by AAA Sports
Tuesday, Oct 22, 2024As actor George Peppard used to say at the end of A-Team episodes, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
So it was last year for the Boston Celtics, who seemingly could do no wrong on the way to their record 18th championship. Two starters – Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday – fell in their laps in the off-season, the maligned bench was actually pretty good, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown figured out a way to make themselves indefensible, and their quirky coach was somehow able to keep it all together.
They laughed at teams that rested in the regular season, slammed the accelerator every night, and won 68 games – 14 more than anyone else in the East. After winning 83 percent of their games between October and mid-April, they did even better in the playoffs, losing only three of 19 games (84 percent). If you put all of their playoff losses into one series, they still would have won the title.
With the new season about to start, the question now becomes: Can the Celtics become the first team since the 2018 and 2019 Golden State Warriors to win two titles in a row? Every book in existence seems to think so. Boston is anywhere from +290 to +325 to go back-to-back this year. They’ll try to do it with a deep roster that includes three Olympians (Tatum, Holiday, and Derrick White), and the Finals MVP (Brown). Even the absence of injured Porzingis for at least a few months doesn’t seem to be all that concerning.
If not Boston, then who else in the East?
New York (around +700 to win title) surprised everyone by snagging Karl-Anthony Towns at the expense of Julius Randle, but they don’t have anywhere near the depth of the Celtics and may get worn down over the 82-game grind.
Philadelphia (around +1000 to win title) created a ton of buzz by getting Paul George to switch coasts, but George is already banged up and no one knows if he’ll be ready to go come the spring. Add in the fact that Joel Embiid has flat-out stated that he will never play in back-to-back for the rest of his career, and also that Philly can never seem to beat Boston.
So it was last year for the Boston Celtics, who seemingly could do no wrong on the way to their record 18th championship. Two starters – Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday – fell in their laps in the off-season, the maligned bench was actually pretty good, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown figured out a way to make themselves indefensible, and their quirky coach was somehow able to keep it all together.
They laughed at teams that rested in the regular season, slammed the accelerator every night, and won 68 games – 14 more than anyone else in the East. After winning 83 percent of their games between October and mid-April, they did even better in the playoffs, losing only three of 19 games (84 percent). If you put all of their playoff losses into one series, they still would have won the title.
With the new season about to start, the question now becomes: Can the Celtics become the first team since the 2018 and 2019 Golden State Warriors to win two titles in a row? Every book in existence seems to think so. Boston is anywhere from +290 to +325 to go back-to-back this year. They’ll try to do it with a deep roster that includes three Olympians (Tatum, Holiday, and Derrick White), and the Finals MVP (Brown). Even the absence of injured Porzingis for at least a few months doesn’t seem to be all that concerning.
If not Boston, then who else in the East?
New York (around +700 to win title) surprised everyone by snagging Karl-Anthony Towns at the expense of Julius Randle, but they don’t have anywhere near the depth of the Celtics and may get worn down over the 82-game grind.
Philadelphia (around +1000 to win title) created a ton of buzz by getting Paul George to switch coasts, but George is already banged up and no one knows if he’ll be ready to go come the spring. Add in the fact that Joel Embiid has flat-out stated that he will never play in back-to-back for the rest of his career, and also that Philly can never seem to beat Boston.
Then there’s Milwaukee (around +1400 to win title), a veteran team that had coaching and player assimilation issues early on in 2023-24 and never could quite figure out how Damien Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo should play together.
Miami, Cleveland, and Indiana all hope to catch lightning in a bottle, but don’t appear to be much of a threat to make it through four playoff series.
Books have Boston winning in the 58/59 range this season, a full 10-game drop-off from last season. They must figure that they might not get off to a fast start with Porzingis sidelined, and maybe that everything can’t possibly go as smoothly as it did a year ago. Perhaps the 3s won’t drop quite as often as they did 12 months ago. And when playoffs come around, there is little chance that they will face four teams as weak as they faced last spring – injury-riddled Miami and Cleveland, not-ready-for-prime time Indiana, and good-but-not-great Dallas.
OTOH, Brown, and Tatum should have plenty of motivation after getting snubbed by the Olympics bosses. Xavier Tillman, a mid-season pickup, is a beast who should be adequate at center until Porzingis returns. The bench (Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and veteran Al Horford) can’t wait to rain more back-breaking 3s. Outside of Porzingis, they enter the season healthy.
Confidence is overflowing in Boston as the Celtics try to become the first Celtics team to go back-to-back since Bill Russell player-coached them to championships in 1968 and 1969. After last season, everyone believes that they will do it again and reprise the Warriors of a half-decade ago. Can they do it? Sure. Will they do it? There don’t seem to be too many roadblocks to prevent it.
