This has not been the season the Celtics were hoping to have. Jaylen Brown is shooting under 30 percent on 3-pointers. Jayson Tatum had a catastrophic offensive October. Al Horford has missed games. Gordon Hayward has struggled to find a rhythm and his place in the rotation and Terry Rozier hasn’t been able to recapture the magic of last season’s playoff run.
And yet…
The Celtics have the second-best point differential in the NBA. Their offense is creeping towards the top-10 and their defense has been reliably in the top-five all season. Since the beginning of December, Boston is 6-1 and outscoring opponents by an average of 16.8 points per 100 possessions, nearly twice as much as any other team in the league. Maybe preseason expectations got the better of them and it took a few weeks for them to coalesce, but this team is looking more and more like the juggernaut they were supposed to be and there is every reason to think the goal of a title is still attainable this year.