Episodes
The Boston Celtics got their revenge against the Miami Heat for sending them fishing in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, instead kicking off the Heat's postseason with a Game 5 win over Miami in their 2024 NBA Eastern Conference first round series. The 118-84 blowout was a fitting end for longtime Celtics broadcaster Mike Gorman's 43-year career, and now Boston waits for star center Kristaps Porzingis to heal up and for a winner to emerge from the Cleveland Cavaliers - Orlando Magic...
Published 05/02/24
The Boston Celtics won Game 4 of their 2024 NBA Eastern Conference first round series with the Miami Heat to take a commanding 3-1 lead at Kaseya Center on Monday night, but the win came at a cost. The Celtics lost star big man Kristaps Porzingis to what is being described as a calf strain, and could miss substantial time as a result. How does Porzingis' injury impact the rest of the series vs. the Heat? Assuming Boston advances (and we should), how do the team's rotations change in terms of...
Published 04/30/24
The Boston Celtics let their fans down with a mediocre effort against the Miami Heat in Game 2 of their first round series, the level of urgency reminiscent of a mid-December tilt of little consequence. Attacking the Celtics with a relentless assault from deep on one end, and denying the use of Kristaps Porzingis as a 'safety valve' on the other, Boston has given Miami life by not understanding the gravity of the moment yet again. But rather than dwell (too much) on the loss, the hosts of the...
Published 04/25/24
The Boston Celtics played like a finely-tuned luxury car in their 114-94 blowout of the Miami Heat on Sunday in Game 1, and it was thanks in part to the addition of star big man Kristaps Porzingis this past offseason. To take stock of that Game 1 win, what we expect to see in Game 2, and a quick chat about Porzingis' luxury car collection (all Mercedes-Benz) the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast put together an extraordinary start to their 2024 postseason coverage. Do the Heat...
Published 04/23/24
The NBA is inching closer to a new, inevitable round of expansion, and based on what we have heard from league commissioner Adam Silver, it might not just be within the US and Canada. And while Mexico City might not be among the frontrunners, the growth of the league in popularity around the world will only continue to grow. What will NBA expansion look like this time, and in the future? How is it different for fans and international media to enjoy the NBA we have now? And what else might the...
Published 04/19/24
The Boston Celtics' regular season is over, and the team is gearing up for the 2024 NBA Playoffs while waiting to hear back on whether any members of the organization will take home some hardware for their league-best season. But it is not just Boston in the title hunt this postseason suiting up with letters on the front that read "Celtics". The team's Portland-based G League affiliate, the Maine Celtics, are also in the mix to hang a banner, with Maine poised to win their first-ever G League...
Published 04/14/24
The Boston Celtics own the best record in the NBA for the 2023-24 season and have an absurd 15-game lead over the next-closest team in the East, the Milwaukee Bucks. Records seem to be breaking on a regular basis, and we keep hearing about how this iteration of the Celtics are an all-time ball club. But do they have what it takes to win it all? And are these records and this history we keep hearing about Boston making truly comparable to other champion Celtics squads? Or are we getting the...
Published 04/09/24
The Boston Celtics have all but locked up the top spot in the league, as well as home court in the East heading into the 2024 NBA Playoffs. Everything seems to be aligning for Boston to make a deep postseason run fans hope ends in a title. At least, save one. It seems the path back to the finals might have just gotten considerably tougher for the Celtics with word that Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid is set to return to the court. The perennial MVP candidate will have to play his way...
Published 04/02/24
Fans of the Boston Celtics (and, truthfully, the entire league) can't watch their favorite team without a gambling segment, an ad about betting, or an opportunity to gamble. And when the game ends, more and more of the players playing it are jumping on their podcasts to talk about it. With the lines between multiple, entangled businesses that make up the NBA ecosphere blurring more with every passing day, what are the benefits -- and more importantly, the risks -- of these phenomenons? Is the...
Published 03/25/24
March Madness is officially here, and fans of the Boston Celtics tend to start paying attention to the college game around now if they have not been the whole time with their favorite NCAA squad. Potential Celtics draft prospects can be scouted by the casual college basketball fan and pros both, and old rivalries transcend NBA allegiances for a bit of extra sauce at the next level. Speaking of the stretch run, Boston is in the thick of it, with health and rest as important as seeding usually...
Published 03/19/24
The Boston Celtics are firmly within the thick of the NBA's 2024 stretch run as they try to wrap up loose ends on the court and nagging injuries while also getting into postseason form. That is not exactly the easiest of needles to thread, but they have a favorable schedule and the right personnel to pull it off, particularly given the lead they have over the rest of the East. But what exactly is that schedule ahead of them? And when can they rest players, and what concerns remain to be...
Published 03/12/24
The Boston Celtics have been playing like a ball club full of All-NBA players, even if they will likely only have two -- and it has not shown more this season than in their 140-88 demolition of the Golden State Warriors at TD Garden on Sunday afternoon. Exorcising the demons lingering from their 2022 NBA Finals loss to the Warriors in a big way, now the question in front of Boston as they dive into the stretch run is how long their league-leading win streak will end with the easiest remaining...
