Seven takeaways from Celtics' entertaining seven-game homestand

Well, that was (mostly) fun.

The most intriguing stretch of the Boston Celtics’ 2024-25 regular-season schedule is now in the rearview mirror. A two-week, seven-game homestand featured glitzy matchups and far more good than bad for the green team, but was nevertheless bookended by frustrating losses to arguably the two biggest threats in Boston’s quest to repeat as champions.

So, what did we learn in this stretch? What should the Celtics prioritize over the remaining 16-game slog to the playoffs?

Here are seven thoughts from the homestead:

1. Cavs and Thunder are for real

If the regular-season dominance of the Cavaliers and Thunder wasn’t enough to convince you that these two teams could be true roadblocks for the Celtics on their 2025 playoff path, then the two losses to those squads in this homestand certainly emphasized it.

We couldn’t be more impressed with the Thunder. Oklahoma City was playing its third game in four nights and coming off a gritty home-and-home with Denver, their primary competition in the West. What’s more, the Thunder were without All-Star guard Jalen Williams and were still the aggressors with the way they jumped Boston out of the gates Wednesday night.

The Thunder are super handsy, they somehow don’t foul, and they fully deter you from even trying to dribble towards the basket — as evidenced by the Celtics’ franchise-record 63 3-point attempts. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, meanwhile, manages to throw in every circus shot on the rare drive that he doesn’t get a whistle. It’s an infuriating team to play against.

The Cavaliers are cockroaches. They barely blinked despite falling behind by 22 points in the opening minutes in their last Boston visit. They rallied from another double-digit deficit in the second half and showed again how good they are at closing games, boasting a league-best .786 winning percentage in clutch games (22-6 overall) this season.

The Celtics made their playoff path look easy last year. It feels safe to suggest that this year’s trail has a lot more obstacles to navigate, and the Celtics will need to be even more dialed in than they were a year ago, particularly given that they won’t have homecourt advantage in either potential series.

2. Celtics need a healthy Porzingis

Porzingis missed all seven games on the homestead with his mystery virus. You could see him still coughing when he joined teammates on the bench, and he looked drained trying to warm up before the Lakers game. Getting him feeling right has to be the priority right now.

The silver lining, of course, is that two weeks off his feet can’t be a bad thing given the foot woes that limited Porzingis to seven appearances in last year’s playoffs. The Celtics have rarely missed a beat when Porzingis hasn’t been available, and yet it doesn’t feel like an overreaction to suggest that his presence could be vital in navigating this year’s playoff path.

The Celtics have played some of their best basketball with two bigs on the court this season, and given the size they will see as well as the boost that Porzingis can offer their rebounding numbers, it’s important to have him healthy and spry from April to June.

Maybe more important is simply having him as an option to diversify the offense. We’re not even that worked up about the 63 3-pointers the Celtics attempted on Wednesday night; that’s what the Thunder gave up to clog the paint, and multiple Boston players struggled to make them pay.

But Porzingis has a way of eliminating the painful scoring droughts that this team tends to endure when perimeter shots aren’t falling.

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3. Need to see this team full over the final 16

While the matchups are far less sexy over the final four weeks of the season, it feels imperative for the Celtics to find some stretches to get a long look at their playoff rotation. 

The preferred starting group, with Porzingis running alongside Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Jrue Holiday, hasn’t played a game together since February 23. That group has 307 minutes together, a solid number, but still holds a minus-1.6 net rating.

We’ll keep saying it: That group needs more time to find the mojo it had last season, when they boasted a +11 net rating in 623 minutes together.

The bench squad of Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard, and Luke Kornet all have had great individual games as the team has navigated shorthanded moments. But how can those players impact winning in smaller bites when the playoffs arrive? How much does Joe Mazzulla lean on that bench trio, and is anyone else able to crack the rotation? (Torrey Craig made a first-half cameo vs. OKC but played just 4:14 overall.)

4. Horford will be ready when it matters

Overshadowed by the end result Wednesday night was yet another fantastic showing from Al Horford on a big stage. We were ready to joke that, if Oklahoma City lost, they would have to fire their entire medical staff because they helped revitalize Horford during his brief stay there before rejoining the Celtics (and that was FOUR years ago). 

Horford played big minutes against Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, and Oklahoma City. He averaged 14 points and 8.5 rebounds per game while shooting 51.3 percent overall (20 of 39) and 47.4 percent beyond the 3-point arc in those four marquee tilts. 

Horford will be 39 years old if the Celtics see the Thunder in the Finals. He looks like he’s 30 again. A healthy Porzingis can help take some of the wear and tear off him, too. But it’s a very encouraging sign that Horford has been a consistent positive when it matters most.

5. Pritchard encouraging on defense vs. Thunder

We could quibble that Pritchard’s efficiency has decreased a bit against top-tier opponents this season. He’s still our pick for Sixth Man of the Year. The bigger question is whether he could hold up defensively in a playoff series if quality teams tried to target his size.

Maybe one of the more encouraging aspects of the Thunder game was how well Pritchard competed, including in heavy minutes against Gilgeous-Alexander. Boston’s defensive rating was a team-best 100.0 when Pritchard was on the court, and that was 21.6 points per 100 possessions fewer than Boston’s game average. 

What’s more, Thunder players generated just six points on 3-of-10 shooting against Pritchard, who logged the second most time on Gilgeous-Alexander, trailing only Brown. The MVP favorite tallied just 4 points on 2-of-4 shooting against Pritchard, who also generated three SGA turnovers.

Pritchard stressing opposing ball handlers while picking up 80-plus feet from the basket could really put a strain on offenses in the postseason. And him finding a way to be more consistent scorer against quality opponents would go a long way, too. 

6. Tough finish to a solid homestand for Brown

Jaylen Brown struggled offensively against the Thunder and will fret fouling out -- particularly with an overzealous sixth infraction in the fourth quarter -- but he was outstanding during this homestand. Brown harassing Luka Doncic will be one of the more memorable moments of both the last two weeks, and maybe the regular season as a whole.

Over the six games he appeared in during the homestand, Brown posted a team-best +14.7 net rating in 228 minutes on the court. The Celtics had a team-worst minus-10.6 net rating in his 108 minutes on the bench. The next closest in the off-court net rating: Jayson Tatum at minus-0.4 in 139 minutes off the court during the homestand.

Brown is in the conversation for a return to an All-NBA team. His defensive efforts shouldn’t be overlooked. The Oklahoma City game and his struggles against their ball pressure were not his finest moment, but he’s been excellent otherwise lately.

7 Can we fast forward to mid-April (or May)?

Mazzulla will need to find different ways to motivate his team over the next four weeks. The Celtics are basically locked into the No. 2 seed in the East, and beyond watching how the play-in bracket shakes out, there’s not a lot of drama over the final month.

The hard part is that, with the absence of circle-the-calendar games, the Celtics are going to lack the motivation that has typically fueled their best basketball. This team has to embrace the grind of fine-tuning its play and making sure it’s clicking at a high level by the time the playoffs arrive. 

Porzingis’ return will inject some life into upcoming games. Three remaining back-to-backs will ensure that bench guys get more opportunities to put up career nights.

You can’t skip steps -- even if we’d love a fast forward button -- and the Celtics have to embrace the opportunity to get better over the next month. 

The last two weeks showed how good they could be, but also that there’s another level they need to get to given how good the teams at the top of each conference are this season.