BOSTON - The Celtics' 91-79 win over the Raptors on Wednesday night was significant for a number of reasons.
For one, they beat the Raptors for the first time this season, avoiding what would have been a first series sweep for the Raptors in the franchise's history.
Secondly, they won their third straight game and take some real momentum with them into this five-game west coast road trip.
Oh − and who can forget Mark Wahlberg was in the building? It's good to send him home with a win.
But perhaps the most significant thing about this particular win was that it guaranteed a winning season for Brad Stevens' bunch. The Celtics are now 42-30 on the season. It's obviously been a foregone conclusion for a while that they were going to finish above .500, but getting it done and seeing it on paper is nice.
It's a sure sign of progress for a team that two seasons ago was wishing on lottery luck - and seemed to be headed that way last season, too, before a late push to the playoffs.
But in Stevens' third season as head coach, hopes for the No. 3 pick in the NBA Draft have turned into hopes for the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Not bad, coach.
“The one thing that I will say is, I’ve felt like -- especially in the last year, 14 months, whatever it is -- that . . . I feel like there’s real progress," Stevens said. "And it’s been pretty consistent progress. We’re certainly going to have our bad games and we’re certainly going to have games that are unique throughout an 82-game season, but there’s been good progress, there’s been good growth. And that’s my biggest focus. But it’s like I told [CSNNE’s Abby Chin], you don’t sign up to come to the Boston Celtics to win 42 games. So we’ve got a long way to go.”
The Celtics won 40 games last season. The season before that? Just 25. So yes, there's a good chance the C's improve by over 20 wins in two seasons.
A big reason for that is the addition of Isaiah Thomas at last year's trade deadline. Thomas has led the way on offense for Boston, now averaging over 22 points a game on the season. He's scored 20-plus in 11 straight games, giving him an average of 26.5 points per game in the month of March.
The Celtics are just 6-5 in March, but that's partially due to losing Jae Crowder for the last six games (the C's are 3-3 in that stretch). Crowder has arguably been just as important as Thomas this season, playing a position the C's are the shallowest in.
"We came a long way," Thomas said. "We finally got a full season to really be each other, to really jell together. There were lulls in this season that you definitely don’t want to hit. But, at the same time, we’ve played a pretty good year -- and we’re not finished . . . And we gotta finish this season off in a good way."
With Crowder out, the Celtics have experimented with both Marcus Smart and Evan Turner in the starting lineup. They've settled on Turner, who previously had been playing so well that some considered him a candidate for the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award.
Turner came alive to score 13 points in a third quarter that saw the C's turn a tie game into a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter. He finished with 17 points and seven assists.
But just as Brad Stevens keeps an even-keeled attitude in wins or losses, so do his players, who acknowledge a winning season, but aren't about to hold a party over it.
“I guess it’s cool. It’s something we haven’t done in a while," Turner said. "Obviously it’s always beneficial and great to see all your hard work kind of come in positive results. You know what I’m saying? So a winning season’s definitely cool. I’ve been in situations where we haven’t been in a winning position. So you definitely don’t take it for granted."