Up to this point, the 2020-21 campaign has been an underwhelming endeavor for the Boston Celtics, but these past 10 outings have given fans a sense of hope.
Overall, the team is just two games above .500 at 28-26 but, since March 26th, they hold a record of 7-3 with five of said victories coming during their most recent six-game stretch.
Amid the media slander, C’s All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have managed to carry this team of late and, in turn, have managed to keep the team afloat within the tightly contested Eastern Conference standings.
Due to Boston’s excellent play as a whole over the past week, specifically, the folks at Bleacher Report believe it warrants them to jump two spots in their latest NBA Power Rankings.
Boston Celtics jump up two spots in B/R’s latest NBA Power Rankings
On the outside looking in on the top-10, the Boston Celtics find themselves slotted in at 12 in B/R’s most recent rankings.
Though writer Mo Dakhil does discuss some of the struggles in which this unit still finds itself enduring, he believes their perseverance to get past them and, in turn, come away with a 3-1 record on the week is reason enough to see them jump two spots up from their previous rank of 14.
"The Celtics were very sloppy with the ball last week, as they averaged 18.5 turnovers per game. Despite that, Boston went 3-1, moving ever so close to the sixth seed.A big reason the Celtics were able to overcome their sloppiness was that Jayson Tatum went off offensively. He averaged 31.5 points with 48.8/38.9/96.6 shooting splits. This also included Tatum going for a career-high 53 points in Boston’s overtime win over the Wolves.The week ended with a great come-from-behind win in Denver to start Boston’s three-game West Coast swing. The Celtics went on a 31-3 run in the second half to secure their biggest win of the year."
Any form of improvement, no matter how big or small, must be taken as a positive for this disappointing shamrocks squad.
Looking ahead on the schedule, with their upcoming matchups against the seemingly regressing Portland Trail Blazers (April 13th), the Anthony Davis/ LeBron James-less Los Angeles Lakers (April 15th), and the injury-riddled Golden State Warriors (April 17th), it’s quite possible that, this time next week, we could see Boston rise the ranks once more with another potential one-loss week.
However, as fans will attest, we’ve felt this sense of confidence during this campaign before.