Early Season Struggles
The Celtics, Boston’s own basketball team, had high expectations for the 2025-2026 season, but they struggled to start the season. They lost their first three games and were close to going 0-4. Luckily, they were able to take over the game and get their first win. Celtic’s player Anfernee Simons took over the game and scored 12 points in the 4th quarter for the Boston Celtics, which helped them win their first game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Tatum Injury
The Celtics this season are without superstar Jayson Tatum, who led the Boston Celtics in a playoff run that took them all the way to the NBA championship in 2024, where they won the series against the Dallas Mavericks 4-1.
The Boston Celtics were struggling early in the season without Jayson Tatum, and they leaned heavily on Jaylen Brown. This year, he has 29.8 PPG, 6.8 RP, G, and 4.9 APG. Jaylen Brown is the Celtics number one scoring option this season. Brown has 23 30-point games this season, which places him second in the NBA in 30-point games, tied with Luka Doncic with 23, for the second most 30-point games, only behind the 2024-2025 MVP and NBA finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, with 30 games over 30 points.
Boston Celtics off-season moves
The Boston Celtics made several deals in the off-season they traded Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trailblazers for Anfernee Simons, who looks like he is in a good position to have a breakout season with Jayson Tatum’s injury, and could be a key piece to getting the Celtics deep into the playoffs. They also traded Kristaps Porzingis for George Niang, and a 2nd round pick. This trade may not seem very appealing to Celtics fans at first, but Kristaps Porzingis is a free agent during the 2026 off-season. They also lost Al Horford in the 2025 free agency, where a player can sign with whatever team they want. Oftentimes when a team struggles,s they traded there best players. The Boston Celtics aren’t struggling, and they also didn’t trade their best players after a disappointing upset to the New York Knicks. They needed some slight changes to shake up the roster. Any team can win the championship, but the defending champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, look like they might go back-to-back. The Celtics are still a playoff team.
Best Teams from LAST Season
The top teams in the Eastern Conference LAST YEAR were the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were led by Donavan Mitchell to a 64-18. The Cleveland Cavaliers were upset in the 2024-2025 playoffs by Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers. 2nd were the Boston Celtics, who were defending champions and lost the series and MVP candidate Jayson Tatum to a ruptured right Achilles tendon in game 4 of the Eastern Conference. 3rd was the New York Knicks, who beat the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. Their playoff run was stopped short by the Indiana Pacers, who placed 4th in the Eastern Conference with a 54-32 record. Lastly, 5th was the Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo
NBA Predictions
Any team can win the championship but the defending champions the Oklahoma city Thunder look like they might go back to back, but what will the Celtics do this year Celtics fan Connor Sullivan says “I think we could get close to the NBA finals if we can get more team chemistry” and the Celtics rivals the New York Knicks fan Max Shuman says “I think the Celtics will make a playoff run to the conference semi finals they would have to build more chemistry” One thing is for sure with the Celtics making all their off-season moves and bringing in new players players they would need to build more chemistry.
Sources:https://www.espn.com/
