More than halfway through the 2025-26 season, your Boston Celtics have the fifth-best record in the NBA and sit second in the Eastern Conference at 27-16. They’ve outperformed just about everyone’s preseason expectations for them aside from their own.
Yet, there’s still plenty of opportunity to collect more wins. It sounds obvious. Like, yes, there are still 39 games left, of course, they can keep winning. Their next stretch of games, in particular, should enable Boston to pile up the victories.
Going back to Monday’s win over the Indiana Pacers, the Celtics play seven of their next eight matchups against teams at .500 or below. The lone exception is the Jan. 26 meeting with the Portland Trail Blazers, who are currently 23-22.
Brooklyn, Chicago, Portland, Atlanta, Sacramento, Milwaukee, and Dallas, come on down!
This soft stretch of the schedule presents an important opportunity for the Celtics
More than anything, this is a tremendous opportunity for the Cs to separate themselves from the middle of the Eastern Conference. As of Friday, they sit just four games above the seventh-seeded Orlando Magic, which is a smaller gap than the one between them and the first-place Detroit Pistons.
Taking advantage of this soft stretch of the schedule would be ideal. For those who believe in Phil Jackson’s (and also Barstool’s Dan Greenberg’s) 40-20 rule, which suggests any true contender in the NBA hits 40 wins before losing 20 games, a strong run could essentially cement the Celtics as that.
Sure, there’s some “the Celtics have been dominant for the last few seasons” spoiling mixed into this sentiment, too.
It’s the NBA. Anything can happen. Boston has already lost to the Trail Blazers, Brooklyn Nets, and Milwaukee Bucks, who they’ll see during this upcoming stint of the schedule. Nothing is guaranteed, but heading into their Feb. 4 matchup with the Houston Rockets, the Cs could be riding an eight-game winning streak.
If there’s one defining characteristic of this season’s Celtics team, it’s that they’re going to take care of business against weaker teams. Only four of their 16 losses to this point have come against teams that are below .500.
It sounds simple. Shouldn’t you always beat the bad teams?
Yes, but again, these are still pros. The mostly consistent execution in said situations says a lot about the poise of this group. In years past, Celtics fans would grow frustrated when their team would play down to the competition.
That doesn’t happen anymore. Instead, it’s just been business as usual.