Donovan Mitchell admits to Dwyane Wade that he’s flabbergasted by how suffocating the Celtics’ defense was.
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The Boston Celtics have had one of the greatest mid-season turnarounds in NBA history. They started the season off 23-24 and were clinging to the 10th seed, the last spot in the play-in. Ever since then, they’ve gone 23-4. Perhaps that Jaylen Brown tweet had something to do with it or perhaps they finally bought into Ime Udoka’s vision.
His vision of course, was ball movement along with player movement. Get guys involved on offense through sets that were designed for certain players. While that may sound like a ‘my turn-your turn’ type offense, it most certainly isn’t. It’s much more free-flowing than before and the ball doesn’t seem to stick to one person for more than 4 seconds.
While their offense is beyond spectacular, their defense is what has got everybody talking. They took the DRTG crown from the Golden State Warriors quite easily, boasting a 105.8 rating over the season and will likely end the season as the best defensive team in the league by a wide margin.
Donovan Mitchell couldn’t crack the Boston Celtics defense.
The Utah Jazz-Boston Celtics matchup from a couple days ago saw the Celts put up a whopping 125 points on the Jazz. The fact that they rained in 19 of their 36 threes should give you all a story on what took place in the Rudy Gobert dismantling part of the game.
What is even more surprising is that the Celtics held the Jazz’s high-powered offense to merely 97 points. The Jazz have the number one rated offense in the league at 116.1 and could crack 100 points against Jayson Tatum and company.
During the game, Donovan Mitchell, who had a great offensive game with 37 points, approached Jazz minority owner and Miami Heat legend, Dwyane Wade, and told him, “We can’t figure out what the Celtics are doing defensively. We don’t have a clue.”
