Celtics jump two spots to 3rd in ESPN’s power rankings

The Boston Celtics are getting some love from analysts as they solidify their position as the league’s third-best team in recent weeks.

The Boston Celtics currently find themselves elevated to the third overall spot of ESPN’s power rankings.

Compiled over the course of the 2019-20 NBA season by a panel of five analysts in order to, as they describe it, take “stock of which teams are playing the best basketball now and which teams are looking most like title contenders”, Boston has jumped up to the third slot from fifth the week before.

In the twelfth week of the season, the Celtics are only behind the 32-5 Milwaukee Bucks and 29-7 Los Angeles Lakers, the only two teams in the league with better records, and just ahead of the 26-12 Los Angeles Clippers.

Said ESPN’s Bobby Marks of the No. 3 ranking,

“The three-point win at home to Atlanta might have been a little too close, but the Celtics are winning games they should. 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.”

Boston has indeed been taking care of business, but they will need to tighten up if they don’t want to rack up some losses against eminently beatable opponents, a point Marks makes from the glass-half-full perspective.

“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.”

With those teams currently 0.5, 2.5, 4 and 4.5 games back from the Celtics respectively, it will be crucial for Boston to make the most of this busy but generally weak segment of the schedule to maximize its postseason seeding.

While April may still be many months away, January to February represents the best remaining stretch to boost the Celtics’ resume ahead of the trade deadline.

The weeks and months after the Feb. 6 limit on in-season deals sees the schedule stepping up considerably in terms of the difficulty of opponents.

For now, the Celtics have been doing well enough if not excellent against teams they should beat handily, a trend that will be put to the test by Monday night’s matchup with the 11-24 Washington Wizards.

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