You know a Boston Celtics team is exceptional when it achieves a feat none of its championship-winning predecessors accomplished.
Joe Mazzulla’s men pulled off the franchise’s first-ever 6-0 road trip on Monday with a 117-103 win in Memphis. With their eighth straight road victory, the Celtics are now 32-7 on the road, just two wins away from tying the Warriors’ NBA-best record of 34-7.
The Warriors set that benchmark en route to their record-breaking 73-9 season in 2015-16. While the Celtics won’t reach 73 overall wins, they can tie those Warriors as the best road team in regular-season history. To do so, they must beat the Knicks and Magic on April 9 and April 10, respectively, in their final two road games of the season.
Most dominant road team ever?
Even if Boston fails to match Golden State’s record, it will end the season as arguably the most dominant road team ever. The C’s have registered a whopping 23 double-digit wins on the road, just one away from tying the 71-72 Lakers for most such victories.
Jayson Tatum and Co. have outscored away teams by 404 points, just 26 shy of the mark set by the 1971-72 Lakers. Essentially, they need to defeat the Knicks and Magic by a combined 27 points to end the season as the most dominant road team ever.
The Celtics (56-19) are also set to become one of the few teams ever to finish with a better away (32-7) than home record (24-12). So, what is it that makes them so elite on the road?
“I would venture to say that our guys are good everywhere,” Mazzulla told reporters, via Associated Press. “It’s more about just playing consistent basketball. But I think each year you develop different kind of strengths, especially with the same team. And this year it just happened to be kind of our road mentality.”
The Celtics return home after a lengthy road trip to host the Heat on Wednesday. They are trying to become the first Celtics team since 2007-08 and 2008-09 to win 60+ games in back-to-back seasons.
