There have been times during this unexpectedly turbulent Celtics season when it looked like they had found themselves and were morphing into the Eastern Conference-rampaging juggernaut we expected.
They won eight games in a row from November 26 until December 14, a season-best. But that turned out to be a mirage. None of the teams they played in that run made the playoffs, and they followed the winning streak with consecutive losses to the Pistons, Suns, and Bucks.
More promising was the stretch from January 16 through February 5, when they went 10-1, bookending a pair of five-game winning streaks around an encouraging four-point loss to the Warriors.