begins the projections of analysts and fans of which players ought to win what end-of-season awards. The Boston Celtics did not at all look like a team that would be in the mix for many if any such hardware at the midpoint of their campaign this season but have since very noticeably turned their season around in a historic way under first-year head coach Ime Udoka.

With a league-leading defense and a top-10 offense possessing one of the best point differentials in the league, the Celtics have all the indications of being a team that can win an NBA title so long as no more serious injuries after Robert Williams III take place.

And with Timelord potentially even returning early, it’s easy to get distracted by the postseason on our collective doorstep.

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But with this success should come accolades, and for this week’s CLNS Media “Celtics Lab” podcast, your usual hosts linked up with Josue Pavon of the “Cedric Maxwell” podcast on the same network and Heavy.com to talk all things Defensive Teams and where Boston’s players should be on it.

Check out the episodes embedded above to hear Justin Quinn, Alex Goldberg, and Cameron Tabatabaie’s cases for All-Defensive teams, with Pavon offering his own views and keeping us honest.

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This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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