DENVER -- Everyone’s got their squad. Most informed NBA fans can give you reasons why one of the three challengers to the Cavaliers’ throne in the East -- the Wizards, Celtics, or Raptors -- are the superior team. The Raptors were the 2-seed last year and reached the conference finals. The Celtics are the trendy team with the MVP candidate in Isaiah Thomas and all the hype. And the Wizards? Since January 1, they have the best record in the NBA. Not in the East, in the NBA, at 24-8. They have a top-10 offense and a top-10 defense in that span, and on Friday night, overtook Boston for the No. 2 seed in the East.
The comparison between the Celtics and Wizards has been stark this week, and it reveals something about both teams.
Both teams are on long West Coast road trips at the same time. Of the two, the Celtics made the biggest headline, beating the Warriors on Wednesday. It was a marquee victory, in Oracle, against the league’s best team. Yes, Golden State was without Kevin Durant, and yes, they are mired in by far their worst slump of the season with Stephen Curry shooting 30 percent from 3-point range over his past 10 games. But a win over the Warriors is a win over the Warriors, and for the Celtics, it was huge. They began the year going 0-6 during the first two months of the season against the top teams in the league (Cavaliers, Spurs, Warriors, Rockets, Raptors). They have wins against the Rockets, Raptors, Cavs and Warriors since. And their early season losses came when some combination of Al Horford, Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder were absent. You can’t crush the Celtics for not winning marquee games, and then try and specify the conditions under which they beat the Warriors. You beat the Warriors, you need credit.
What’s interesting, though, is what’s happened around it. On this road trip, the Celtics lost to the Suns, the Clippers (who haven’t looked like world-beaters in months), and then on Friday, finished the trip with a dispiriting loss to the Nuggets. Denver outplayed Boston in almost every category, shooting 53 percent from the field while holding Boston to 43 percent, trouncing the Celtics by 30 in points in the paint.
It’s the end of a West Coast road trip, it’s in Denver’s altitude and it’s March. The Cavaliers and Warriors are both struggling in these dog days of the season. But after the game, Celtics superstar Isaiah Thomas had a very telling quote about the Celtics.
“When we’re not the hardest-playing team,” Thomas said, “we’re not really that good of a team.”
The concern over Boston’s effort was echoed by Avery Bradley and other teammates, but it also speaks very much to the central makeup of the Celtics, not only this season, but in years prior. Boston’s formula for success begins and ends with it being the biggest try-hard team in the league. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially in the regular season. Boston brings it, almost every night. Even in a disappointing loss, you still saw Jae Crowder working on defense, Al Horford making smart passes, Marcus Smart bullying, bodying and flopping his way to an impact. If you have your choice between being a talented team or a team that gives significant effort, you take the effort every time.
The problem comes in the playoffs. Because in the playoffs, everyone tries hard. The Celtics found this out last year. They had injuries; Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk were out, and Jae Crowder was injured. But their formula for running teams out in the third quarter in transition ran into a road block when the Hawks gave the same level of effort they did. The Chicago Bulls under Tom Thibodeau had this same problem -- the absence of a playoff gear -- because they played so hard throughout the regular season. But the talent gap becomes evident if you can’t find ways to neutralize it.
Then there’s the Wizards. Washington trounced Denver, but had bad efforts against the Suns and Kings. Yet, they walked away with two wins. Maybe those wins will come back to bite them, because winning breeds complacency, while losses breed urgency. But the Wizards still found a way to win when they played badly, in part because they are such a talented, athletic team.
Does this mean the Wizards are “for real” and the Celtics are pretenders? Absolutely not. They have Thomas, Bradley, Crowder, Horford, Jaylen Brown, Smart ... good players all the way down and great coaching. But their formula is still reliant on giving the extra effort. Is that going to be enough against the Raptors or Wizards, both whom have either won or lead in the season series vs. Boston? Is that going to be enough against the Cavs?
Danny Ainge elected not to make a big deadline deal, in large part because of how good the Celtics players are, and how good the Celtics have been. But if you wanted to know why there was so much talk about Boston needing to make this move, that’s part of it.
For the Wizards, they, to repeat, have been lights out since January 1 and now in control of the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference before Saturday night’s back-to-back game against the Blazers. But the bigger picture story is that of how consistent the Wizards have been, and how they can adapt to a changing game environment. The Celtics’ A-game is incredibly strong, but comes with concerns over the playoffs.
Oh, and the Raptors are just trying to get Kyle Lowry back and hang on, at which point they could very well trump both of these squads.
The story here is about how different the paths of the three East contenders to LeBron’s throne have been, and how they each have to work through these March issues to be ready when the playoffs begin in a month’s time. These are good teams, each capable of being great. Reaching that level, when the competition truly becomes difficult, and doing so consistently, is what the path to knocking off Cleveland looks like.
Even in the dog days, in the midst of tiresome western road trips, there are still things to discover about three teams, vying to finally give the Cavs the challenge that’s been missing in the East the past two seasons.