Down Brown, On The Road, Celtics Keep Raising The Bar

On Saturday night, without their best player in Jaylen Brown, the Celtics (17-11) went into Toronto (17-12) and beat a Raptors team that was ahead of them in the standings by a score of 112-96.

Payton Pritchard erupted for 33 points, Derrick White was clutch down the stretch to continue his nice stretch after a rough start to the season, Hugo Gonzalez’s hustle led to yet another highlight night for the rookie, and Luke Garza made his first real impact on a game in weeks.

Head coach Joe Mazzulla was pressing all the right buttons on the second night of a back-to-back, giving his team a chance to win a game they almost certainly shouldn’t have.

Down Brown.

Two games in two days.

On the road in a different country.

No problem for the 2025-26 Boston Celtics.

With the overarching storyline of the season being the absence of Jayson Tatum as he continues rehabbing his surgically repaired torn Achilles’ tendon, this team has continued to exceed expectations in an Eastern Conference that feels as wide open as it has been in years - Boston’s retool season being among the primary reasons for that feeling, by the way.

But it appears the retool season is going to shape up to a year where Celtics fans should, indeed, raise their expectations for a potential playoff run come April/May/June. With Tatum tracking towards a return at some point in the next few months, there’s no reason why this group can’t compete for an Eastern Conference Finals appearance, given their current makeup.

And as they sit here today in the No. 3 seed position in the conference, I believe they have a real chance to push towards an even greater playoff position through the holiday season.

Ahead of their win on Friday night against the Heat at TD Garden, I predicted that the Celtics were about to win eight of their next nine games, with the caveat being that the one loss was going to come as a part of this weekend’s back-to-back.

And while I’m still going to stick to that prediction, as the law of averages tells you they’ll slip up at some point (always a chance for too much eggnog), they’ve made the path towards this prediction coming to fruition a whole lot easier.

Here’s their next seven games:

- December 22 vs. Pacers (6-22)
- December 26 @ Pacers
- December 28 @ Portland (12-16)
- December 30 @ Utah (10-17)
- January 1 @ Sacramento (6-22)
- January 3 @ Clippers (7-21)
- January 5 vs. Bulls (12-15)

MORE CELTICS STORIES:

Pritchard Powers Short-Handed Celtics Past Raptors 112-96

Fourth Quarter Explosion Leads To Celtics’ Win 129-116 Over Heat

PREDICTION: Celtics Are About To Win 8 Of Their Next 9If they drop one of those next seven, that would put Boston at 23-12 heading into a home game against the Nuggets (20-7) on January 7. Even if they go 5-2 over that run, that’s 21-13 heading into a game against Jokic.

If I have to predict one loss over this stretch, it will be to the scrappy Trail Blazers on December 28.

Old friend Jrue Holiday likely won’t be back in time for a reunion game in Portland that night. But even still, they have young talent that could be motivated to take a run at one of the best teams in the NBA over the last half-decade.

If picking out a second loss in that stretch, I’ll say the Clippers. Los Angeles is in a bad way right now, but there’s always a chance for the LA distractions that inevitably pop up to get in the way of stacking another win during this soft part of the calendar.

Happy holidays, Celtics fans! Santa has come early, and he’s brought along a fun stretch of winning for all to enjoy.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION:

Remember to join our CELTICS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Celtics fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.