The toughest accomplishment in today’s NBA is defending a title, and despite winter doldrums, the Boston Celtics are maintaining a pace right in line with past the few repeat champions of the 2010s, (there have been no repeat champions in the 2020s).
There’s no denying Boston’s uneven winter stretch. They’re 10-8 since December 19th, 2024, and despite getting Kristaps Porzingis back from a unique lower leg surgery, Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown have also missed time with their injuries. While Holiday has increased his offensive production, Brown’s shooting under 30% from the three-point line. Porzingis remains unavailable in back-to-backs, while Al Horford has been in that management system for numerous seasons now. Overall, the team has veered away from its “Mazzulla Ball” approach of volume shooting from distance: they’ve dropped their 3-point attempts per game down to 45, from an average of 51 earlier in the season.
It’s not time to panic.
At the risk of being accused of whistling past the graveyard, first, listen to Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr’s opinion of the current state of the Celtics:
“It’s perfectly natural for them to have a little bit of an emotional hangover, and maybe not be at their best game after game. I’ve seen that a million times in this league,” he told CLNS’ Bobby Manning Monday. “But what I would expect is, come playoff time, they’ll be ready to roll. They’ve still got guys in their prime, well-oiled machine, well-coached, they know who they are. So I wouldn’t worry about the Celtics if I were one of their fans.”
Kerr’s 2017-18 Warriors team was the last one to win back-to-back NBA championships. While the 2024-25 Celtics sit at 31-13 through 44 games, that team was 35-9 – and had just narrowly won their 35th game over the Toronto Raptors. Keep in mind that crew also ran it back with Kevin Durant at the helm of their super team, and they swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals.
Five years earlier, LeBron James led the Miami Heat to a the second of back-to-back title,s in 2013. But at the 44-game mark, the Heat sat at 30-14. Coincidentally, they had just beaten the Raptors, 100-85.
The final repeat champion of the 2010s is a double-edged sword for Celtics fans: the 2009-10 Lakers. Mentioning this team is, in itself, a real technicality given the season having started in 2009, but the other back-to-back repeat champion of the 2000s decade is…also a Lakers team. So let’s stick with the 2009-10 squad. Kobe Bryant led his defending champs to a Finals victory over the Celtics, but through 44 games, they sat at 33-11. Weirdly enough, they lost Game 44 to…the Toronto Raptors, 106-105. Seriously, everyone gets the Raptors this time of year.
Diving down this rabbit hold of NBA midseason records demonstrates that while the Celtics have been inconsistent in recent weeks – especially against inferior teams – they’re well within the norm of great teams who were able to defend their titles. They’re not the statistical Goliath they were last year, but that’s also a bit common among teams who run it back.
For example, the Lakers went from being 65-17 team with 3rd ranked offense in 2009 to a 57-25 team with an 11th ranked offense in 2010. The Warriors dropped from 67-15 in 2017 with the league’s top offense to 58-24 with the 3rd best offense. Only the 2013 Miami Heat improved statistically during the regular season from the year before.
The Celtics sit 5.5 games behind the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, but they’re still well-positioned for another title run. There will be more valleys along with the peaks of the long season. For now, they’re – at least historically speaking – okay.