Will a loaded January schedule bring out the best in Celtics?

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Will a loaded January schedule bring out the best in Celtics? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Calendar year 2024 was a magical trip around the sun for the Boston Celtics, and the team closed out a ridiculously successful 12-month run with one of the most lopsided wins in franchise history on New Year’s Eve. But things are about to get a whole lot more difficult.

With 40 percent of the 2024-25 regular season in the rearview mirror, the Celtics have yet to play more than two consecutive games against teams that currently own a record of .500 or better. They’ve done that five times total this season, but eight of their final nine games in 2024 were against teams with records under .500. And Boston still limped to a 5-4 record in those games.

The difficulty meter spikes immediately to start 2025. Every opponent on Boston’s four-game, Western Conference-road trip that opens Thursday night in Minnesota currently has a record of .500 or better, and Boston will play teams currently slotted in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th spots in the Western Conference standings during that trip.

What’s more, there’s a stretch in mid-January that currently features seven straight games against teams .500 or better, including another trip West that will pit Boston against teams currently sitting 4th, 6th, 7th, and 10th in the West.

After playing just four games against West teams over their first 33 games of the season, Boston jousts with West squads in 12 of its 16 games in the month of January.

Twelve of the Celtics’ 16 games in January are against Western Conference teams.

Winter doldrums be damned. The Celtics are (finally) going to taste a steady diet of playoff teams, and we’ll learn a whole lot more about this team’s preparedness to chase a second title over the course of what’s usually one of the sleepier months on the NBA calendar.

The good news: The Celtics are 9-5 this season against teams .500 or better, the third-best mark in the league behind only Cleveland (12-4) and Oklahoma City (15-5). Some of Boston’s more notable performances have come with playoff-caliber opponents on the other side, including an…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/loaded-january-schedule-bring-best-144149297.html

Author : NBC Sports Boston

Publish date : 2025-01-02 14:41:00

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