February is now over, and as Boston bids good riddance to the blizzardy bastard that February was, the Celtics are probably wishing it had a few more days. Here’s a quick look at Brad Stevens most successful month as an NBA head coach.
The Celtics went 7-4 in February, giving Brad Stevens his first ever winning month as an NBA head coach. Only 7 NBA teams had better months percentage-wise, and only 3 had more wins than Boston. Here’s how February shook out for the NBA:
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1E1m_iSv6RudSdwuj92wceyG_JwK2X29GxeDgTe_S6bg/pubhtml” query=”gid=0&single=true&widget=true&headers=false” width=”500″ height=”700″ /]Nice to see the Celtics at the top of at least some kind of standings this year, isn’t it?
Sure, the 7-4 month was fueled in large part by wins against bad teams. Charlotte, New York (twice), Philadelphia, and Denver, all have losing records, but wins against Phoenix and Atlanta were quite fun.
For the first time this season, the Celtics held their opponents to less than 100 points per game (99.0) while they averaged 102.2.
The team put up 89.8 shots per game, its highest single-month total not only of the year, but of the Brad Stevens era so far.
Of those 89.8 shots, 28 came from beyond the arc, also the highest of any month under Brad Stevens. The Celtics shot 42.5% from the field, 33.9% from 3.
Isaiah Thomas made the biggest instant impact, averaging 22.3 points over 4 games, to go along with 6 assists and 3.3 rebounds. Thomas shot 39.3% (34.5% from 3). His TS% is 58.2. His current PER with the Celtics is 23.5.
Will it last? Can it last? Tonight’s a real big test because the Celtics get to run-and-gun against Golden State. However it goes, February shows true growth for this team, and some excitement down the stretch of what was supposed to be a “lost” season.
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