Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

On Friday, the same day that the Celtics made their final flight of the month with a red-eye trek home from Cleveland, Boston closed out its December slate with a 117-114 home triumph over the Miami Heat. Despite all the obvious travel obstacles, Boston was 10-6 this month (a .625 winning percentage), including a 6-4 mark on the road, and sits in third place in the Eastern Conference.

At 12-8 (.600) on the road this season, the Celtics are 20-14 overall and have the second-best road record in the East behind only Toronto (11-5). The visit from Miami on Friday night was the start of a stretch during which Boston will play 14 of 18 games in the comforts of TD Garden.

[…] But there’s obvious optimism about the team’s ability to soar in the new year. The home schedule will help, but so will the ability to get some rare practices and clean up the defensive slippage that has occurred recently.

ESPN Boston: After a long December, there’s reason for Celtics to believe

December was a brutal month for Boston. As Chris Forsberg mentions in his piece, the C’s traveled enough miles in the month to go halfway around the world. So when the Celtics, road-weary and weakened by a flu that cost them Avery Bradley and nearly a few others, needed every bit of Isaiah Thomas’ 52 points to beat a shell of the Miami Heat, it wasn’t an indication that this team might not be as good as some of us think… it was actually more an indication of the fight within this team to go out there and win the finale of a 10-game-in-16-night stretch.

That’s not to say the Celtics don’t have things to work on. That’s not to say the Celtics are anywhere near a finished product. But this was beyond a back-to-back game. This was Heartbreak Hill… the middle of the marathon that makes-or-breaks a runner. The rubber-legged Celtics have gotten over it now, and can now focus on tightening things up for the rest of the race.

January give the Celtics time to rest, and do so at home. They can use their own facilities and get some practice in to hammer home some lessons that have fallen by the wayside. They don’t play again until Tuesday, and then they’re off until Friday. After a back-to-back, they have another two days off… and… well, you get my drift. Things calm down a lot. And the Celtics can face some beatable teams at home, and (hopefully) at full strength.

Look at the Celtics home record right now. At 8-6 people might wonder why they’ve struggled so much in their own arena. Well, the home losses include Golden State and San Antonio, so those are understandable. They lost to the Raptors, the East’s 2nd seed, but didn’t have Isaiah Thomas for that one. They lost to OKC in a game where Russell Westbrook went supernova and hit contested hashmark-3’s against Avery Bradley. Denver stands out as a bad loss, but the Celtics were without Al Horford and Jae Crowder. Which leaves Detroit as the one true bad loss at home.

I’m not laying this out there to make excuses. The record is what it is. My point is that this team is (currently) healthy, and it’s had a few games under its belt to get some continuity and chemistry together. January’s home slate includes Utah, Philly, New Orleans, Washington, Charlotte, New York, Portland, Houston, Orlando, and Detroit.

This is an opportunity for the Celtics to go 7-3… 8-2… maybe 9-1 in that stretch of home games. With time to rest, practice, and lessons learned from a few months of lineup experimentation by Brad Stevens, this team is poised to tighten things up and win some of these games that were L’s in the past.

Which leads me to this:

https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/815352644243980289

https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/815352331055366144

https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/815351727625011203

https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/815351380387004416

https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/815351108247883776

https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/815350685801664512

Those tweets went out last night and after a brief conversation with Matt Moore (and sleeping off the last of this flu) it’s more clear to me that this is a case where the numbers are misleading… to a point.

Remember that Brad Stevens had been experimenting with the IT-and-D lineup for a large part of November… and it was a mess. They were getting shelled on the boards and giving up way too many points. Brad Stevens ditched those lineups, mostly, in December, which leads to…

https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/815366196568670208

Obviously Isaiah had a monster December to go along with the lineup tweaks, but mostly it’s been Brad Stevens’ adjustments that have leveled off a lot of those negative statistics.

Side note: This is why stats alone can’t be a good predictor of things. There needs to be context and understanding of everything (which is why Matt put those prefaces up, btw. Step 1 is finding the numbers, step 2 is finding why).

