3 Celtics overreactions after fantastic finish to 2025

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3 Celtics overreactions after fantastic finish to 2025

Daniel Donabedian, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Wed, Dec 31, 2025 ·

8 min read

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Coming into 2025, the Boston Celtics were expected to do one thing: win. And while they did plenty of that to finish out the 2024-25 regular season, the 2025 NBA Playoffs marked their earliest exit since 2021.

It also featured one of the most devastating moments in recent Celtics history. Star forward Jayson Tatum suffered a ruptured Achilles and the C's were left reeling by the fact that their go-to guy wouldn't play again in 2025. As a result of Tatum's brutal injury, the NBA world adjusted their expectations for the Celtics .

They were no longer supposed to just win, especially after losing multiple key pieces during the offseason in addition to Tatum's absence. Yet, the in-house expectations didn't change.

Ahead of the 2025-26 campaign, Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens still discussed a championship as his team's "North Star." Tatum also went on ESPN during the offseason to shut down any rumors of the Celtics potentially tanking .

"The way our organization is ran, it's the culture that we set, it's the standard that we have — regardless of who is on our team — that we have to go out there every single night and play to that standard," he said while laughing at the idea of the Green Team purposefully losing. "That's the Boston Celtics way. And that's competing for championships."

Boston proceeded to spend the rest of 2025 backing up its talk. Through 32 games, the C's are 20-12 overall and in third place in the Eastern Conference, far exceeding most of the outside expectations placed on them.

Continuing these winning ways for their next 50 games won't be easy, but it's clear the new-look Celtics are much more capable than many fans and pundits predicted. So, with the new year nearly here, let's delve into three overreactions from Boston's promising finish to 2025.

Jaylen Brown should end up in the MVP conversation

While some might be confused about how the Celtics are overachieving this season, there's a pretty simple explanation.

Celtics star Jaylen Brown is playing the best basketball of his 10-year career . In fact, in the 10 games he played in December, he scored under 30 points just one time, tying the legendary Larry Bird's record for the most consecutive 30-point games in franchise history.

Brown is averaging a career-high 29.5 points per game, smashing his previous best of 24.7 points per outing. He's also shooting a career-high 50.5% from the floor and averaging a career-high five assists per game.

The NBA has noticed Brown's rise, as he was recently named Eastern Conference Player of the Week. And for his efforts, he should be in the MVP conversation.

Brown has notched the fifth-most points overall in the league, but every other player above him has at least 30 more total minutes. His efficiency has been practically unmatched as well, with three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being the only current MVP candidates to shoot it better.

Keeping up with Jokic is almost impossible for any player, yet the Denver Nuggets superstar is expected to miss the next four weeks (at least) after hyperextending his left knee. That puts a serious dent in Jokic's MVP campaign and places SGA in the driver's seat .

Can Brown realistically surpass Gilgeous-Alexander? The Thunder point guard has led his squad to the NBA's best record (28-5) and has shown no signs of slowing down. Brown's biggest advantage is that his team is largely driven by him and lacks the supreme star power that SGA's Thunder and Jalen Brunson 's New York Knicks have.

No matter how the MVP race shakes out, Brown should earn another All-Star selection and get his first MVP votes ever. He'd need a lot to go right to take home the Michael Jordan Trophy, but the fact he's even in the conversation right now is impressive.

"I'm the most locked in I've ever been in my life," he said on a recent Twitch stream. "I'm ready to do whatever it takes to win."

Joe Mazzulla should be a frontrunner for Coach of the Year

Another accolade the Celtics could win this season comes in the form of the NBA's Coach of the Year award.

Off the court, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has helped his guys stay motivated and ignore the outside noise surrounding the team, which mostly expected the current iteration of the C's to fail. He's also aided in the development of youngsters like Celtics wing Jordan Walsh and Celtics rookie guard Hugo Gonzalez , who are both improving exponentially.

On the court, Mazzulla has schemed up one of the Association's best offenses. The Celtics are fourth in offensive net rating — an especially astonishing feat when considering Tatum's Achilles and the offseason departures of Celtics starters Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis .

At the end of 2024, when the Celtics were still vying for back-to-back titles, Mazzulla's men held a 24-9 record. Following a double-digit win over the Utah Jazz to close out the 2025 slate, the Celtics are 20-12 and not far back from last year's pace.

Mazzulla will never take much credit for his team's success, however, he's been a significant part of it . His faith in his players and ability to push the right buttons with his various lineups have the C's on the right path towards the playoffs, a place some didn't even think they would reach.

While Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and San Antonio Spurs skipper Mitch Johnson have led their teams to bigger leaps, at least record-wise, they didn't undergo the same monumental changes as the Celtics. What Mazzulla is doing without his premier player deserves to be recognized.

Of their offseason losses, the Celtics miss Luke Kornet the most

If the Celtics have one New Year's resolution, it's to improve on defense. They're at the middle of the pack with the 15th-best defensive team rating and would ideally want to hover around the top-10.

Boston's defense suffered multiple blows this offseason, as the Celtics parted ways with some of their best defensive players (along with losing Tatum). And although center Luke Kornet isn't the biggest name of the departed, he's arguably who the Celtics miss the most.

The 7-footer has thrived with the Spurs , averaging a career-high 8.1 points per game while occasionally starting. In addition, he's averaged a career-high 6.7 rebounds per game and tied a career-high with 1.4 blocks per outing through 24 contests.

Kornet doesn't have an All-Star selection like the other Celtics who left, including Holiday, Porzingis, and veteran big man Al Horford . However, he's accomplished something the others haven't this season; the 30-year-old has remained available.

Horford has missed a little over half of the season due to injuries and the same can be said for Holiday. Meanwhile, a nagging illness has hindered Porzingis . The Latvian center has missed 22 games thus far and is averaging a career-low 25.9 minutes per game with the Atlanta Hawks .

Hopefully the ill and injured ex-Celtics can fully recover this season and look a little more like their old selves. They were all key parts of the Celtics' 2024 title and many fans were upset by their exits, even in spite of their predictability.

But, if the Celtics had a choice of who to bring back — keeping cost, age, and health in mind — they'd ironically choose Kornet.

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