Celtics week 10 takeaways: Kemba Walker is back?

The laws of physics simply do not apply to Rob or “Lob” Williams III- Rob has gone from Timelord to Dimelord and now Lob Williams as he continues to show the team and fans that he belongs in the court for as many minutes as possible. Brad Stevens has indicated that the team was monitoring his minutes in an attempt to preserve him for when it really matters later in the year and that he could see his minutes gradually increase up to that point. There is a legitimate argue to be made that he should start. The one thing going against Rob is that the two bigs ahead of him in the rotation are both good options as well and they have been the most consistent position group on the roster. Regardless, Rob should see more minutes and this week he even saw his role expand as he saw crunch time minutes for a change. 

Kemba Walker may be back??- Boston’s former all-star point has clearly struggle to start the season after returning from injury, but he has really come on of late and has possibly regained his form. Though we still need to see it more consistently, it looks as though the early skid had a lot to do with not being in rhythm with his shot or with his teammates. He has sat every second game of back to backs and has set a new season high in the next game four straight times, so the rest is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. It’s been great to see Kemba respond to the adversity and even through the rough patch he continued to play hard taking charges, playing defense and driving to get his teammates the ball. 

The C’s really really need this All Star break coming up to regroup- Boston just snapped a month long stretch of not winning consecutive games when the beat Indiana and Washington consecutively. That is hard to believe after see essentially the same roster only lost 24 games a season ago. Their stars, especially Tatum, have looked sluggish after continually needing to carry the team and playing a ton of minutes. The good news, JT did rebound on Sunday and looked terrific after putting in a one of his worst performances as a Celtic on Friday.  Beginning Friday this week they will get a much needed five day break, though the Jays will be making appearances in the All Star game on Sunday before returning to Boston. I think everyone would agree here, Jayson and Jaylen should play minimal minutes on Sunday so that they can remain rested for the second half, but we’ll see. 

What’s going on in the standings you ask? "Well earlier this week we saw the C’s drop to the 8th seed (which was a good opportunity for lay betting) but finish out the week in 6th following Sunday’s win. They also lost half a game to first place and are now five games out of first. They sit tied with Miami at 17-17 for 5th/6th seed. Boston is within half a game of the New York Knicks for 4th place but still four and four and a half games out of 2nd and 3rd respectively. This week, they’ll take on Jayson’s favorite opponent, the Clippers on Tuesday, and then Toronto on Friday before going on break. They’re in a great position to go into the break in the 4th or 5th seed, which the team should be grateful for considering their horrendous play over the last four weeks.