They've been to the conference finals three of the past four seasons, but they've also not made it to the Finals Any of those years there, one of just a handful of teams sending multiple players to this year's All Star Game.

But they've also spent more than a third of the season outside the top half of the East playoff bracket.

Ask the Celtics themselves, and they'll tell you they believe they're much better than their current record suggests.

Although for a while against the Wizards last night, we were, quite frankly, getting evidence on both sides.

At times, Boston looked extremely sharp.

Check this camera three to give the Celtics an 11 point lead in the third quarter.

Walker would finish this game with 21 points, looking a whole lot like his old before the knee problems itself.

And Daniel, Thais also had a great game.

20 points, nine rebounds.

It's performances like that from the team's role players that Boston is going to need to go anywhere this season, and it was particularly timely last night with Jalen Brown out with a knee injury.

But for Boston to go anywhere this season, the Celtics will also need to clean up the careless stretches like the one that let the Wizards come storming back.

Last night.

In fact, Washington led by eight with under three minutes to go, thanks to yet another blistering performance from Bradley Beal, who would finish with 46.

Yet instead of folding, Boston stood its ground.

Jayson Tatum, in particular, was just a monster.

Check the turnaround fadeaway three Pretty good.

Then some repeated old fashioned head down drives to the basket and check what happens around the 15 2nd Mark Tatum crashes to the floor, which means the court.

Get some sweat on it, sweat.

The bill, then slips on a few seconds later, which lands in with his feet out of bounds.

And how did Bradley feel about this personally goofy, that are seen in my life, The better bounds.

Give it to them.

Three lay ups at the end of the game.

Yeah, of course.

Okay, mhm.

Don't get us wrong.

Yeah, he said.

Three layups for Tatum.

And here's the third.

Fantastic.

Reverse their That put Boston up by one.

And while the Wizards then had the ball and nearly five on the clock.

Watch the Celtics sideline here.

The coaching staff recognizes Washington set here.

It's the same one that helped the Wizards beat Denver recently, and they start yelling instructions, telling players Beale is gonna curl to the corner and that no one should switch the heads up allowed Boston to trap Bill In that corner, Brad couldn't get a shot off and boom!

Celtics win.

Gotta shops couldn't get a good shot afterward, Brad Stevens praised Tatum's quote Will to win, saying it's been it's been a tough month for him, but that this team has kept its connected.

This and its belief.

The Boston Celtics see themselves as one of the NBA's better teams.

And while the jury, maybe still out for the rest of us last night, was certainly another step toward at least making their case.

So, Richard, where are you on that?

Do you believe in this Boston Celtics team this year?

I do believe in them, like do I think that you know they need to improve a ton if they're going to make a similar run that they made last year?

I do.

They have two young stars that are growing together that are learning how to be leaders.

And you saw Jason Tatum took over after like being up, being down, not having a great month, all the reasons to kind of, you know, go a different direction.

And he took over.

And so just based off of that, you've got to believe in, I believe in Richard will tell you the season doesn't start till after the All Star break.

I mean, if you think about it.

Their core of Marcus, Smart, Kimba, Tatum and Brown.

I've only played two games together this year, you know, So they still haven't got that chemistry and that timing down that they need and they will get post All Star break and they're still right in the thick of things.

I think it's 17 and 17.

There's three teams.

Toronto and Miami are kind of all in the thick of things, and I see all of them, you know, trending up after All Star break.

But I'm definitely believing in the Celtics and looking forward to their rise second half of the season.

Well, they're playing in the East was keep noting only a handful of teams, even over 500.

Oh, boy, I'll get to that a little bit more later in the show, but But look, I think that if you get what you get last night, if you get Campbell looking like Kemba Walker, if you get role players play into their ability.

If you get Jalen Brown back, this is a team that could do something.

The thing is, though, they are going to be hard cap this year, So I'm interested to see what they do at the trade deadline.

Do they use that trade exception they got out of the Gordon Hayward deal?

Do they wait to do it this summer?

So they give them more flexibility this summer.

I can't tell yet whether Danny Ainge feels this team really can make a run.

So how much is he going to invest in them?

And then, of course, we're getting ready for Marcus Smart to come back to.

I think one thing, too, is I think we're underestimating Marcus Smart's importance, and it doesn't always show up on the numbers.

But Tatum's numbers and Browns numbers offensively or down with Marcus Smart out because he does kind of the clay factor where play would always take the top scoring guard and kind of help Stave stuff a little bit.

Brent.

Excuse me, Marcus Smart does that for both those wings.

Both those guys play defensive, but that's Marcus's job, and I think his leadership and the little things that don't show up on the stat sheets are really overlooked with his absence.

Right now, no.

100% agree, Marcus Smart, and you see that we've seen it with Covid.

We've seen it with injuries.

We've seen so much so this year.

It's tough to really judge almost any code right?

Like Utah, who is rolling through the league, they've only had three different starting lineups.

They've had no covid and no injuries, and they're a very good team.

So that's why and so other teams that have dealt with it.

Even if they're a very good team, you could see a big drop.

You said Coach, you mean the blowback on Brad Stevens right now in Boston, because it's loud and windy at the moment.

Marcus Smart also a lot of playmaking for the Celtics students that they're missing there.

Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.