![\"Jaylen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2268376218_05cd5d-e1774874513987.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics are moving up the NBA power rankings.<\/p>\n
The Boston Celtics<\/a> won their third straight game on Sunday, again climbing in this week\u2019s NBA<\/a> Power Rankings. Indeed, this has not been a run-of-the-mill streak. On Wednesday, the Celtics beat the Thunder in a gritty, playoff-level showdown, a win that firmed up their status around the league\u2013if not to themselves\u2013as a real contender for a spot in the Finals. They beat Atlanta on Friday, holding the Hawks to 102 points, the same Hawks that had averaged 124.1 points in winning 14 of their previous 15 games.<\/p>\n And on Sunday, the Celtics drubbed the Hornets on the road, logging a 114-99 blowout even with Jaylen Brown<\/a> sidelined. It was the Celtics\u2019 50th win of the season, a remarkable feat considering Jayson Tatum<\/a>\u2018s Achilles tendon injury and the fact he did not make his season debut until March 6.<\/p>\n If you ask around, most will tell you Tatum\u2019s return is a secondary impetus for Boston\u2019s recent surge. The big thing has been the defense. The Celtics hit their defensive stride right around the midway point of the season, and in the last two months, they have ranked No. 1 in defensive efficiency, a run that has seen them go 22-7 and log a defensive rating of 107.6<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve gone to a different level defensively,\u201d one East assistant coach said. \u201cIt helps to have (Derrick) White<\/a> leading the way there, he brings a certain intensity and they all pick up on that. Especially the young guys, when they have Jordan Walsh<\/a> or (Baylor) Scheierman<\/a> or Hugo Gonzalez<\/a>, they mirror White\u2019s energy. The rotations have gotten stronger as the year has gone on, they\u2019re more used to having (Neemias) Queta<\/a> back there in the middle.<\/p>\n \u201cThe arrow is definitely pointing up for them as we get to the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n NBA Power Rankings: Pistons New Guy<\/p>\n One of the questions raised in the aftermath of the collapsed lung suffered by\u00a0Cade Cunningham<\/a>\u00a0was whether the\u00a0Pistons<\/a>\u00a0had some remorse over the trade that sent out\u00a0Jaden Ivey<\/a>\u00a0to Chicago at the deadline. The answer has come back as a pretty strong no. That\u2019s because the Pistons have considerable faith in\u00a0Daniss Jenkins<\/a>, the 24-year-old second-year player whose two-way contract was converted after the Ivey trade.<\/p>\n In his last six games starting in place of Cunningham, Jenkins has averaged 18.7 points and 7.3 assists, with 4.3 rebounds. More important, they are 5-1.<\/p>\n Thunder<\/a>, 59-16. The NBA\u2019s Coach of the Year Award is likely to go to JB Bickerstaff of the Pistons this year, and a case could be made for Joe Mazzulla of the aforementioned Celtics. One guy who has no chance is Tyronn Lue\u2013but it could be argued he has done the best job of his decorated career this season. The Clippers were 6-21 in December, dead in the water, a miserable bunch with Chris Paul and James Harden. They jettisoned Paul, started to play better and then jettisoned Harden for Darius Garland at the deadline.<\/p>\n The Clippers have gone 32-15 since that dreadful start and are No. 8 in the West, hoping to hold that spot and have an advantage in the play-in. The team is eager to at least earn a playoff spot\u2013the uncertainty around Kawhi Leonard\u2019s future could mean Ty Lue\u2019s bunch looks very different going forward.<\/p>\n Hawks<\/a>, 42-33 GettyKawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers.<\/p>\n NBA Power Rankings Part III: Tank-a-thon Continues<\/p>\n It\u2019s a race to the bottom for a handful of teams these days, and as much hand-wringing as there has been over tanking\u2013those offended by it and a newly vocal group of tanking apologists\u2013the league is not making much progress on stopping it.<\/p>\n Bucks<\/a>, 29-45. \n\t\t\tSean Deveney<\/a> is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Bucks\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics are moving up the NBA power rankings. The Boston Celtics won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-574190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSpurs<\/a>, 56-18.
\nPistons<\/a>, 54-20.
\nCeltics<\/a>, 50-24.
\nLakers<\/a>, 48-26.
\nKnicks<\/a>, 48-27.
\nNuggets<\/a>, 48-28.
\nTimberwolves<\/a>, 45-29.
\nCavaliers<\/a>, 46-28.
\nRockets<\/a>, 45-29.
\nNBA Part II Rankings: Clippers Last Stand<\/p>\n
\nSixers, 41-33.
\nRaptors<\/a>, 42-32.
\nClippers<\/a>, 39-36.
\nSuns<\/a>, 41-33.
\nHornets<\/a>, 39-36.
\nMagic<\/a>, 39-35.
\nHeat<\/a>, 39-36.
\nTrail Blazers<\/a>, 38-38.
\nWarriors<\/a>, 36-39.
\n![\"Kawhi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2259420196-e1773847927999.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nBulls<\/a>, 29-45.
\nGrizzlies<\/a>, 25-49
\nPelicans<\/a>, 25-51.
\nMavericks<\/a>, 24-50.
\nJazz<\/a>, 21-54.
\nKings<\/a>, 19-57.
\nNets<\/a>, 18-57.
\nPacers<\/a>, 17-58.
\nWizards<\/a>, 17-57.<\/p>\n