Celtics ☘️ Sentinel

 Particularly in their recent 5-game home stand, the Boston Celtics are showing a "balance of power", and as such, are back to #1 in NBA.com's Power Rankings . "The five-game homestand that just concluded was the Celtics’ best five-game stretch of offense ( 124.4 points scored per 100 possessions ) since the first five games of the season, and the last four were against teams — the Cavs and Magic — that rank in the top 10 defensively. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown each had 30-point games against Orlando, but neither has been on a huge tear and   the top eight guys   in their rotation have all contributed." Boston took all five contests, with their three big guns (Tatum, Brown, Porzingis) averaging 26.0, 22.6 and 18.8 points per game , respectively. During that stint, reserves Al Horford, Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard combined for 22.0 PPG while hitting 54%, 46% and 52% (FG, respectively) and 46%, 43% and 59% (3s, respectively). Is this an 8-man rotation th...

  NBA/com's Power Rankings are out and (no surprise) the Boston Celtics take the number-1 spot in the East - with the Milwaukee Bucks at number-2 and the Philadelphia 76'ers at number-3. Boston's strong finish to the 2021-22 season seems poised to continue into the upcoming campaign, but NBA.com's John Schuhmann projects the addition of Malcolm Brogdon as a major reason for The Green to be optimistic: It’s possible that Brown’s ball-handling doesn’t get much better, but (Malcolm) Brogdon obviously takes some of the playmaking burden off the shoulders of the young stars while fitting into Boston’s drive-and-kick offense. He averaged almost six more drives per game ( 18.3 ) than  anybody on the Celtics  and had  the lowest turnover rate on drives  (4.2 per 100) among 42 players who averaged at least 10 per contest. (Derrick White had the third lowest rate.) The Celtics’ clutch offense issues were seemingly more about approach than just makes and misses, but Brog...

Without boring readers with the various Power Rankings, all of them show Boston well behind both the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76'ers. This is not a major surprise. The Celtics lost their two best players (Al Horford and Kyrie Irving) to free agency, and one of them (Horford) went to the rival 76'ers. Most of the polls have the Celtics sitting between #7 and #10 in the rankings. Unlike last season, expectations are low. I love that. But what goes unnoticed is that newly-acquired Kemba Walker virtually carried his former team, the Hornets, last season. He led that team in minutes, points, assists, steals and player efficiency rating (PER). He did everything but sell beer at half-time. Expect him to have a major impact on Boston's success going forward. Good morning, Kemba Walker made an appearance at Rucker Park over the weekend. He spoke about why he signed with the Celtics in free agency this summer. https://t.co/uKks2E4adR — Kristian Winfield (@Krisplashed) Jul...