After beating the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, the Boston Celtics reminded everyone how good they really are, especially now that they have Jayson Tatum back.
The Celtics have been getting a ton of praise from the NBA world on Thursday, and rightfully so. They rose to the occasion against the defending champs, ending their 12-game winning streak and handing them their first loss by double digits since before the All-Star Break.
Former NBA champion and Celtics legend Kendrick Perkins has been praising his old team a lot lately, repeatedly picking them to win the Eastern Conference and NBA Finals.
Following their big win on Wednesday, he showed his support for them again with some colorful analysis on "Road Trippin.'"
"It’s no other team in the East has the experience of those guys, they check all the damn boxes," Perkins said. "When it comes to if you need a guy to take over in a seven-game series, Jaylen Brown is here to say I belong in the conversation with the f***ing best of them. Jayson Tatum, even if he is not 100 percent healthy, 19, 12, 7 is pretty damn good eye candy to me."
Perkins is right that no team in the East is more battle-tested than the Celtics, as Tatum and Brown have been to five Eastern Conference Finals together and won a title together. The Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks can't compete with that.
Meanwhile, Brown has leveled up into an MVP candidate and can go toe-to-toe with the best players in the game, as he proved by matching Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Wednesday.
And while Tatum's not fully himself yet, he's still playing pretty well and better than most players in the league, as Perkins alluded to.
Put it all together, and Boston is the best team in the East right now. The Celtics are favored to win the conference for a reason, and if they do, they'll prove Perkins right.
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