While it might seem evocative of seasons past and their shortcomings for the Boston Celtics when they drop a game to a lesser opponent, the losses are far fewer than they have been in a very long time. And as a result, most of the teams in the NBA right now could, at least on paper, be classified as “lesser” ball clubs.
With a solid grip on the top of the Eastern Conference standings, the Celtics are rightfully held in high regard by league analysts so far this season, with Boston having been recently assessed as the top team in the Association for 2023-24 to date by Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey.
“The Boston Celtics lost a potential NBA Finals preview on Tuesday in Oklahoma City, but it was just their seventh loss of the season, and all of those games were on the road,” writes Bailey.
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“The contender indicators are still generally off the charts for this squad,” adds the B/R analyst.
“They’re undefeated at home. They’ve faced the fifth-hardest schedule in the East to date. And they have, by far, the best net rating in the NBA against teams with a top-10 point differential. Perhaps most encouraging (because everyone sort of assumed the starters and Al Horford would be good), seventh and eighth men Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard have even been solid this season.”
“The former is averaging 8.5 points and 2.4 3s in 22.3 minutes while shooting 42.2% from deep,” he notes. “The latter is at 7.4 points, 3.1 assists and 1.6 3s in 20.6 minutes.”
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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) January 7, 2024
“The common talking point on this team has been ‘Boston probably has the best top six in the league,’ but it might be time to change it to ‘Boston might have the best eight-man rotation in the league,'” writes Bailey.
And given what Boston has done so far this season, who are we to suggest that any other ball club ought to be ranked higher?
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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) January 6, 2024
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