The Celtics are shaking off last season’s hangover

It took the Celtics about a week to shake off last season’s hangover. Four games doesn’t tell us a whole lot, but in each of Boston’s outings the team has gotten a little bit better and more comfortable with itself. With that, an identity is being crafted as the kind of pain-in-the-ass opponent that’s going to win a lot more games than it should simply by playing harder than their opponent.

If that sounds familiar, it should. It was the same identity the Celtics created for themselves during the Isaiah Thomas era, except with Kemba Walker in place of IT. Like Thomas, Walker plays with an edge that’s both obvious and pure. You don’t have to guess what Walker’s thinking on the floor because he’ll let you know.

If that sounds like a backhanded comment about Kyrie Irving, keep in mind that everything about this team is going to be seen as a backhanded comment about Irving. It’s inevitable and mildly annoying for everyone involved, but there’s never really any closure in the NBA. The only thing both sides can do is be true to themselves and see where it falls.

Another major difference is that instead of role players like Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder on the wing, the C’s have a trio of creative scorers in Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward, and Jayson Tatum. That’s a whole lot of offense to feed, and it’s still a little unclear whether all four of those perimeter players are a great fit.

Our Mike Prada went into great detail on this dynamic, and there’s not much more to say beyond noting that Hayward has looked light years better than the shell of himself that he was last season. Having a playmaker like Hayward can help keep the balance aligned in a positive direction while Brown and Tatum continue to discover and hone their games.

That’s the hope anyway, because the real difference between the IT team that won 55 games and reached the Eastern Conference finals and this one is there’s no Al Horford, or even an Amir Johnson at center. It’s not entirely clear how the Celtics intend to deal with their big man rotation beyond throwing a bunch of bodies at the problem and seeing what sticks.

Enes Kanter started the opener and was not surprisingly overmatched against Joel Embiid. Kanter is good at several things — offensive rebounding, getting buckets — but he’s not stopping JoJo or any other elite big man.

Kanter been out of the lineup ever since with knee contusion and Daniel Theis has done a solid enough job filling the middle. Theis is no Horford, obviously, and the C’s defense has been shaky in a very limited sample size with him on the court.

Then there’s Robert Williams, the erstwhile Time Lord, whose bouncy presence and thunderous shot-blocking give the Celtics an athletic component that’s been absent ever since Kevin Garnett shouted his last epitaph. To be absolutely clear, Robert Williams should in no other way ever be compared to KG, but it’s fun to dream big dreams and there is no bigger basketball fantasy than finding a pot of big man gold late in the first round.

To cover for their lack of size, and a massive rebounding disadvantage, the Celtics have had to rely an awful lot on creating turnovers to end possessions. That’s a tough way to live but it fits their personnel, and the scrappy persona that have been the hallmarks of better Brad Stevens’ teams.

Consider the smallball lineups featuring Grant Williams. The rookie from Tennessee has already displayed a nose for the ball and an understanding of the game that is beyond most first-year players. Basketball connoisseurs already love the kid, and if he can figure out a way to be effective on offense he’ll have a 10-year career. Williams is the kind of player who has flourished under Stevens in the past, and it seems fairly clear that this team fits his coaching methods better than last season.

(There it is again, another backhanded comment that’s not really about Kyrie Irving.)

Still, that lack of size and defensive acumen on the back line would appear to limit their ceiling. The Sixers are a nightmare matchup, and the Raps and Bucks both dominated portions of their games. And yet, no one expected the Celtics to contend for a championship this season. The only thing people wanted was a team that showed up, played hard, and reached its potential. It’s been a week, but the early signs are positive.

After getting blown out by the 76ers on opening night, the Celtics rebounded in their home opener with a winning effort against the defending champion Raptors in which they shook off a poor shooting night thanks to an aggressive defense that forced 23 turnovers. Eventually the shots started to fall, as they will when mean and regression do the mambo.

Defending champion Raptors is going to be a weird thing to say all season because Kawhi Leonard is in Los Angeles, but that’s still Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam on the other side. At the very least, the remaining Raps have played far more high-level basketball together than these Celtics have, which made Boston’s fourth quarter execution all the more impressive.

The C’s followed that with a 23-point win in New York on a back-to-back. Beating the Knicks may not qualify as a signature win, until you remember that last year’s C’s made a habit of dropping perfectly winnable games under similar situations.

Then came Wednesday in a matchup with the Bucks, the team that took four straight off them in last year’s playoff series in what amounted to a mercy killing. The C’s were without Brown and Kanter, and sure enough the Bucks built a 16-point lead by halftime.

The Garden was dead and the thought running through everyone’s minds was that there will simply be teams the Celtics can’t handle. The C’s came alive, as they had many times in the not-so-distant past, thanks to a three-point barrage and the kind of gritty defense epitomized by the invaluable Marcus Smart.

Tasked with guarding Giannis Antetokounmpo, Smart pulled out all the stops limiting the reigning Most Valuable Player to just one field goal in 17 possessions and forcing three turnovers. On one particularly memorable possession, Smart managed to slam into Giannis while making it appear that Antetokounmpo was the one pulling him to the ground and calling for the foul before the two even hit the floor. The man is an artist.

Smart got the call, the C’s got the win, and just like that they have been reborn.