Steve Kerr ‘blown away’ by Celtics amid surprise season

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Steve Kerr ‘blown away’ by Celtics amid surprise season

Souichi Terada · MassLive

Thu, Mar 19, 2026 ·

3 min read

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BOSTON — Nobody outside the Celtics ’ realm expected this current team to compete for a title. But with the playoffs in a month, the C’s are a real contender to come out of the East. Plus, they returned Jayson Tatum earlier this month to solidify the rest of the roster.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr gushed about the Celtics ahead of their game Wednesday , including what he expects from them the rest of the season. He pointed out that, when Tatum was down, it allowed the C’s to experiment with depth pieces to get them rotation minutes. Now, they’re one of the teams fighting to come out of the East.

“When we played them a month ago, I was just blown away by how good they were: the spacing, the execution,” Kerr said. “They just got good shots over and over again. They played so well together and that was without Jayson even. I just think the continuity of what they’ve built has carried over so that, even with all the departures, they still know exactly who they are.”

The Celtics are 46-23 following Wednesday’s victory over the Warriors . They’ve consistently had one of the best net ratings in the league all year, showing they’re not some fluke. The C’s also boast returning playoff experience with Tatum, Jaylen Brown , Derrick White , Payton Pritchard and more.

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So even though the Celtics went through major roster turnover last summer, the core pieces remain the same. While the playoffs will pose another challenge for this current group, it’s clear the Celtics’ opponents view them highly.

“That time without the expectations really gave them a chance to play some of their younger guys, to kind of lay in the weeds a little bit,” Kerr said. “Nobody was really talking a whole lot about them and that’s kind of a nice position to be in if you’re used to being a favorite year after year.”

The Celtics are looking to maintain their second-place spot in the East. The Knicks are only 1.5 games behind them in the standings and will likely own the tiebreaker by the end of the season. So with 13 games left in the regular season, it’ll be crucial for the C’s to fend off the Knicks in the East standings.

But the possibilities are certainly intriguing for the Celtics — especially compared to the preseason. The C’s were expected to hover in play-in contention and roughly around the .500 mark. Instead, they’re well on their way to their fifth 50-plus win season in a row.

“It feels to me like they really took advantage of it, developed some of the young guys, really hammered home their expectations for those guys and roles,” Kerr said. “I just thought every guy on that team knew exactly who they were, and, so I’m just really, really impressed by the job Joe (Mazzulla) and Brad (Stevens) have done putting this team together. They’re a real, real favorite for sure.”

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