You may think I’m just going for page-views with that sensationalist title. Yellow journalism, you might say.
Not so, friends.
The statistics have spoken and they claim that the Celtics are among the best, if not the best team in the East.
The Cs have a Pythagorean win differential of +2.2, among the top five win differentials in the league. There’s also this stat:
Boston has played just four games all season decided by six points or fewer, tied for the league’s third-fewest total. Almost every Celtics game has been decided before the closing minutes, leaving little room for the luck of the Irish. (Boston hasn’t had much anyway, going 1-3 in close games.)
For the most part, those lopsided scores have favored the Celtics. Boston’s nine wins by 15-plus points rank second in the NBA, trailing only the undefeatedGolden State Warriors.
In case you’re skeptical about the meaning of early blowout wins, eight teams have won precisely nine of their first 21 games by at least 15 points. (The high in that span is 11, by the 1996-97 Bulls.) Those teams have finished with a winning percentage equivalent to 58 wins, and five of the eight won the championship.
A little over a quarter into the season, ESPN’s Basketball Power Index pegs the Celtics for 50 wins, one behind Toronto and Cleveland for best in the conference.
This is all exciting stuff and in many ways more than validates some of the dominating efforts put forth by the Cs this season. Still, the season will play out and it won’t do so according strictly to statistics. Those statistics also don’t account for injuries (Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert will soon be back to bolster the Cavs), mid-season acquisitions and just the qualitative ebb-and-flow of the NBA season.
Just remember, though, according to ESPN’s BPI, the same geniuses that brought you QBR, Friday’s game against Golden State is your Finals Preview!
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