Entering the 2018/19 season, the Celtics were widely viewed as the Eastern Conference’s best team. Oddsmakers placed their over/under for the year at 59.5 wins, and our readers predicted that they’d eclipse that number.
Seven games into their season, the Celtics have had a couple minor missteps, including a home loss to Orlando, but there’s no reason to believe that they aren’t still among the favorites in the East.
Still, a pair of Boston’s rivals have stepped up as potentially legit challengers to come out of the conference. The Raptors are 7-1, having defeated the Celtics and Sixers so far, with their only loss coming in Milwaukee in a game Kawhi Leonard missed. The Bucks, meanwhile, are the NBA’s last undefeated team at 7-0. They haven’t scored fewer than 113 points in a game this season, and comfortably dispatched Toronto on Monday without Giannis Antetokounmpo in their lineup.
It’s very early in the season, but the Raptors and Bucks have looked like the best possible versions of themselves so far. Leonard is healthy and is playing like one of the NBA’s best two-way stars, with Kyle Lowry also off to a great start and the Raptors’ deep rotation of complementary players thriving. In Milwaukee, Mike Budenholzer‘s arrival has helped unlock the club’s offensive potential, with Antetokounmpo making an early case for MVP consideration and Khris Middleton serving as a strong second option.
There are other potential contenders in the East. The Sixers remain dangerous, especially if they can add another shooter or two. The Heat will be very intriguing if they can acquire Jimmy Butler from Minnesota. The Pacers are playing well again, and Dwane Casey is turning the Pistons into a potential threat. In the early going though, the Celtics, Raptors, and Bucks appear to be the three strongest threats to come out of the East.
With the Bucks having beaten Toronto and the Raptors having defeated the Celtics so far this season, the C’s will get a chance to complete the circle by handing the Bucks their first loss tonight in Boston. It’ll be a good early-season test for a Milwaukee team that will have Antetokounmpo back in its lineup.
Again, it’s too early in the season to draw any definitive conclusions, but have your views on the East changed at all over the last two or three weeks? Which team is your current pick to represent the Eastern conference in the NBA Finals?
Place your vote below and then head to the comment section to share your two cents.
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
I’ve watched a bunch of Toronto’s games this year, and they’ve been without key contributors in most of them. Honestly, they look like they’re still figuring things out with strange lineups and a whole bunch of miscues on the defensive end leading to uncontested layups.
That they’re still doing so well is a testament not to who they are right now as a team, but who they could be by the end of the year. Their 7-1 record is also representative of having played 6 home games (6-0) and only two road games (1-1, though neither with Kawhi).
I have always had them above the Celtics, who I believe to be overrated, though obviously still a very good team. I thought Milwaukee could push the Celtics, and that the 76ers need to pick up a few more rotation pieces who can shoot before they’ll be any good.
Don’t sleep on the Pacers though.
My current East top 3:
Toronto (league of their own)
Milwaukee and Boston (next tier)
The rest of the playoff teams:
Indiana and Philly (3rd tier)
Charlotte, Detroit, Miami
Dumpster fire:
Washington
Celtics best this same Milwaukee team without their best two players. Celtics are figuring their lineups out with having Hayward and Kyrie back. Celtics are class of the east. No close seconds .
I believe Hayward and Kyrie won’t be able to get back to where they were pre-injury. Hayward in particular has looked really bad this year, which obviously sucks because he was such a talented player.
The Toronto-Boston game was telling in a way, since it looked like the Raptors were still confused as to what they were doing, yet they still easily handled the Celtics.
That said, the Raptors play very very very well at home, and I’m interested to see how they do on the road. The Nov 6th game at Boston should be a fun one to watch.
If we were talking last year’s teams, then I think we’d be having a different conversation, but Toronto looks very different with Kawhi and Green, and they have yet to field a full lineup of their top 8 players.
Wow your bias shows through. It was a 2 point game with 2 min left. I don’t think that’s easily handled. Good home win for the Raptors. Bostons offense struggled for the first few games but now they seem to have found a rhythm and are 1 game back. Kyrie looks back to form and Hayward better each game so your theory is busted.
