The talent of the Boston Celtics was on full display on Friday. Facing off against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Celtics duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown would torch the Cavs’ defense to the tune of a combined 64 points. For the Cavs, Kevin Love’s 30 points weren’t enough for the team to avoid a 129-117 loss.
This season, Boston and Cleveland are on completely different sides of the spectrum. On one hand, the Celtics are 22-7 on the season and squarely among the best teams in the league. On the other, the Cavs are 9-22 and in 13th place in the Eastern Conference.
The success, talent and chemistry Boston possesses led Cavs first-year head coach John Beilein to let his feelings be known.
“Every time I watch Boston I’m very envious of what they have out there and remind myself that they were much like us five years ago. They just have four guys out there that are explosive and can score at any time,” Beilein said, per Jay King of The Athletic.
To Beilein’s credit, the Celtics were very much a work in progress in Brad Stevens’ first year as head coach of the team. The 2013 Celtics only won 25 games the entire season. The rebuild in Boston didn’t last very long, as the Cs would return to the playoffs the very next year and haven’t been left out of the postseason since.
The Cavs are just 28-84 since LeBron James left in 2018, but with building blocks such as Collin Sexton and Darius Garland, there’s a chance that John Beilein won’t have to be envious much longer.