It’s Jan. 6, 2026. If you go to NBA.com and open the standings, you’ll have the pleasure of seeing the Boston Celtics sitting second in the Eastern Conference, trailing only the Detroit Pistons for the East’s best record.
Boston overtook the New York Knicks on Monday night. The Celtics stomped the Chicago Bulls, while the Knicks were on the receiving end of the stomping in Detroit against the Pistons.
It was a real shame.
https://t.co/GF7P6X0iPS pic.twitter.com/iruwkrjuOO
— Sam LaFrance (@SamLaFranceNBA) January 6, 2026
If you told Celtics fans back in October that they’d see their team rip off a 23-9 run, after starting 0-3, they’d tell you you were crazy. Alas, that’s the reality. Boston’s consistent improvement now has them looking like a legitimate contender to win the East (maybe the league, with how the Oklahoma City Thunder have played lately).
Jaylen Brown has evolved his game, Payton Pritchard and Derrick White have shot at a more consistent rate, and the bench is really becoming an asset for this team.
This is not the “gap year” team that was advertised heading into the season. The only gap here is the difference in point differential between Boston and the rest of the conference. They’re almost a full point better than the first-place Pistons, and the gap only becomes greater as you go down the standings.
Not to mention that the Celtics are ranked third in net rating, trailing only the Thunder and the Houston Rockets -- two of the loaded Western Conference’s best squads. Earlier this season, you’d have to narrow the sample size of games to get a result where Boston was ranked so highly.
That has a lot to do with some of the growing pains the team experienced in the first few weeks of the year.
The Celtics have developed into a wagon, and aren't done growing yet
If you do that now, the results still look better. Over the past nine games, Boston has been the best team in the NBA by far. They hold the league’s best record at 8-1, the best net rating at 13.9, and are a top-10 defense -- the one category that they (somewhat) lack in across the whole season.
The desire to improve is what drives this group. Even after hearing the news that his team had moved into second place, Pritchard still wasn’t satisfied. He quickly dismissed the notion that they’d be happy with that and emphasized that first place remains their goal.
“I take a lot of pride in being first in the East, and we still need some work to get to that point. So that’s the main goal.”
While the Celtics continue to climb towards that goal, the fans can take a moment to laugh at the Knicks, who have gone all-in on this season and still find themselves below Boston nearly halfway through. These past few weeks have been rather unkind to them, with New York winning just four of their last 10 games.
Losers will lose.