The Boston Celtics have won nine games in a row, with one more game before the All-Star break against the Detroit Pistons. If you had told most fans a month ago that Boston would be in this position, they would have laughed in your face.
After a January 28 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, the Celtics sat at 25-25 on the season. They had been a .500 team for the past year and a half and things were looking grim.
And then something changed.
A statistical overview of the Boston Celtics’ elite defense
Boston has not dropped a game since then, and there’s really only one clear reason behind it – they are playing some of the best defense in the league.
Not just some of the best, though, the best. Since that January 28 loss, the Celtics have the best defense in the NBA, and it’s not even close.
They hold a defensive rating of 95.5 in that span. The next-best team is the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have a defensive rating of 106.0 over that period – more than 10 points worse than the Celtics.
In addition, the C’s are allowing only 94.1 points a night in that span, while the second-best mark (Dallas Mavericks) is set at 101.8. Boston doesn’t just have a solid defense, it’s absolutely stifling.
Opponents are shooting 37.9 percent from the field and 29.2 percent from three-point range since January 28. No other team has even been holding opponents to under 44 percent shooting.
Stretching back even before their win streak began, over the team’s last 12 games, Boston has held opponents to under 100 points nine times. They held opponents to under 90 in four of those games, with their most impressive win being a 135-87 victory over the Joel Embiid-led Philadelphia 76ers.
In fact, the Celtics’ defense has been so phenomenal for the past few weeks, that they are now the second-best defense in the entire league on the season (104.4), and are only 0.4 points back of the Golden State Warriors for first.
Boston also has the fourth-best net rating. Not over the last few weeks, not in the last 15 games, but on the entire season. They are only trailing the Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz, and Warriors.
According to Basketball-Reference, all five of Boston’s regular starters are in the top-16 in the entire NBA for Defensive Win Shares this season, with Jayson Tatum ranking first overall (3.5).
With how poorly their offense has played, the Celtics have been forced to rely on their defense, and so far it’s been working wonders for them in the win column.