Celtics trade is providing unexpected benefit on road trip

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Celtics trade is providing unexpected benefit on road trip

Brian Robb · MassLive

Wed, Feb 25, 2026 ·

3 min read

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For most of the season, the Celtics ’ success has been largely predicated on the team’s offense. They got off to a record breaking start in the first half of the season in that area, surpassing last year’s production which catapulted them to the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Boston ’s defense was steadily improving for much of the season amid the team’s success but it was average compared to the rest of the league.

Boston’s defensive rating by month

November: 116.5 (19th)

December: 113.3 (10th)

January: 111.9 (12th)

The calculus has changed for this group in the month of February on the defensive end. After allowing the Suns to score just 81 points in a 16-point win in Phoenix on Tuesday night, Boston suddenly has the best defense in the league for the past eight games, allowing just 105.1 points per 100 possessions, a six-point improvement from their January numbers.

The defensive leap has come right after the team traded Anfernee Simons for Nikola Vucevic at the trade deadline. Boston has allowed teams to score 100 points or less in six of their eight games since that trade and have also gone 7-1 in that stretch.

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There are certainly multiple factors (softer schedule, injuries) for that success, but there’s no denying that Joe Mazzulla’s bench defense has improved with bigger minutes for wings like Hugo Gonzalez , Baylor Scheierman , Ron Harper Jr. and Jordan Walsh .

“I think we just have a standard,” Derrick White said of the team’s recent defense. “And then a lot of guys that can guard a lot of different positions. And we’re doing a really good job of just following the game plan and committing to that. So we’ve got to continue to execute. But yeah, we have been defending at a high level and that kind of helps us offensively as well.”

Neemias Queta credited Boston’s defense for helping the team dig out of an 11-point first half deficit against the Suns.

“Our defense kept us in the game,” Queta said. “I believe they started with 25 points in the first quarter and our offense settled down and we figured out a way to attack these guys, and from that point on it wasn’t the same.”

With no weak spots to attack on the perimeter for Boston now, the Celtics have now jumped up to seventh in defensive rating while still holding second place in offensive rating. That’s a strong profile for any contender and looks even more promising with the possibility of another elite defender waiting in the wings ( Jayson Tatum ).

Simons was a strong contributor during his time in Boston but became expendable with Boston’s need for more depth at center and Tatum’s return looming. However, his departure has appeared to help Boston find the best version of itself on one side of the floor.

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