Celtics Tumble Down NBA Power Rankings After Mid-January Funk

The Boston Celtics have paid a price for failing to build on a promising start to last week.

The C’s fell in both NBA.com’s and ESPN.com’s latest NBA power rankings following a week in which they beat the Chicago Bulls but suffered consecutive losses to the Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns. The Celtics went 2-6 during the last two power-ranking periods (which run from Monday through Sunday), and their positions in the latest NBA pecking orders reflect their ongoing January swoon.

John Schuhmann cites poor starts, injuries and inconsistent defense as the three main reasons why the Celtics have fallen from fourth to seventh place in NBA.com’s latest power rankings.

“The Celtics’ second three-game losing streak of 2020 has taken them from second to fourth place in the Eastern Conference,” Schuhmann wrote Monday. “Kemba Walker shot 7-for-19 against Detroit, Gordon Hayward was 1-for-10 in Milwaukee, and the Boston bench was 6-for-23 against Phoenix on Saturday. Walker, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have missed games.

“But no matter who has been playing, bad starts have been an issue. Only the Wizards and Warriors have been worse in the first six minutes of games and over the last three, the Celtics have been outscored, 51-26, in the first six minutes of the first quarter.

“It’s also been the worst three-game stretch (more than 119 points per 100 possessions) for the league’s fifth-ranked defense. Allowing the Pistons to shoot 60 percent appeared to be the nadir, but then the Celtics put the Bucks and Suns on the line for 67 total free throw attempts. Their first of two meetings with the Lakers’ fourth-ranked offense is the second of three games on TNT on Monday.”

The Celtics’ fall in ESPN’s latest NBA power rankings was more dramatic, as they went from No. 3 to No. 8. Bobby Marks offers contrasting perspectives on how the Celtics’ 2019-20 regular season is unfolding.

“The Celtics are on pace for a 54-win season, which would be a five-game improvement over when they had both Kyrie Irving and Al Horford last season,” Marks wrote Monday. “The glass-half-empty perspective views the Celtics as a team that has lost three straight games and has gone 3-6 in its past nine games. Despite being without a combination of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Kemba Walker in the losses to Detroit, Milwaukee and Phoenix, the three games once again exposed the inconsistencies and lack of shooting off their bench.”

Boston began this power-ranking period with an emphatic, 139-107 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday at TD Garden. Beating the NBA’s No. 2 ranked team certainly will garner attention, but the Celtics can’t allow their standards to slip in subsequent games against the Memphis Grizzlies, Orlando Magic and New Orleans Pelicans if they are to return to the highest echelons of the NBA power rankings.