{"id":694366,"date":"2026-04-02T18:18:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694366\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:18:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:18:24","slug":"stephen-a-smith-calls-celtics-team-to-beat-in-east-after-147-point-outburst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694366\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith Calls Celtics ‘Team To Beat’ In East After 147-Point Outburst"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen A. Smith Calls Celtics ‘Team To Beat’ In East After 147-Point Outburst<\/a> originally appeared on NESN<\/a>. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith is buying the Boston Celtics<\/a> as the Eastern Conference’s premier team entering the playoffs.<\/p>\n

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The Celtics put on another offensive clinic<\/a> in Wednesday night’s 147-129 win over the Miami Heat, shooting 58 percent from the floor. Jayson Tatum continued his remarkable recovery from an Achilles tear by registering 25 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists in 37 minutes.<\/p>\n

Their latest victory impressed Smith, who declared on ESPN’s “First Take” that the East runs through Boston<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“At this particular moment in time, I don’t think there’s any question. When we look at the Eastern Conference, when we scour it, especially over the last few weeks, Boston looks like the most formidable team in the Eastern Conference because of Jayson Tatum’s ascension,” Smith said on Thursday morning. “… They are the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. I think everybody knows that.”<\/p>\n

Smith touted Jaylen Brown as a legitimate MVP candidate after the guard went 17-of-29 on Wednesday. The 29-year-old is now averaging a career-high 28.8 points per game this season.<\/p>\n

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“He is playing like an MVP,” Smith said of Brown. “Dropped 43 last night, had 20 in the first quarter. The brother’s special. There ain’t no question about it. And he plays on both ends because he defends as well as scores.”<\/p>\n

Smith noted that the Celtics are 10-2 in games Tatum has played since last month’s return. Despite a career-low 40.2 field-goal percentage, the All-Star is still making a huge impact with 21.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n

The ESPN personality also praised Payton Pritchard’s production off the bench and called Derrick White a “reliable commodity.” While the Celtics boast depth around Brown and Tatum, Smith questioned who will shoulder the scoring workload for the Detroit Pistons if Cade Cunningham can’t return from a collapsed lung.<\/p>\n

“That is not a problem the Boston Celtics have,” Smith said. “And that’s not a problem that you need come playoff time. One guy scoring rarely does it for you.”<\/p>\n

More NBA:\u00a0Jayson Tatum Fastest Celtic Since 2001 To Hit Major Stat Milestone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith Calls Celtics ‘Team To Beat’ In East After 147-Point Outburst originally appeared on NESN. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,75,909,1243,188,1409,78,77,189,6,405,2603],"class_list":{"0":"post-694366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-cade-cunningham","11":"tag-derrick-white","12":"tag-detroit-pistons","13":"tag-eastern-conference","14":"tag-jaylen-brown","15":"tag-jayson-tatum","16":"tag-miami-heat","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-payton-pritchard","19":"tag-stephen-a-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116336492998561174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}