The Boston Celtics have bounced back toward the NBA summit.
The C’s climbed in NBA.com’s and ESPN’s latest NBA power rankings Monday, following a week in which they won the three games they played. Boston beat the Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets without star forward Gordon Hayward and defensive linchpin Marcus Smart, who missed the contests due to foot soreness and an eye infection, respectively. Nevertheless, their teammates restored Boston’s momentum, drawing positive reactions from the NBA’s website and the Worldwide Leader.
NBA.com’s John Schuhmann improved the Celtics’ ranking to No. 3, up two places from last week’s position. He largely credits Jayson Tatum’s and Jaylen Brown’s hot shooting hands for the success the Celtics’ enjoyed over the last week.
“Jayson Tatum is breaking out,” Schuhmann wrote. “With a career-high 39 against Charlotte on Sunday, he’s averaged 29.7 points on 51 percent shooting (including 9-for-12 from mid-range) over the last three games, the first time in his career that’s he’s scored 20 or more in three straight regular-season games. (He had 20-plus in seven straight games in the 2018 playoffs.) Only 10 of Tatum’s 35 buckets over the three games have been assisted, but he’s not leaving his teammates behind. Jaylen Brown has also averaged 22.7 on 53 percent shooting over the Celtics’ three-game winning streak and the Charlotte win was their second most efficient game (119 points on just 92 possessions) of the season. Now we’ll see if Tatum and Brown can keep it going with Gordon Hayward likely to make his return when they visit the Raptors on Christmas. Of the five Christmas games, Celtics-Raps is the only matchup between two teams with fewer than 10 losses.”
The Celtics inched from sixth place to No. 5 this week in ESPN’s NBA power rankings, and Bobby Marks highlights the contributions of their stars and supporting cast alike in explaining why they currently are on a roll.
“The Celtics continued the next-man-up approach in wins over Dallas and Detroit last week. With Gordon Hayward sidelined once again, this time because of a left foot injury, Boston got a combined 82 points from Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in a road win at Dallas. When Walker struggled, going 0-for-6 two nights later at home against Detroit, rookie Grant Williams chipped in with 18 points. The win over the Pistons also saw fan-favorite Tacko Fall score a career-high five points in his home debut.”
The Celtics will visit the Toronto Raptors in a Christmas Day matinee before hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday and Raptors on Saturday at TD Garden. Three wins probably won’t push the Celtics into the top-two spots, on which the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers have a stranglehold, but Boston might be able to climb as high as third in next week’s NBA.com and ESPN’s power rankings.
