The Boston Celtics appear to have turned things around and gained some footing. They blitzed the Cavaliers and Timberwolves and are entering an incredibly soft stretch of their schedule which they could really use to carve out some space in the standings. They have won four of their past five games, a win streak that has coincided, in part, with Brad Stevens beginning to tweak his starting lineup. Marcus Smart and Marcus Morris appear to have supplanted Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward as starters for the foreseeable future and it’s been working.
The new core of the starting lineup — Morris, Smart, Jayson Tatum and Kyrie Irving — had a healthy point differential and scored an average of 115.8 points per 100 possessions in their two games this week, an especially positive number considering how uneven their offense has been this year. We’re going to learn a lot about the Celtics over the next two weeks and how ready they really are to compete for a title.