Friday, January 21, the Boston Celtics have just fallen to 23-24 following a home loss to a depleted Portland Trail Blazers squad. The sky is falling, and the media is calling for the C’s to split up Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Fast forward to now, and we see the Boston Celtics are one of the favorites to win the 2022 NBA championship.
With this twist of fate, it’s quite possible that the shamrocks have had the greatest in-season turnaround in NBA history.
Since falling under .500 they are 23-4 in their last 27 games with a +15.6 scoring differential. They are finally playing up to their potential, and are blowing past their opponents in the process.
During this span, Boston has the best defensive rating, best mark when contesting field goal attempts, best 3-point defense, and has the third-best net rating in the league.
The Efficiency Landscape has the Celtics as the best net rating in the NBA, best offense, and the second-best defense.
Celtics through 41 games: 20-21 (.486 win pct)
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 24, 2022
Thursday: 46-28 (.622 win pct)
The Celtics are on pace to become the 3rd team in league history to be under .500 exactly halfway through the season and finish with a .600+ win percentage. pic.twitter.com/nzANBTwLtF
The Celtics’ run is no fluke as they have beaten elite competition. During this run, the team is 15-1 against teams that are currently in the playoffs/play-in tournament, with the only loss being by three points to the Dallas Mavericks.
Not only are they beating playoff teams, they are destroying them and, even in the past week, they have beaten the Warriors, Jazz, and Nuggets by a combined 70 points.
This in-season turnaround could be argued as being the best in NBA history because of the circumstances surrounding the team during their worst stretch.
There were people in the media calling for the C’s to split up their foundational pieces in the Jays. That has aged poorly as Tatum and Brown have established themselves as a top-tier duo in the NBA, and they have vaulted the Celtics into contention.
Tatum has taken his game to another level, especially in March as he is averaging 34 points, seven rebounds, and five assists on 54 percent shooting from the floor, 57 percent shooting from deep, and 90 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
Tatum is currently slotted in the top-5 when it comes to the MVP race in many people’s eyes, and he has put the Boston Celtics in a position to get the number one seed in the Eastern Conference.
The fact that they are just one game back of the first seed in the Eastern Conference after their poor start is truly remarkable. They are in a position to win multiple awards with Ime Udoka, Marcus Smart, and Robert Williams having strong cases for Coach of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
Nobody thought that was possible back in December.
FiveThirty-Eight currently gives the Celtics a 48 percent chance to reach the Finals and a 32 percent chance to win the Finals it all, which is the highest of any team.
To me, that alone makes this the greatest in-season turnaround in NBA history because they went from a laughing stock to the favorite to win the NBA championship. The excitement in Boston is high, and if the hometown team can continue to ride their current momentum, the rafters may be adding another banner.