The Boston Celtics finally have a bench – but will it show up again?

The Boston Celtics bench showed up in a big way in the blowout against the Brooklyn Nets at Disney on Wednesday.

In retrospect, adding seven rookies at once may have been asking a bit much of those prospects collectively.

But few were predicting the Boston Celtics would legitimately be in the hunt for a title — and none of us expected a near four-month layoff in the middle of such a season.

Even still, the pleasant surprise of this team’s synergy and explosive growth of their star wings Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum coexisting in harmony with veterans Kemba Walker and Gordon Hayward, and the big-man-by-committee approach undergirding it has but one critical part missing:

Someone(s) to score off the bench consistently.

As much as all of the things that went right so far this season may have raised our expectations a bit above where they should perhaps be with so many rookies on the roster — nearly half when counting two-way slots — with the path to a title as open as it’s been in a decade, it’s hard to not want more.

But as much as Grant Williams and Romeo Langford have impressed with their defensive chops and basketball IQ, or Tremont Waters, Carsen Edwards and Tacko Fall turned heads with the Maine Red Claws, it’s this bench that needs production on the other end of the ball for Boston to reach the apex of its potential this season.

Last night, they got it.

A career-high 18 points on 7-of-7 shooting from center Robert WIlliams III, 13 points from guard Brad Wanamaker, 9 more from forward Semi Ojeleye, 8 from wing Javonte Green and 7 from Carsen Edwards, all shooting at least 50 % from the floor. One could get used to this.

There have been entire weeks of this season with less bench scoring, and there may well be again, even with just one week left in the season.

But for now, we have learned it is possible for the Celtics second and third unit players to score, and score against a team capable of defeating the Milwaukee Bucks — even if they happen to be one of the worst teams in the NBA as currently constructed.

We shouldn’t get too excited off of just one game, but it is absolutely a starting point from which to build confidence, trust, minutes and reps off of.

And if this Celtics team is serious about contending for a title, there is perhaps nothing they do not currently have that they’ll need more.

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