Published 03/04/24
The NBA's 2024 trade deadline and All-Star Break are behind the Boston Celtics, and the stretch run to the 2024 playoffs ahead of them. With the best record in the league and a massive lead over the next-closest team in the Eastern Conference and among the easiest schedules left in the Association, what questions are left to answer for the Celtics in the regular season? What full-season hardware is on the table for Boston players, coaches, and execs? What will the team's final record look...
Published 02/27/24
The NBA's All-Star Week has passed, and with it, attention now turns to the stretch run and whatever races for season-long hardware that is not already sewn up. This season, that includes the 2024 Most Valuable Player award. It feels like star Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum is making a late push to get in the running, but how exactly does the MVP voter think about such late risers for the award? To get an idea about the politics and other invisible elements of MVP voting, the CLNS Media...
Published 02/21/24
The NBA's 2024 All-Star Game has come and gone, and with it the successes of the Boston Celtics who participated. The week of All-Star festivities saw some significant changes, but perhaps none more so than the actual All-Star Game itself. Gone were the target score endings and charities for each quarter of the event, along with the East vs. West dissolving playground-style team choosing. The ostensible goal -- stronger player efforts on both ends of the court -- was decidedly not reached...
Published 02/19/24
The NBA's 2024 trade deadline has come and gone, and with it the ability to make trades to improve the Boston Celtics' roster. But Boston picked up Xavier Tillman, Sr. and Jaden Springer ahead of the deadline to bolster their deep rotation before the 2024 postseason arrives. The league around the Celtics did not stand still, with several teams in the East also making moves to try to challenge Boston in the playoffs. On, in particular, may challenge the Celtics in ways they likely couldn't...
Published 02/13/24
The NBA's 2024 trade deadline now perhaps better measured in hours than in days. And knowing what the range of possibilities that exists for the Boston Celtics to choose from to make moves to bolster their roster for a push to the 2024 NBA Finals is a good place to start. What can the Celtics do to get better? Which moves are more likely, and which make little sense? Who are the likely targets, and which ones might surprise us? More importantly, what is off the table for Boston's front...
Published 02/06/24
The Boston Celtics have by most accounts the best top six players in the entire NBA to match their league-best regular season record. So, it can be easy to forget about the rest of the team. The so-called "Stay Ready Crew" mostly does just that -- keep themselves in the right frame of mind and state of health in case their number is called. And those numbers do get called, with players like Oshae Brissett and Lamar Stevens bringing energy and matchup-dependent options that have sparked wins...
Published 01/30/24
With the final returns from the annual fan vote for the league's starters in the 2024 NBA All-Star Game set to go down in Indianapolis, Indiana in the month of February and the reserves selected by league coaches, we will soon get an answer to how many Boston Celtics will suit up for the annual exhibition tilt. Based on the earlier rounds of returns, it's looking all but certain that the Celtics will end up with at least two All-Stars in 2024. But the possibility of three or even four is on...
Published 01/23/24
Most of the teams in the NBA have played around half of their 82-game schedule, giving us enough of a sample size to get an idea of which players might be taking home some full-season hardware come April and onward. And with the Boston Celtics currently the owners of the league's best record, it is not unfair to expect the franchise to have at least a little bling headed their way at season's end. To try to predict what awards Boston players and front office employees might be taking home...
Published 01/17/24
There's a lot of basketball to be a fan of in New England. The Boston Celtics stand as the premier hoopers in the region, but greatness can also be found among the UConn Huskies women's and men's programs and the WNBA's Connecticut Sun in recent years. That history will become even more entangled as the Sun are set to play at TD Garden this summer for the first time ever as the Boston landmark arena hosts its first-ever WNBA tilt. On the night the news broke, the Celtics played at the Garden,...
Published 01/09/24
With the Boston Celtics rolling and their path to hanging Banner 18 looking more possible than it has in many years, you can't fault fans of the storied ball club for hoping for a reunion with former Boston big men Daniel Theis or Kelly Olynyk. Or failing that, team president Brad Stevens getting a deal done for rumored target Isaiah Stewart to fortify the team's frontcourt. But even fairly modest trades like these are probably not in the cards for the Celtics this season, who can't follow...
Published 01/02/24
The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day, the best kind of win for Celtics fans in the regular season if not the NBA Finals. And they did it despite in-game injuries, strong rallies from their opponent -- and most importantly, an ego-boosting hot start that has tended to absorb their killer instinct in the past. To celebrate the win (and what we saw in it that should reach well beyond the holiday tilt) with other Boston fans, the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab"...
Published 12/26/23
The holidays are here and the Boston Celtics are amazingly good, so in true New England fashion, over at the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast, we decided to do what any other New Englander (displaced or in-region) would otherwise be doing. Complaining about stuff! Of course, we will be doing so in our third annual Festivus episode with guest Max Lederman of NBC Sports Boston, and we did not limit ourselves to the 20-5 Celtics (it's harder than you think to criticize a team doing this well) or...
Published 12/19/23