WALTHAM, Mass. – The Boston Celtics were without their typical defensive swagger during the first seven games of the 2016-17 season. They had posted a league-worst 112.3 defensive rating through Nov. 10, which was far above last season’s mark of 100.9 that ranked fourth in the NBA.

Recent indications, however, are showing that the C’s defensive swag appears to be returning. During the last three games, Boston has completely turned the tables on its rough start and has posted a league-best defensive rating of 94.0.

The Celtics are coming off a difficult one-point loss to New Orleans Monday night, but coach Brad Stevens has been mostly impressed with what he’s seen on the defensive end during his team’s 2-1 stretch.

“I’ve tried to really look at everything objectively, especially while we’re shorthanded,” Stevens said after Tuesday’s practice, “and in the last three games we’ve really defended, including last night (in New Orleans).”

The Celtics have bounced back nicely from their three-game losing spell in early November, during which they allowed 123.0 points per game. Their PPG allowed average has dropped by 25.7 points during the three contests since that losing streak.

“We’re making guys uncomfortable,” Isaiah Thomas said of Boston’s defensive improvements. “We’re doing what we do, and that’s being aggressive and being a defensive team.

“We’re just trying to all come together on that end and trust each other. I think that was the main focus this past week and a half.”

Thomas said the C's were having difficulty trusting each other early on, and a lot of that had to do with the disruption of Boston's rotation due to injuries to core players.

“We don’t have Jae (Crowder) and Al (Horford). That’s a big part,” said Thomas.

“But at the same time,” he added, “I think every year is something new. You’ve got to get back to knowing what you do great, and we did a really good job last year at trusting each other on the defensive end and not leaving anybody on an island.

“I think this year, without the communication, that’s half the battle. We’re not communicating at a high level on that end and that’s what’s making us make big mistakes on that end, so we’re getting better each and every day and hopefully we can fix that.”

Gaining trust has allowed Boston to work more coherently as a unit, which has enabled it to force a lot more turnovers during the last few games. Through the first seven contests, Boston was tied for 23rd in the league in forced turnovers with just 13.4 per game. During the last three games, they have forced an NBA-best 18.7 turnovers per game.

The Celtics have also held opponents to the second-lowest field goal percentage in the league during that span (39.2 percent), along with the lowest 3-point percentage (25.4 percent).

One area that Stevens is still looking to improve, however, is Boston’s effectiveness on the glass; the Celtics rank second-to-last in the league in rebounding percentage with a 46.9 percent clip.

Stevens says the lack of rebounding “has been a consistent theme throughout 10 games, and it’s been a consistent concern of ours all the way through.”

Hopefully Boston’s rebounding can spike a bit when Crowder and Horford return, as they combined to average 13.6 boards per game last season.

Other than the Celtics’ rebounding struggles, however, things seem to be trending in a great direction for the team defensively. And that should only improve further when Crowder and Horford find their way back to the court.