Best-case scenarios can be tantalizing propositions.
Take Feb. 4, 2006, for instance. That game, the Celtics were wallowing through their season at 18-29, banking on a get-right game against the Magic. They did, after all, still have Paul Pierce.
But, alas, even Pierce's 37 points couldn't right the C's ship, with the Celtics dropping their fifth straight. Optimism for that team, especially on that day, had drifted away.
So, why do we focus on that game, with that group, at that time? Well, for starters, it was the day before Hugo Gonzalez was born. Secondly, it perfectly represented the polar opposite of what the current Celtics are all about.
Saturday night's 112-96 win over the Raptors in Toronto was evidence of that.
No Jayson Tatum. No Jaylen Brown. No problem.
The Celtics uncovered their best-case scenario once again, this time doing so thanks in large part to the presence of Payton Pritchard (33 points, 10 assists) and the kid who was born on a drizzly day in Madrid, Spain, the day after Pierce put up 37, Gonzalez.
As Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla recently told reporters, "Before the season, we said we had the depth; it was just a matter of how they were going to impact. It wasn't a matter of if they could, it was in what way."
Against Toronto, the package produced three bench players who perfectly complemented Pritchard, with Gonzalez (10 points, 10 rebounds), Anfernee Simons (15 points), and Luke Garza (12 points, 10 rebounds) combining for a plus-91 over a total of 28, 26, and 26 minutes, respectively.
When it comes to the Celtics, it's becoming hard for the NBA to ignore games like this. This team, which some thought would have to punt on the 2025-26 season because of Tatum's injury, is in third place in the Eastern Conference. And they landed their come Sunday morning thanks to a victory over a team that was 1/2-game ahead of them, without Tatum and Brown (illness), while relying on a career-high of minutes from their 19-year-old rookie.
The conversation is officially changing, with that best-case-scenario carrot seemingly drawing closer and closer.
Not only are players like Gonzalez emerging into useful pieces of the puzzle, resulting in 12 wins over the C's last 16 games, but now murmurs about Tatum's late-season return are bubbling up.
"We’re not putting a timeline on it, as we haven't the whole time,” Stevens recently told reporters. “ I mean, I think one of the things that everybody can see is that we didn't apply for a DPE [disabled player exception] this year, which was a conscious decision for a lot of reasons. But the reality is, he's not going to be back until he's 110 percent healthy, and he feels good about it, and that's a big part of it, right? Obviously, he's itching to play. Obviously, he hates watching. But he's also very cognizant of the need to meet every threshold and why there are those things that are put in place. We've had a lot of great talks about it. One of the things that we love about this whole group, and I think the guys that have been here the longest lead the charge, is they love the play."
Best-case scenario, right? As Saturday night in Canada reminded us, with this group, it's what you've come to expect.