The Celtics hit the nadir of what had been a pedestrian December on Christmas Day when they fell to the Philadelphia 76ers at home. The loss dropped Boston to 3-4 in their last seven, 1-4 in their previous five, and 1-3 in their last four entering Friday night.
After the loss, the Celtics said all the right things. They took responsibility for their dip in performance, acknowledging that they needed to improve. There was no panic, just a clear understanding that their communication, attention to detail, effort, and connectivity hadn’t been up to their usual standard—and that needed to change.
“We gotta take some ownership. We have to be better. We’ve gotta acknowledge the things that we’ve done not so great, and we gotta look in the mirror and man up,” said Jayson Tatum. “We fully believe in ourselves and the things that we can do when we are fully locked in. We’ve done it time and time again. We’ve just had some lapses lately, and we’ve just gotta get back on track. We’ve got to get back to ourselves, our identity. We haven’t shown it in the last few games or so. We’ve just got to lock back in.”
There was a clear sense of urgency, motivation, and a desire to shake their recent inconsistencies and get back on track, with their offense and defense working together at a high level – and Friday night, they walked the talk and bounced back in commanding fashion with a 142-105 win over the Indiana Pacers.
It was Boston’s most lopsided victory of the season, winning by 37, and it came wire-to-wire with the Celtics never trailing and holding a double-digit lead for 39:46 – without Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday.
“Playing on Christmas Day is a privilege, and we kind of let our fans down on our home court,” Jaylen Brown said after the win. “We appreciate everybody for taking the time out of their day to watch us, and we didn’t put our best foot forward, so I think we wanted to come out and respond today.”
It’s a trait any winning team needs: don’t let losses pile up and lead to bad habits. The Celtics have embodied that. They haven’t lost three consecutive games since Games 1, 2, and 3 of the 2022-23 Eastern Conference Finals, and they didn’t drop three straight once in the 2024 calendar year. That resilience bodes well for them in a seven-game series come playoff time.
“The guys do a great job focusing on the process,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “They don’t get distracted by what’s not most important. Win or lose, we have an understanding of where we’re at, where we want to get to, what we have to work on, and where we can get better, and they stick to that whether we win or lose.”
For the Celtics to get to where they want to go, they know it takes elite effort, communication, and focus on both ends of the floor. They understand how defense creates opportunities for the offense and vice versa.
For Boston, defense is the foundation that fuels their offense, allowing it to flow at an elite level. Recently, there had been a disconnect between the two, but the Celtics turned that around on Friday night.
They returned to their stifling defense, holding the Pacers to sub-25-point quarters — 22 in the first and 23 in the second, a mark Joe Mazzulla loves to see. The Celtics limited Indiana to just 105 points on 38-of-91 (41.8%) shooting from the field, 11-of-39 (28.2%) from deep, and forced 12 turnovers.
That suffocating defense translated to a season-high 142 points on 47-of-92 (51.1%) shooting from the field, 23-of-57 (40.4%) from deep, and 31 assists, advancing to 8-0 when they record 30+ assists this season and 47-4 in the Joe Mazzulla era.
“We just gave the game what it needed when,” Mazzulla said. “It goes back to the game being connected, and you can’t look at it from a static situation of it being this side versus this side. If you’re having live ball turnovers and not playing physical on the offensive end, it’s going to impact the other end. If you’re not doing things at the other end, it’s going to impact offense. And so tonight, I thought you saw just better connectivity between both sides of the ball, where we were able to keep them out of transition and off the free-throw line. They got some offensive rebounds, but not a ton. We were able to make whatever plays on the offense. So the game connected, and you got to fight for that throughout the season.”
The Celtics are incredibly talented, and on some nights, talent alone is enough to win. But when they are locked in and focused on both ends of the floor, they reach another level and remind everyone why they’re the reigning champions.
No one enjoys losing, but maybe a December skid isn’t the worst thing for this team. It serves as a reminder that if they want to stay on top, they must stick to the plan—a plan that has proven successful.
“I wasn’t concerned at all. I think that’s just the grind of the season. It’s a new year. You can’t expect everything to just go perfect,” Brown said after snapping the skid. Adversity, you need it more to see what you are made of. In those moments, you don’t get concerned. You look to your guys, look to your group – it’s an opportunity to get better. An opportunity to see what we’re made of.
It probably won’t be the last time the Celtics hit a rough patch this season; it’s bound to happen over an 82-game schedule. But a win like Friday night’s is a potent reminder of just how dominant they can be when they’re playing their brand of basketball.
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