Monday’s matchup against the Chicago Bulls marks the first home game of the new year for the Boston Celtics, who just completed a five-game road trip. The Cs took care of business on their West Coast tour, for the most part, winning all but one of their matchups.
The longest road trip of the season fell right in line with Boston’s recent stretch of play -- excellent.
After Saturday’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers, they’re just a half-game behind the New York Knicks for second place in the Eastern Conference. Needless to say, they’ve got a massive opportunity in front of them at TD Garden against a mediocre Bulls team.
It’s the perfect chance for the Celtics to exorcise some of last season’s demons. Not only could they overtake the Knicks, who eliminated them from the playoffs last spring, but they would break a cycle that had plagued them in the 2024-25 campaign.
The Celtics were awful in return games last season
Whenever the Cs returned home from a successful road trip, you could’ve bet your house on them losing to whichever middling team they had waiting for them at North Station. Like, actually, though.
They played three or more consecutive games on the road six times last season. Literally every time they’d come back home, it would result in a loss.
The Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat, and Oklahoma City Thunder all came out on top against the Celtics in a homecoming game (the Thunder and Rockets were not middling teams, but the point still stands).
Yikes.
On a more positive note, the Cs have already returned from two road trips of three or more games this season. They’ve reintroduced themselves to the Garden faithful with wins in both return games thus far, first beating the Cleveland Cavaliers on Oct. 29, then stomping the Memphis Grizzlies a few weeks later on Nov. 12.
Getting a victory over Chicago would help them continue the momentum they’ve built over the last eight games, after their back-to-back losses in mid-December.
To their credit, the Bulls have been playing above their 17-18 record as of late. They’ve won seven of their last 10 games, tying the Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs, and the Celtics for the best record in the NBA during that span.
However, the Bulls have the worst net rating of that bunch by a lot, logging just a 0.4 during their hot stretch of hoops.