The Boston Celtics are still the favorite to win the 2024 NBA championship. They are the first team this season reach 50 victories, and they’re beating teams by record margins.
The Celtics are a scary team, and they’re only getting better. The Celtics hope to make their second trip to the NBA Finals in three years, but they also hope to finish the job this time. In 2022, the Celtics saw the Golden State Warriors rattle off three straight wins to overcome a 2-1 deficit and win the championship.
In that series, the Celtics self-destructed. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown struggled to maintain possession of the ball, but the Celtics have recently cleaned up that turnover problem.
The Boston Celtics Are Now Among the Best at Taking Care of the Ball
During the 2022 postseason, Tatum set a record for the most turnovers in a postseason. In Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat last year, Brown committed eight turnovers.
While the Warriors, led by Steph Curry, played great basketball down the stretch in that 2022 championship series, the Celtics didn’t do themselves any favors by turning the ball over as often as they did.
Lately, things have been much different for the C’s.
In a 121-99 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday, March 11, no player on the Celtics had more than one turnover. Boston finished with three.
In that win, the Celtics also dished out 34 assists. According to Celtics radio play-by-play man Sean Grande, that assist-to-turnover ratio is the best in franchise history.
Grande also posted that the Celtics have committed an NBA-low 10.8 turnovers/game since mid-January. According to StatMuse, Boston three turnovers and 11 fouls are the fewest combo of fouls and turnovers in a game this year.
If the Celtics can continue to take care of the ball, they should make some serious noise in the postseason and have a legitimate shot of hanging Banner 18 from the rafters.
The Celtics Are Now Sixth All-Time In Best Scoring Differential
The Celtics played the Blazers without starters Jrue Holiday (knee) and Kristaps Porzingis (hamstring) and still managed to win by 22 points.
Grande also pointed out that Boston is now in sixth place on the all-time list in scoring differential. The Celtics, who set a record with three wins by 50 or more points this season, have beaten teams by an average of 11.09 points this season.
The teams ahead of the Celtics are the 1972 Lakers (12.28), the 1971 Bucks (12.26), the 1996 Bulls (12.24), the 2017 Warriors (11.63), and the 1972 Bucks (11:16). With the exception, of the 1972 Bucks, all of those teams went on to win the NBA championship that year.
The 2008 champion Celtics are also 11th on the all-time list at 10.26.
The current Celtics own the best record in the NBA at 50-14 and are 8.5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference.
Boston doesn’t have a whole lot of time to savor the win over the Blazers as it jumps right back into action Tuesday to face the Utah Jazz in the finale of their five-game road trip. A win over Utah would give the Celtics a 3-2 record on the trip.
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