Five reasons why Celtics have become surprise Eastern Conference contenders

Forget tanking Disregard the gap year talk Even without Jayson Tatum and with a roster far less talented than previous iterations the Celtics look like genuine contenders in the wide-open Eastern Conference Sunday s - win over the Toronto Raptors Boston s fifth straight and th in its last games pushed the - Celtics up to third place in the East They ve beaten both of the teams ahead of them the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks within the last two weeks and also took down two other projected conference front-runners in the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic As of Monday the Celtics ranked second in the NBA in offensive rating fifth in net rating and fifth in point differential Since dropping their first three games to open the season they own the NBA s sixth-best winning percentage outpacing every crew in the East outside of Detroit It s far too early to call them a legitimate championship threat they d need to prove they can hang with the likes of Oklahoma City Denver and Houston but the Celtics have reset expectations in what most of expected to be a forgettable season Could they vault into that tier if and when Tatum returns from his Achilles injury It s not out of the question How did they get to this point Here are five reasons why the Celtics are overachieving Jaylen Brown is meeting the moment This is the first time in his NBA seasons that Brown is Boston s clear-cut No option How is he handling that added pressure Pretty darn well thus far Tatum s longtime co-star is the league s sixth-leading scorer through games his points per challenge trailing only Luka Doncic Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Tyrese Maxey Donovan Mitchell and Nikola Jokic He s made of his -pointers which would be his best mark since - and has been a menace from the midrange attempting a league-high shots per contest from that distance and making just under half of them The NBA leader in usage rate Brown also is on pace for a career high in assists per contest and has shown restraint in key moments trusting his teammates rather than trying to win games by himself Three of Boston s current victories were secured by late makes from Payton Pritchard Cavaliers Jordan Walsh Knicks and Derrick White Raptors Officiating has been a point of contention for Brown who believes he hasn t gotten a fair whistle this season But he s trending upward there as well attempting at least nine foul shots in each of his last four games Brown has topped points in games this season including six of his last seven The only outlier during that stretch was a -point -rebound -assist triple-double against Cleveland his first of the season and the fourth of his career He s playing at an All-NBA level and giving the Celtics exactly what they need to succeed in Tatum s absence White and Pritchard have settled in Twelve games in White and Pritchard owned two of the worst -point shooting percentages in the NBA The former was shooting from deep The latter was at Both were playing well in other areas but failing to provide the consistent supplementary scoring the Celtics needed behind Brown That s no longer a dilemma Over Boston s last games White is shooting from three on attempts per competition and Pritchard is shooting on attempts Their returns to form have turned the Celtics into one of the best-shooting teams in the league during their latest hot streak Since Nov the C s rank third in field-goal percentage fourth in -point shooting percentage and first in both made field goals and made threes per contest The role players have helped that cause too Scoring isn t the primary responsibility for Boston s squadron of young wings head coach Joe Mazzulla want them to crash the glass and be high-energy chaos agents on defense but Walsh Josh Minott Hugo Gonzalez and Baylor Scheierman all are shooting better than from beyond the arc this season The Celtics also are tops in the league in clutch shooting both overall and from -point range No other club is shooting better than from deep in clutch situations Boston Celtics center Neemias Queta and New York Knicks guard Miles McBride battle for the loose ball as the Celtics take on the Knicks at the Garden Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill Boston Herald Neemias Queta can play Queta s viability as an NBA starting center was a major question entering the season one to which even those within the Celtics organization didn t seem to know the answer The former fourth-stringer has put those concerns to rest with a superb start averaging close to a double-double points rebounds while boasting various of the best advanced metrics in the NBA As of Monday he ranked eighth in individual defensive rating and seventh in net rating trailing only six players from the Thunder His plus minus is points better than any Celtics contestant and Boston s efficiency drops by points per possessions when he is off the court per Cleaning the Glass which ranks in the th percentile of all NBA players That last stat speaks both to Queta s impact and the shakiness of the depth chart behind him which Mazzulla in the last few days has combatted by increasing his reliance on small-ball lineups when Queta is on the bench Backup big men Luka Garza Xavier Tillman and Chris Boucher have hardly played over the last four games The smaller groupings a large number of of which feature -foot- Minott at the five have yielded positive results so far but acquiring another quality big should be at the top of Brad Stevens to-do list if the Celtics choose to be buyers ahead of February s NBA transaction deadline Jordan Walsh has broken out If Queta is the biggest riser of this Celtics season then Walsh is a close second Over the last month the -year-old has gone from an end-of-the-bench contestant who was a DNP-CD in four of the first eight games to a locked-in starter with a chance to be one of the best defenders in the league for multiple years to come according to one opponent That praise came from Lakers guard Austin Reaves one of the a great number of gifted scorers Walsh has guarded this season He s also matched up against All-Stars Maxey Mitchell Jaren Jackson Jr James Harden Paolo Banchero Cade Cunningham Anthony Edwards Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns and successfully limited the greater part of them Walsh becoming a standout defensive specialist would be a major win for Boston which experimented with Sam Hauser Gonzalez and Minott as starters before settling on the third-year pro But he s coupled that with a vastly improved offensive match averaging points per championship over his last five outings on hyper-efficient shooting His advanced stats at both ends of the floor are off the charts As of Monday Walsh ranked in the th percentile or better among all NBA wings in steal rate th block rate th defensive rebounding percentage off missed field goals th offensive rebounding percentage off missed field goals th effective field-goal percentage th and points per shot attempt th His offensive rating was fourth-best in the league Those eye-popping numbers aren t sustainable but Walsh s newfound status as a key contributor on a winning company might be Since his promotion to the starting lineup the Celtics are - Wellbeing helps The Celtics proved their resilience by defeating the Pistons without Queta taking care of the Cavs without Queta and White and hanging points on the lowly Washington Wizards without Brown but they ve benefited from being one of the NBA s healthiest teams this season Their entire roster has missed a total of five games due to injury with no starter sitting out more than two Tatum s ongoing rehab notwithstanding It s still hard to see Boston surviving if they lose a core member like Brown White or Queta for an extended stretch so this injury luck will need to continue