When asked about his team's fast start following last Friday's victory over the Hawks, Celtics coach Doc Rivers shrugged and dismissed the 4-0 mark.
Now that the Celtics have upped the streak to seven entering tonight's game (TD Banknorth Garden, 7:30) against underachieving Miami, the significance of the record is becoming harder to downplay.
While most in and around the locker room are quick to minimize the importance of seven games in November, the way the Celtics have kept the streak going bodes well for how it will handle the challenges that surely await.
For nearly a week, the Celtics have been the only undefeated team in the NBA. They have already swept two of the dreaded back-to-backs and have three wins over two top Atlantic Division rivals (Raptors once, Nets twice) while opening a three-game division lead.
Perhaps most importantly, they have shown they can win on nights when Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett have not been at their best collectively or individually. In many ways, that made Wednesday night's 91-69 victory over the Nets the most impressive so far as Allen struggled shooting, Garnett was in foul trouble and the team as a whole labored through the first half after flying in from Indianapolis the previous night.
``In the first half you could see the fatigue a little bit when we were kind of everywhere, sporadic and stuff,'' said Garnett after grinding through 30 minutes Wednesday with 16 points and 11 rebounds, ``but once we settled down we had communication in the locker room between everyone trying to figure it out. We said we wanted to raise the level and return to Celtics basketball, and everything we worked on in training camp, and in the early schedule.''
Of course, they were not all going to be like the opening-night blowout of the Wizards. But some of the victories have been under circumstances - like Saturday's second night of a back-to-back in New Jersey (a 112-101 triumph) and Wednesday's rematch - where NBA teams often falter.
There was some concern on Saturday about how the Celtics let a 23-point lead get down to eight in the final two minutes, but in the end the furious Nets rally on their homecourt really only had the game in doubt for a possession or two before checkmate. For all of Boston's turnovers and fouls early Wednesday night, it still led at halftime and had the bulge as high as 24 in the fourth quarter.
So while the unimpressed Celtics can keep pointing out their own faults as motivation, the way the wins have rolled up despite the flaws is a good indication that there is a lot more behind the streak than the glossy exterior of three smiling stars on a media guide.
``Everybody in this locker room last year played on a losing team, if I'm not mistaken,'' said Ray Allen, who might get a small argument from Eddie House (Nets) and James Posey (Heat) on that one despite his greater point. ``Back-to-backs for most of us (last season) was 0-2. We talked about it a little bit early, being able to win in a lot of different ways because last year we lost a lot of different ways.
``We're on the flipside of that equation now,'' he added, ``where we have the right philosophy, the right attitude and everybody is in the right place to continue to win and put good things out there on the floor to allow us to win.''
