For a while, when the Boston Celtics managed to start winning games after a rough start to the 2021-22 season, fans and analysts alike were still skeptical after watching the Celtics squander some of the most impressive leads in recent history not that long before.
Add in that much of their schedule for the bulk of their current, league-longest nine-game winning streak was being played against weaker teams than the Celtics faced early in their schedule, plenty of folks chalked it up to the strength of schedule to explain the team’s second-half resurgence. But Boston kept winning, and after utterly destroying one of the teams widely regarded as among the NBA’s better contenders in the Philadelphia 76ers 135 – 87, it’s getting harder to make up excuses to dismiss Boston’s elite point differential and play.
Is it safe to call this team a contender yet, given what we have seen so far?
