Rookie Coach Ime Udoka pushing all the right buttons for Celtics

Boston Coach Ime Udoka has guided the Celtics to 17 wins in their last 22 games, including six straight wins on the road. Chris Szagola/Associated Press

No team in the NBA is playing better than the Boston Celtics in the month of February. There has been plenty of credit to dish out for a team that has won 10 of 11 and 17 out of 22 overall after crushing the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday night 129-106. Boston ranks seventh in offense, first in defense and first in net rating since the start of the new year, cementing themselves as a potential factor in the Eastern Conference with their turnaround.

However, there has been one key factor overlooked as Boston has played its been basketball in over two years during the past six weeks: The steady influence and transformation of Ime Udoka.

The rookie head coach had a rough go for it at times during the first three months of the regular season, just like much of his roster as Boston dropped three games under .500 early in January following an overtime loss to the Knicks on Jan. 6. It’s no coincidence though that Boston has put together its best stretch of basketball since November 2019 while Udoka has been pushing the right buttons from the sidelines. Let’s take a closer look at some of those tactics and adjustments over the first two months of 2022 that have paved the way for Boston’s success amid a six-game road winning streak in which Boston has beaten opponents by an average of 26.3 points per game.

The right lineup combinations: It may have taken Udoka a bit too long to bury the Dennis Schroder/Marcus Smart lineups in crunch time to start the year. Since then? He’s done a masterful job of leaning into what’s working during real time. He’s leaned heavily on Smart and Robert Williams while they’ve been playing the best basketball of their careers and transitioned Josh Richardson into the closing five, a grouping that worked well before Richardson was dealt away for a better fit in Derrick White. Sticking with playing three total bigs in the rotation over the past 21 games has been essential as well during the team’s turnaround as Udoka has stuck with the best personnel for his defensive scheme.

However, the most encouraging thing we’ve seen from Udoka on this front has perhaps been his handling of White. Some coaches may have been hesitant throwing a new guy into such a big role just days after their arrival. However, Udoka dove head first into playing his newest name big minutes and during crunch time in key spots. That type of gut instinct has helped rally Boston to comeback wins over the Nuggets and Hawks during the team’s recent hot run.

Defensive tweaks: Boston’s coaching staff has been adjusting the switching scheme from the very start of the season but Udoka’s decision to move center Williams into a wing defender has turned the team’s defense from very good to great over the past six weeks. Williams has thrived as a free safety, helping off unproven shooters with rim protection from the weak side. His 1-on-1 defense has improved enough where quicker players don’t have a clear mismatch against him with Boston’s switching scheme.

The Celtics starting five is allowing just 88.8 points per 100 possessions, the best mark in the league among starting five-man units. Whether Williams is alongside Al Horford or anchoring the paint as a big with Boston’s bench unit, he’s made Boston tougher to score on than any team in the league. Udoka and his staff deserve immense credit for finding that tweak and running with it.

Player buy-in: Look no further than the Celtics’ win over the Nets on Thursday night on this front. A team that had become infamous for letdowns the past two seasons put that concern to bed out of the All-Star break with its second straight blowout win over a shorthanded Brooklyn squad. Veteran Horford pointed to the coach’s impact on the team locked in for the matchup.

“Just real impressed with our group and like Coach said, the focus,” Horford said. “That’s one of the things he talked about and he emphasized for us and I think it all started with that practice yesterday. I felt like we had a really good practice and we were all really engaged, committed in what we needed to do.”

Udoka has held his players accountable all season long and while the results were not there early, the buy-in for his coaching never seemed to be wavering. Now, thanks to some roster and strategy tweaks, the team has fully adapted to Udoka’s system and is clearly responding to his urgency on a nightly basis to dig out of an early season hole marred by late-game collapses. Five straight wire-to-wire road wins is a tremendous feat no matter who the opponents might be.