The Boston Celtics may be the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference standings, but they just dropped four spots in Bleacher Report’s latest power rankings.
Though many may have considered the start to the 2020-21 season a bit disappointing for the Boston Celtics, they have managed to kick things up a notch since their pedestrian 3-3 start.
Since then, the shamrocks have won five of their last six, bestowing them with an 8-4 record which, in turn, is good enough for the top seed out in the Eastern Conference standings.
Every week, Bleacher Report comes out with power rankings, listing every NBA team from worst to first and, in their last publication, placed the Cs second in the entire league behind only the defending champions, Los Angeles Lakers.
Unfortunately, however, after a brutal loss to the New York Knicks to close out the week, this time around we see Boston bumped down a few slots, as they now place sixth, directly behind the Philadelphia 76ers and in front of the Utah Jazz.
Citing lack of games played coupled with inconsistent play in said limited games, writer Mo Dakhil’s reasonings read as follows:
"The Celtics started the week with two games postponed due to COVID-19 protocols. They were able to get two games in at the end of the week as they had enough players return.There was no rust in the Celtics’ first game as they blew out the Magic. The return of Kemba Walker did not last long, as he left the game with an injury in the second half of their blowout loss to the Knicks.With Jayson Tatum still out with COVID, Jaylen Brown has been Boston’s rock, averaging 25.8 points. His game has taken a leap in scoring, and the Celtics will need every bit of that until Tatum and Walker returns."
With it being just a little under a month into regular-season action coupled with the return of Kemba Walker, I wouldn’t expect the Boston Celtics to place outside of the top-5 too often moving forward.
Their journey to embark on raising their status for next week’s release begins tomorrow, as they matchup in a road tilt against this week’s fifth-ranked team in the 76ers.