{"id":560355,"date":"2026-03-25T19:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/560355\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:13:08","slug":"celtics-climb-one-spot-in-espns-updated-nba-power-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/560355\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics Climb One Spot In ESPN’s Updated NBA Power Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Boston Celtics<\/a> enter the regular season’s stretch run entrenched as a top contender.<\/p>\n

ESPN didn’t penalize the Celtics for Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in its updated power rankings<\/a>. Boston moved up one place to No. 3, trailing only the Oklahoma City Thunder and Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n

The Celtics responded to consecutive losses against the Thunder and San Antonio Spurs with four straight wins. A returning Jayson Tatum fueled that streak by tallying 78 combined points and 40 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Yet the offense stalled on Sunday, shooting 36 percent from the floor and scoring 15 fourth-quarter points in a home loss. Tatum still has some rust<\/a> to work off after making just nine of 31 field-goal attempts in the last two games.<\/p>\n

Those recent shortcomings could hurt the Celtics, as the New York Knicks are now tied<\/a> with them for second in the Eastern Conference amid a seven-game winning streak. They’re both five games behind the Pistons, who have won their last two games without Cade Cunningham.<\/p>\n

Joe Mazzulla’s squad nevertheless remains in good shape for a deep playoff push. Boston has allowed an NBA-best 107.0 points per game this season and boasts the second-highest offensive rating (120.1) behind the Denver Nuggets.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s rematch against the Thunder could provide another useful measuring stick for Boston’s title hopes. The defending champions have 12 consecutive victories heading into TD Garden for a colossal showdown that starts at 7:30 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

More NBA:\u00a0New Prediction Sees Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Delivering 30-Point Breakout Soon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Celtics enter the regular season’s stretch run entrenched as a top contender. ESPN didn’t penalize the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-560355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}