So all this adds up to what could be a very nice stretch for the Celtics moving forward. January is a pretty soft, home-heavy month for the Celtics. It’s a reward for a brutal December, but a month in which the Celtics may have found themselves. With time to practice and a couple of tomato cans climbing through the ropes this month, Boston could go on a little surge.

2016 is gone (good riddance). 2017 is a new year, with new hope for these Celtics.

Related links: Herald: Celtics: looking back and ahead to new year

Page 2: Isaiah Thomas is a “clear-cut” star

Prior to the Cavs-Celtics clash on Thursday night, LeBron James raved about the pint-sized Thomas, comparing him to former NBA guard Damon Stoudamire.

“They got a clear-cut star and that’s Isaiah,” James said. “The notion that they don’t have a star I think is fugazi as Donnie Brasco would say. Earlier I was watching the movie. So, they’re a good team for a reason and it starts with the head of the snake and that’s Isaiah.”

Cleveland.com

I’ve been sitting here thinking there’s no way Isaiah Thomas makes the All Star game as a starter…

But…

This year, with the fan vote only counting for half… I wonder if guys like LeBron will look at IT and throw him into their back court. I wonder if the Miami media will look at that 52 point gem and say “I can’t leave this guy off the ballot.”

I don’t know much more can be said about Isaiah at this point. His December numbers (30.3 ppg, 5.9 apg, .649 TS%, 92.9 FT%, 38.7 3pt%) were off the charts. For Isaiah, though, this is no big deal.

“For me, it feels normal, though,” he said. “When I do score or I put the numbers up that I do, I give credit to my teammates and this organization for believing in me, but it feels normal. Everything I’ve always done in my whole life I felt like I worked that hard for it. It’s never felt like, ‘Hey, I’m 5-9 and doing this.’ When I’m out there I feel like I’m 6-4, just the same height as everybody else.

“[Friday] was different but everything else, it feels somewhat normal.”

So since there’s nothing left to say about Isaiah right now… how about a look at Isaiah in the future.

Next year is his final year under contract for Boston, one which will earn him a pay CUT of about $300,000 (his salary will be $6,261,395). He’s in, without a doubt, on the best contract in the NBA. He’s due for a raise, but… how much of one?

If the Celtics miss out on a star free agent this summer, they might have enough cap space to renegotiate Isaiah’s contract and extend it at a fair market rate. If I’m Danny Ainge, I’d actually RATHER do that than wait the extra year at a cheap salary.

Renegotiating the deal will cost more in one season, but it will take one year off the back-end of the deal, when a 30-something-year-old Isaiah Thomas really risks falling off a cliff. As much as I hate to make an issue of Isaiah’s size, the fact remains that smaller guys like Isaiah take MUCH more abuse out there than other guys. Just look at how many times Isaiah hit the ground against Miami. How many times did he hit the ground and make you gasp “oh jeez I hope he’s ok?’

If it works out that Thomas and the Celtics can renegotiate next year’s salary, work out a four or five-year deal, and then that would work for both sides. Every year earlier in IT’s 30’s a deal expires is better for the team. And the risk of maybe paying IT for one year of diminished production is worth the three or four of good production he might have.

And who knows, maybe he’s still playing well into his 30’s and when this deal is up, they can work something else out. I can’t predict the future, but I can anticipate it. I love Isaiah Thomas but these are the things you have to consider when handing out long-term contracts.

For Isaiah’s part… he’s still having some fun with it… posting this video in an Instagram story:

Isaiah Thomas having some fun in his Instagram Stories with his now-famous Brinks truck comment pic.twitter.com/1n5a8NS0xP

— John Karalis 🇬🇷 🇺🇦 (@John_Karalis) January 1, 2017

Nice one, IT.

Related links: Herald: Celtics can back up that Brinks truck for Isaiah now  |  CSNNE: Celtics in awe of Isaiah’s 52 point game  | Herald: Teammates caught up in Isaiah’s 52 point wild ride

And Finally…

Enjoy James Harden’s F’ing ridiculous 53 point, 17 assist, 16 rebound triple double.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SARVAqLtnms]

The rest of the links:

CSNNE: Rondo benched for poor play in Chicago  |  Blakely’s resolutions for Celtics  | Rozier trying to capitalize on limited opportunity