The Boston Celtics have had a phenomenal season so far and are sitting on top of the pile in the Eastern Conference with a 48-14 record. With 20 games left to play, attention is already starting to turn to the playoffs, and the question that every Celtics fan is asking right now is: Could 2024 be our year?
Well if you were to pay attention to only the scores and odds you’d have to say yes as the Celtics have looked imperious throughout the season so far and as such find themselves top of the latest betting odds.
As we all know, though, professional sports have a nasty habit of making fools out of us all. So, if you’ve started to dream about a Celtics NBA Championship win, we’d ask you to heed the wise words of Mr. Wolfe in Pulp Fiction.
There is a difference between dreaming and analyzing, though. In this article, we intend to do the latter as we closely examine this season’s Boston Celtics to quantify their Championship credentials.
The Celtics are Different
Nothing is ever guaranteed in professional sports. Sometimes, the best team in the world loses out to a minnow, sometimes a winning streak comes undone in the most peculiar ways, and sometimes, the best teams during the regular season crumble under the pressure of the playoffs.
If the Celtics were having a good season—the usual type of good season that sees a team climb to the top of the conference—there would be many more reasons to believe that they would crumble under the pressure of the playoffs.
These Celtics teams aren’t just having a good season, though; they’re having an astonishing season. At the time of writing, they have a 48-14 record and a more than favorable schedule between now and the end of the season that could see them post their third-best regular season record ever, at a minimum.
The Celtics wiped the floor with the Golden State Warriors recently.
In addition, they have the best point differential in the league and the fifth-best point differential of all time—all four of the teams with a better record went on to win the playoffs.
What’s more, this Celtics team doesn’t just beat rivals; it absolutely slaps them about. When they recently faced Steph Curry’s Golden State, they inflicted the worst defeat in their history—a whopping 140-88 win.
What we’re trying to get at here is that this iteration of the Celtics is different from not only other Celtics teams that have preceded them but also the majority of teams that have played in the NBA. They aren’t simply better than everyone else right now; they are miles better, and in a format like the NBA playoffs, where the cream rises to the top, the Celtics simply cannot fail.
The Celtics are Complete
Joe Mazulla is one of the savviest and most inspirational coaches in the NBA. He’s the man at the helm for the Boston Celtics—the steady hand on the tiller. On the court, the team has Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, two of the very best players in the NBA.
Beyond that, they have the supremely talented and in-form Kristaps Porzingis, averaging just over 20 points a game, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks. That’s without mentioning Jrue Holiday, who inspires his teammates through example, or Derrick White, who plays the best basketball of his career.
Quetly Kristaps Porzingis is becoming a key player for the Celtics.
Pound for pound, the Celtics have the best team in the division, and they have expertise in every area. Their ceiling is higher than any other team in the league, but most importantly, their basement is higher than any other top team, too – even when they play badly, they still compete and have enough about them to beat most teams.
Wrap Up
When you add all of that up, it’s easy to see why the sportsbooks have the Celtics as such heavy favorites to win the Championship. There are two counterarguments to that argument, though. First, we don’t know what shape they will be in when the playoffs start.
Tatum could get injured, and Tatum and Brown could even get injured; we don’t know. Someone else could get injured, and Porzingis could fall into foul form. In short, the wheels could come off in a small or even a big way.
Secondly, that unquantifiable of qualities – experience – could very well count against this Celtics team, or another ‘E’ word – expectation. The Celtics haven’t won the NBA Championship since 2008 and when it comes to the crunch their lack of experience combined with the weight of expectation could hinder them. Whatever happens, we can’t wait to watch it all unfold!
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