The Boston Celtics are reaping rewards of going hard in the paint against the little guys.
The C’s climbed both ESPN’s and NBA.com’s latest NBA power rankings, having beaten the Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls — teams that have a combined 36-77 record — last week. Boston now has the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and third-best in the NBA, making it easy to understand why they hold lofty positions in the latest installments of the weekly power rankings.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks boosted the Celtics’ ranking from No. 5 to No. 3 based on their prowess at beating bad teams.
“The three-point win at home to Atlanta might have been a little too close, but the Celtics are winning games they should,” Marks wrote Monday. “The 3-0 week (two without Kemba Walker) now has Boston winners of eight out of nine games, and 6-1 against teams below .500 during that stretch. With a week of games that includes matchups against sub-.500 teams Washington, San Antonio and New Orleans (they also play at Philadelphia), the Celtics can gain ground on Milwaukee and separate from teams like Miami, Toronto, Philadelphia and Indiana in the East.”
After improving the Celtics’ ranking from No. 3 to No. 2, NBA.com’s John Schuhmann highlighted how they’ve benefited from relying less on 3-pointers this season as they did in 2018-19.
“Over their last two games, the Celtics have been outscored, 87-42, from 3-point range,” Schuhmann wrote Monday. “But these are not last season’s Celtics, who ranked 27th in the percentage of their shots that came in the paint (43 percent) and 30th in free throw rate (21.5 attempts per 100 shots from the field). These Celtics rank 12th in the percentage of their shots that have come in the paint (50 percent) and outscored the Hawks and Bulls, 122-72, in the paint on Friday and Saturday to improve to 18-2 against the 17 teams that are currently under .500.
“With Enes Kanter making an impact (he led the team with 26 in the paint over the weekend), with Gordon Hayward seeing an increase in his paint shots with better health, and with Jaylen Brown ranking 16th in paint field goal percentage (61 percent) among 67 players with at least 200 attempts there, the Celtics rank third in point differential in the paint (+6.6 per game) and 14th in point differential at the free throw line (+0.9) after ranking 17th (-1.1) and 25th (-1.8) last season. Three of their four opponents this week (all except the Sixers) rank in the bottom five in the former.”
The Celtics lost 99-94 to the Washington Wizards on Monday night, ending their string of wins over struggling teams. Boston will take on the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday and New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday before ESPN and NBA.com revise their NBA power rankings. Surpassing the Milwaukee Bucks and/or Los Angeles Lakers will be difficult for Boston, but consistency is the key to moving to the summit of the NBA power rankings.
