The Celtics have been dominant this season. But have they been as impressive as last year’s squad?
The 2024-2025 Boston Celtics are 20-5 and are on pace for 66 wins. While this year’s team has been objectively dominant, there have been whispers that they have not lived up to the 2023-2024 Boston Celtics standard. So, I dove into the numbers to see if these whispers have any merit.
Last season, the Celtics submitted one of the most dominant seasons in NBA history. They went 64-18 in the regular season and 16-3 in the playoffs on the way to the title. They were so dominant that it’s easy to forget that the team lost 21 games.
While the Celtics dismantled the Dallas Mavericks in the Finals, they also suffered the worst defeat in NBA Finals history, going down 122-84 in Game 4 of the Finals. I remind you of that insignificant yet jarring loss as a reminder that as we move through the 2024-2025 season, the Celtics will not be perfect.
We’ll start by zooming out. The 2025 Boston Celtics are 20-5. An identical record to last year’s team through 25 games. Both are outrageously impressive records. This year, the Celtics’ net rating stands at 10.0, compared to 9.0 at the same 25-game mark last season. Again, both are outstanding numbers, with the slight edge going to the 2025 squad.
Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images
A critical factor about this year’s Celtics team, which makes them incredibly impressive, is that they have dealt significantly more injuries. This season, the top six players in the rotation—Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Al Horford—have only played one game together. Last season, the top six played 14 out of the first 25 games. Other notable absences from last season compared to this season:
Not only has Kristaps missed the majority of the season, Jaylen Brown has also missed 20% of the season, along with a sprinkle of other absences. The Celtics have done an excellent job maintaining an elite level of play despite having lousy injury luck to start the year.
Defensively is where I think most observers would say the Celtics have slipped. Statistically, the Celtics have a slightly worse defensive rating through 25 games. Last season, they were sitting at a 109.0 defensive rating, which was second in the league. This season, the Celtics have a defensive rating of 110.3, which is ninth in the league. While the Celtics have primarily maintained their defensive identity, defenses around the NBA are having more success than last year. This has led to the Celtics’ overall defensive ranking drop but not their defensive rating.
I concede the defense has not been as good as last year. Most of the slippage can be attributed to Porzingis’ absence. He is a game-changer on the defensive end. I often forget how dominant he can be defensively because he mesmerizes me on the offensive end of the floor. It’s good to have that Lavtian King back in the lineup.
Looking at the losses, the 2025 Celtics are yet to suffer a defeat by double digits. They have yet to lose two games in a row and drop a game to a proper bottom feeder. Their worst loss on paper was the overtime defeat to the Indiana Pacers. That’s a weird case, though. The Pacers did not play like a team now sitting at 10-15. They came to avenge their Eastern Conference Finals sweep. The loss to the Atlanta Hawks sticks out as the worst this season, but it turns out the Hawks are a competent team.
Compared to last season, through 25 games, the Celtics had lost back-to-back games to the Timberwolves and 76ers, and they had lost an overtime game against the Charlotte Hornets (after narrowly escaping defeat the previous night to the Memphis Grizzlies, who were missing Ja Morant), and got smoked by the Orlando Magic 113-96. If we extend to 26 games, the 2024 Celtics are about to blow an 18-point fourth-quarter lead in a PTSD-inducing game to the Golden State Warriors — not quite the perfect team that we remember,
Photo By Winslow Townson/Getty Images
One of the most significant differences for me watching the Celtics this year is how I feel in clutch games. A clutch game is any game within five points in the final five minutes. Last season, the Celtics were 21-12 in crunch time. Good for a 63.6% winning percentage, the fourth-best in the league. So far, this year’s Celtics are 10-5 in crunch time. Good for a 66.7% winning percentage, which is second-best in the league. The way the Celtics are operating in crunch time is surgical. Yes, that was statistically true last season as well. However, the way the Celtics are hunting matchups and getting into their bread-and-butter actions have them moving like the veteran championship team that they are. The Celtics’ precision in clutch time now fills me with confidence I didn’t have before.
It’s easy to make a case that this year’s version of the Celtics have been more impressive. Defending a title is hard. This group played up until June. Jrue and Derrick played in the Olympics, while Jayson Tatum endured bizarre coaching decisions from Steve Kerr. Some regression or championship malaise should be baked into the expectations for the 2025 regular season Celtics. Last year’s group rightly came in with a massive chip on their shoulder after their tortuous defeat to the Miami Heat in the conference finals. It’s hard to manufacture that level of motivation. The Celtics don’t have anything to prove this year. When you factor in the challenge of defending a tile, combined with the injuries they’ve faced, I have to give the edge to the 2025 Boston Celtics.