Atlantic Division

Boston Celtics Power Rankings - 2011-12

Power Ranking
WEEKRECORDRANKCOMMENT
Week 1737-279Fair question to raise when the Celts might not have home court in any series and with Rondo (back), Ray (ankle) and Pierce (toe) all dealing with fresh health nuisances: Did the Sports Guy -- and, to a lesser extent, us -- jinx the Celts by raving too much lately about how good they've been since the All-Star break?
Week 1636-258With all the focus on Rondo's diming, Boston's suffocating team D, Ray Allen's acceptance of a bench role and the unexpected contributions from A-Bradley and Stiemsma, not enough has been said about KG, who quietly has served up six of his seven 20-and-10 games this season just since the All-Star break.
Week 1532-246Seems like forever ago now that the Celts lost five straight to limp into the All-Star break. Ray Allen is figuring out his new bench gig, Rajon Rondo has topped 10 assists in 17 consecutive games and Boston is 17-7 since the break, good for a three-game Atlantic lead (and the No. 4 seed that goes with it) with 10 to go.
Week 1430-227Too good since the break -- and too dominant in the first of three remaining meetings with Miami -- to keep the Celts out of the top 10 any longer. Don't care how hard their schedule looks from here. Is there a team outside of the East's top two that you believe in more at playoff time than Doc's old-timers and Rondo?
Week 1326-2214The Celts survived their eight-game trip with monster wins in Atlanta and Milwaukee to go 4-4 and bump their record since the All-Star break to 11-5. Rest assured that Philly, despite beating Boston twice at home, is fretting about holding off its o-l-d friends from Beantown for the division title with just six home games left.
Week 1223-2118Some Friday night for Doc Rivers. First, son Austin's Duke Blue Devils get ousted from the NCAA tournament by Lehigh from the, uh, Patriot League. Then Doc's Celts, after the short trip from Oakland to Sacramento and a night off between games, absorbed a 120-95 beatdown from the Kings' collection of youth.
Week 1121-1913Good to see KG, Pierce, Ray and Rondo grit through all the trade talk to win six of eight. When the Celts limped into the All-Star break at 15-17, someone in the office pointed out that there hasn't been a team to finish the regular season under .500 with three future Hall of Famers since the 1992-93 Pistons.
Week 1019-1715There are two ways to look at that ridiculous Rondo stat line that I was lucky enough to witness in person: (1) Trading someone with that sort of stat-stuffing ability is pure lunacy; (2) The fact that Boston is even pondering the prospect of trading Rondo tells you what a, um, challenge managing him must be.
Week 915-1718These next two-plus weeks will be longer in Boston than anywhere outside of Orlando or Lakerland. Because Pierce, Ray, KG and Rondo all have to know that GM Danny Ainge is looking hard to shake things up before the deadline, even after Doc Rivers opined last week: "Why shake [things] up if guys are injured?"
Week 815-1518Nobody got sucked into the Beware Boston talk more than me because of the Celts' still-reliable D, but now I can only echo this late-night tweet from radio play-by-play man Sean Grande after the second loss to Detroit in the space of five days: "It's hard to look on the bright side ... when you can't see one."
Week 715-1210Here's why no one likes playing 'em no matter how old they are: Despite its rebounding issues, Boston has held its past 25 opponents under 100 -- good for the seventh-longest streak in the shot-clock era -- and came within a point Sunday against Chicago of keeping a record 12 in a row to 90 points or fewer.
Week 613-1011The Celts are on a 7-1 surge, having held the opposition to 81 points per game in that run and would have swept all eight had they finished off the Cavs at home. Paul Pierce, meanwhile, is about to pass Larry Legend as the second-leading scorer in team history. So why the glum faces, Bostonians?
Week 59-1016Last Monday, Doc Rivers' Celts were three games under .500 ... with half of their six wins coming against Washington. Since then, Doc has reminded everyone why he's a $7 million-a-year coach, stirring his injury-ravaged Celts to a season-salvaging week, even if the finish against Kyrie's Cavs didn't quite work out.
Week 46-920The surprise isn't that the reeling Celts are willing to blow up their aging roster. The surprise is that their decision-makers openly acknowledge it, which is going over as well as you'd expect in a locker room you'll recall needed weeks to get over the Perk trade.
Week 34-720I think we can all agree whose fault this isn't so far. Ray Allen might have come back down to Earth in the Celts' past couple of games, but you marvel at the way he's still setting the standard when it comes to shooting from deep -- 57.7 percent -- at 36.
Week 24-414The Celts will dive into a testing stretch -- Dallas, Chicago and OKC at home with a quick trip to Indy thrown in -- with plenty of rest, given that they haven't played since Friday. If only Friday's outing wasn't a momentum-sapping loss at home to the Pacers.
Week 12-316It felt like forever watching them labor through those first three games on the road without the ailing Paul Pierce (heel), but it was only last season that the Celts were the last team in the league to lose a game. Remember that 8-0 start?
Preseason56-2611As if Celts fans weren't already worried about their creaky heroes coping with 66 games in such a short span, there's this worrisome omen: Boston is 94-14 (.870) before Christmas in the KG Era's four seasons ... and just 140-80 (.636) after Christmas.
Training Camp15-150Nobody got sucked into the Beware Boston talk more than me because of the Celts' still-reliable D, but now I can only echo this late-night tweet from radio play-by-play man Sean Grande after the second loss to Detroit in the space of five days: "It's hard to look on the bright side ... when you can't see one."

Boston Celtics