Celtics Continue to Excel on Road With Smart, Unselfish Play on Offensive End

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Nov 16, 2010

Celtics Continue to Excel on Road With Smart, Unselfish Play on Offensive End The Celtics were road warriors last season, and apparently nothing’s changed.

The C’s won 26 games away from the TD Garden last year, an Eastern Conference-best road record, and they’ve picked up right where they left off this fall. They won three games out of four on last week’s road trip down South, including impressive victories over the likes of Oklahoma City and Miami.

Doc Rivers‘ crew is making the case that they could be the NBA’s best. They’re in that elite top group, along with Los Angeles, Orlando and perhaps New Orleans — and they’ve got a chance over these next few weeks to separate themselves from the pack.

Here’s what we’re starting to figure out about the 8-2 Celtics.

1. You want to know the biggest difference between the Celtics and the Miami Heat? Unselfish, smart offense. You can cite all the eye-popping stats you want, but the real reason the C’s beat the Heat for the second time this season wasn’t the points, rebounds or assists. It was the ball movement.

The Heat had far too many possessions on Thursday night consisting of LeBron James putting his head down and barreling into the lane. No court vision, no playmaking, no teamwork. It looked just like a Cavaliers game from last season, only this time the four guys standing around watching included guys on nine-figure contracts like Dwyane Wade. The C’s never had that problem — they ball kept moving, they found the open man, and the individuals didn’t care who scored. It was all about team.

2. The Celtics may not be admitting it publicly, but they really, really need Delonte West. More than they let on. They’ve survived to this point without their suspended guard, but D-West’s return on Wednesday night will be a crucial stabilizing force for the team’s second unit. It’ll give them a versatile guard defensively, a playmaker on the offensive end, and a veteran that can act as a calming influence on the over-caffeinated Nate Robinson. D-West may have therapy and various mental health medications in his history, but on this Celtic bench, he’s the sane one.

3. Speaking of Nate Robinson, we saw a tremendous improvement from the C’s diminutive bench sparkplug over last week’s road trip. Consider this: Through the Celtics’ first six games, Nate’s shooting numbers were an absolutely abysmal 8-of-33 (24.2 percent), for 4.2 points per game. Over their four road contests? He was 16-of-26 (61.5) percent, averaging 9.8 per contest. Obviously we’re dealing with minuscule sample sizes here, but Nate is showing that his early-season shooting slump was a thing of the past. Definitely a good sign for the C’s moving forward.

4. But who’s the best player on the Celtics’ bench this season? A lot of the advanced stats suggest that it’s not Nate, and it’s not Glen Davis, either. It’s Marquis Daniels. The Celtics’ backup small forward was injured for a lot of last season and didn’t get to show what he could do, but this year, he’s light years better. He’s getting making the entire team better defensively (only 95.5 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor), he’s getting a lot of shots close to the basket (and making 78 percent of them), and he’s been effective at three different positions this season (shooting guard, small forward, power forward). This could be Daniels’ breakout season as a Celtic.

5. One of the more fun ways to track Kevin Garnett’s resurgence this season: double-doubles. In his prime, KG could be counted on for 10-plus points and 10-plus rebounds pretty much every single night, but that’s tailed off in his latter years. Over his first three seasons as a Celtic, the Big Ticket cranked out double-double counts of 29, 22, and then finally 10 in his injury-plagued campaign last year. But this season he’s already got five in his first 10 games, including a ridiculous line of 18 points and 15 boards in last week’s loss to the Mavericks. At 15.4 points and 10.4 boards per game this season, KG has a chance to average a double-double for the first time in Boston.

6. Rajon Rondo‘s been known to get amped up for big games, and that’s something we’ve already seen a lot this season. Brandon Jennings, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook — you name it, the kid’s ready. But the best matchup of the season for Rondo might be Wednesday night — that’s when the Wizards’ John Wall comes to town. They’ve got the Kentucky connection, and Rondo will be eager to prove that he’s the best former Wildcat of them all. Wall might be the front-runner for Rookie of the Year, but Rondo will teach him a lesson or two.

7. The Celtics are off to a great start, but they shouldn’t get overconfident. Paul Pierce‘s “bring my talents to South Beach” tweet after Thursday’s game was worth a chuckle, but it also opened Doc Rivers’ eyes to his team’s cockiness. Rivers snapped the next day that “I really don’t like that stuff, honestly.”

Rivers has been challenged this year with a complex group of egos to manage in his locker room. One of the toughest challenges of all might be making sure his players don’t get carried away.

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