Coming off their second “worst loss of the season” in one week, the Celtics boarded a plane for a six-hour flight to San Francisco, California. There was no talk about their recent .500 play or anything unusual—just a straightforward flight.
“It felt the same as normal,” Jrue Holiday said. “I don’t think it was anything too drastic or crazy—pretty normal.”
Their approach to weathering this rough patch has remained consistent. There’s no panic—rather, an embrace of the struggle and an increased urgency to figure it out. As the Celtics look to become the first repeat champion since the Golden State Warriors over half a decade ago, rough patches were inevitable, something Steve Kerr, coach of the last team to repeat (who also did it as a player), reassured fans about before the game.
“It’s perfectly natural for them to have a little bit of an emotional hangover and maybe not be at their best game after game. I’ve seen that a million times in this league,” Kerr said. “What I would expect is, come playoff time, they’ll be ready to roll. They’ve got guys in their primes—a well-oiled machine. Well coached. They know who they are. I wouldn’t worry about the Celtics if I were one of their fans—this is normal.”
On Monday, the Celtics returned to the team many have been looking for with a 125-85 win over the Warriors, handing Golden State its most lopsided home loss since 1985.
Missing four rotation players—Draymond Green, Kyle Anderson, Jonathan Kuminga, and Brandin Podziemski—the Warriors were vulnerable, and Boston didn’t mess around. The Celtics defended with purpose, set a physical tone, dominated the glass (50-38), and moved the ball crisply, generating open looks and knocking them down. They dominated the non-Stephen Curry minutes (Warriors were -26 with Curry off the floor), and when Curry was on, they attacked him relentlessly.
Boston held Golden State to just 85 points, a season-low, on 32-of-92 shooting (34.8% – second-worst this season) and 14-of-53 from three (26.4% – fourth worst). The Celtics, meanwhile, dished out 34 assists—more than the Warriors had made field goals (32)—and connected on 49-of-92 (53.3%) from the field, including 20-of-48 from three (41.7%). Ten different Celtics knocked down a three, one shy of the franchise record. Six of them shot over 40% from deep—a welcome sign for a team that has only shot 40% from downtown in three of its last 10 games.
“I just thought the game was connected,” Joe Mazzulla said. “I thought we were really focused on our game plan and execution. I thought that led to great shots, and I think the connectivity of that kind of kept that energy going. Obviously, they had some poor shooting, but I thought we were pretty intentional on the things that lead to winning against them: transition, taking away, cuts, offensive rebounds.”
Those chronic lapses in focus and uncharacteristic breakdowns present throughout the past month and a half were absent. They were locked in from the opening tip, leading for all but 57 seconds and holding a double-digit lead for over 36 minutes.
“It’s hard to win in this league. You can’t take it for granted. It hasn’t been as easy as we would’ve liked, and I think that’s good for us,” said Jaylen Brown. “It’s not supposed to be easy. It shows you how hard it is to win. Night to night, you can’t take winning for granted. You can’t skip steps, skip details. Us losing has been a reminder of that. This is what it takes each and every night. We’ve gotta get that back and build on it.”
This was exactly the win Boston was looking for. Sure, they just had a 27-point win over Orlando on Friday night, but Saturday’s meltdown against the Hawks put them right back at square one. And the Celtics did what they’ve done best this season: responded. They’re now 12-1 after a loss, beating opponents by an average of 21.7 points per game.
“We’re resilient,” said Jrue Holiday. “We take things seriously, and even on our worst day, we know that you have another chance to come out and play.”
It won’t be smooth every night. The Celtics have learned the hard way that there will be times when they’re not mentally sharp, and lesser teams will rise to the challenge against the defending champions. As Steve Kerr pointed out, that’s part of life as a reigning champion.
That said, with more than half the season behind them, the Celtics will need to start gearing up for the playoffs, and one win over the Warriors doesn’t erase the rut they’ve been in—especially considering they’ve only strung together back-to-back wins twice in their last 20 games.
Boston has the blueprint. It all starts with the foundation they showed on Monday night—committing to the process of winning and focusing on the details at both ends of the floor for a full 48 minutes. The same recipe that worked for them last year.
“I’ve been through stretches of the season where I was trying to rush to get to the end and skip steps. And that resulted in us losing in the Conference Finals,” Jayson Tatum said. “Whereas last year, we didn’t get bored, we didn’t skip steps, we just tried to get a little bit better every day.”
They got it right for one game, kicking off the road trip on a positive note. Now, it’s about sustaining that momentum and returning to Boston looking more like the dominant force from earlier this season.
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