Now that's Celtics Basketball

I was beginning to think Doc had gone stealth on us. You look at the roster, you see the talent, and there is simply no way we've misjudged this team. It's gonna be good. But we hadn't seen much of the good team yet. So maybe Doc was practicing one way,  only to show a whole different team in games just to keep the real team under wraps. That theory was debunked in quarter number 1 tonight.

I'll have the rest of the year to write about the 2012-13 Boston Celtics. For the moment, let's just say that tonight they reminded me of the 1976 Boston Celtics, not just in general, but the team that systematically and methodically built a huge lead against the Phoenix Suns in game 5 of the NBA Finals. That stretch of basketball (captured after the jump) is simply as good as the Boston Celtics have ever played the sport, and that's coming from a fan who swears by the 1986 Boston Celtics and is awfully fond of the 2008 Boston Celtics.



If Doc has been attempting to enshroud the greatness of this year's team, then he pulled back the curtains tonight. Courtney Lee, who continued to miss from deep in the first quarter, by his sheer effort on defense, transformed a team that was old, creaky and in need of oxygen last year to a team that promises to be dynamic at both ends of the floor this year, and looks ready to challenge any team just to keep up.

Now the frustrating part of that 1976 team was their inability to play at a high level for long stretches, which again is evidenced by the below game, where the Green blew the lead and had to pull out a W in triple overtime. It will be fun to see how the current version of the NBA's most storied franchise evolves over the next few months. If this team finds a way to play at a high level consistently, the Celtics schedule may begin to resemble the highway leading out of Kuwait after Desert Storm.