BOSTON — Evidence—and there has not been much of it—of the Celtics ability to be conference contenders was on display this week, with Exhibit A Sunday’s pasting of (probably) playoff-bound Charlotte and Exhibit B a Christmas Day win over Philadelphia. Watch just those games and you see a team with remarkable depth—five players scored in double figures against the Hornets, with 11 tallying at least five points—and a bona fide alpha in Kyrie Irving, who dropped 40 on the Sixers.
Evidence—and there has been plenty of it—of Boston’s candidacy to be first-round fodder in a few months could be found in the three previous games, a road loss in Detroit, a home defeat to tanktastic (it’s an adjective, really) Phoenix and a largely lifeless performance against Milwaukee, the last of which prompted a 30-minute, closed-door meeting after the game that was described as a Seinfeldian airing of grievances.