Coaches around NBA praise Boston Celtics' defensive fortitude

The Boston Celtics have the NBA’s longest winning streak at 16 games and counting. Aside from the MVP-level play of standout guard Kyrie Irving, the Celtics can credit their fast start to 2017-18 to a defense that is No. 1 overall in Defensive Rating (95.8), second in rebounding percentage (53.2) and is in the top 10 in steals per game and opponent fast break points allowed.

Those numbers and the on-court product prove Coach Brad Stevens has engineered a top-notch defense for the NBA’s best team to date. His efforts haven’t gone unnoticed by his fellow coaching brethern, writes Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald:

What amazes Nets coach Kenny Atkinson is that the Celtics are already so well-connected in the defensive end, despite parting ways with two of their best defenders of the last three years (Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder) and returning only four players from last year’s Eastern Conference finalist.

“I think continuity is so important in this league, knowing your teammate and knowing what they’re going to do,” said the Brooklyn coach, whose team was notch No. 13 in the Celtics’ win streak.

“So that’s impressive,” he said. “I will say Al Horford to me has always been a very underrated defender. And he’s a quarterback out there. I’ve seen it up close how he leads a defense, how he talks on defense. He’s intelligent. He’s athletic. He can play multiple positions. It’s nice when you have a key veteran out there — he’s not Kevin Garnett, but he’s pretty impressive the way he leads.”

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“Defensively they’ve made a focus,” said Raptors coach Dwane Casey, whose team fell to the C’s in Game 12 of the streak. “They’re much better than they were last year defensively. They’ve made a commitment to the defensive end with length, with youth. But they’re just doing a heck of a job defensively. And I think that’s been the difference.”

Steve Clifford’s Charlotte team fell to the Celtics in win No. 11, when the Hornets became the 10th opponent in the previous 11 games held under 100 points by the C’s.

“They have built a team around what wins defensively in this league,” said Clifford. “They have size and versatility so they have a bunch of guys that can switch so they stay totally out of rotations as much as any team other than Golden State that I’ve seen. It makes everything simpler, and look at their size they have on the floor. And then when you play centers like Horford who can do the same thing. (Stevens has) done a great job coaching and they’ve done a great job putting this roster together.”

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