As someone who has watched both the Bucks and Raptors closely (Milwaukee native; resident of Toronto), I’m really pulling for both. But the latter has more experience and depth than the Bucks. I would actually take either of those two over the Celtics in a seven game playoff. Not sure the Celtics have a true go to guy – although they have several options in crunch time. Still, there’s few players in the league that I’d rather give the ball too in critical situations than Leonard.
“Not sure the Celtics have a true go to guy”
What about the dude who literally hit a GW shot in Game 7 of the finals?
Or the 19 year old kid who was the best player on the floor during the Philly series?
Tatum is a great young talent. But I wouldn’t consider him to be a go to guy yet – at least not in the same vain as Kawhi or the Freak. He’s not there yet.
If you’re referring to Kyrie, I do love his game. I’m just not sure that significant injuries haven’t derailed his career a bit. He doesn’t appear to have the giddy up that he once had.
He’s obviously just getting into shape from injuries last year. But as far as “go to guys” when it matters, he’s in the top 10 in the NBA. I’m not sure why you would just dismiss him because he’s off to a slow start, when it’s clear he’s not even in game shape yet.
Milwaukee can shoot, defend, and is a matchup nightmare. Giannis can play any position and Khris Middleton is probably one of the NBAs most overlooked players.
Only concern I would have with Milwaukee is that Bud’s teams win big in regular seasons, and then struggle in the playoffs. That said, it is completely a three team race where I see the Raps with a slight edge over Boston, and the Bucks just behind, though dangerous enough to beat either team in a series.
Looking at the schedules for all three teams the schedule favours Toronto down the stretch. Boston plays more road games than home (14 road games) compared to Toronto (11 road games) and Milwaukee (12 road games). Toronto also plays the fewest games down the stretch (23) with Boston playing 24 and Milwaukee at 26. Toronto also only has two sets of back-to-backs and arguably faces the weaker schedule. Toronto will also largely stay in the same time zones with only three more road trips out “west” with two of those games being against New Orleans and Minny to close the year (hardly long treks from the east).
Both Boston and Milwaukee have lengthy western road trips remaining, though Milwaukee has the easier of the two with a five-game trip starting in Chicago before a four-game swing out west with stops in Sacramento, LA (Lakers), Utah and Phoenix. Boston has a four-game western road trip starting with a back-to-back against the Warriors and Kings before two games in LA against the Lakers and Clippers. Not exactly travel heavy, but it is a more challenging trip competition wise.
^^^Great points! I think people often overlook the difficulty of a schedule – especially with time off and travel – when it comes to predicting a team’s future performance.
There was a great article over at Nylon Calculus that seemed to suggest that the Raptors had a pretty favorable schedule this year.
That doesn’t mean they’ll come out of the East – playoffs are a different thing altogether – but it could help with securing home court and avoiding injuries.
The Pacers never get mentioned and zero respect. They are extremely deep, play as a unit, and seem perfectly built for a slower paced playoff series. I’ll pick them since no one else even mentions them.
I wouldn’t chalk it up to no respect, but after surprising everyone last year with a roster and coach that outperformed expectations, it’s tough to describe them as a favourite. They’re a playoff squad for sure, but compared to the Bucks and Raptors early on there isn’t any real reason to place them above either team. Sure they have a 5-3 record as of this post, but four of those wins have come against the Grizzlies, Nets, Cavs, and Knicks.
They’ve also got another tough final stretch post-deadline to end the season which includes 4 back-to-backs, and a four-game western road trip that has stops in Portland, Denver, LA (Clippers) and Golden State, among a tougher schedule than the aforementioned favourites.
Are you talking about all this schedule stuff for who gets home court advantage? I think which team goes into the playoffs the healthiest and hottest is much more important than home court. Sure having game 7 at home is a an advantage, but picking the conference favorites based on schedule difficulty seems a stretch to me. And I am staying by the my point the Pacers don’t get respect and they can win the East. You just blew them off exactly like I was saying everyone always seems to do. They’re completely being underestimated.
I didn’t just blow them off, I stated my case for why they’re not in that discussion as being favourites to win the east. Four of their five wins have not come against quality opponents that are a true measure of their ability. The Knicks, Nets and Grizzlies are all rebuilding clubs that they should be beating while the Cavs are a mess. Their one quality win was against the Spurs, who are clearly not in the upper echelon of the west with their current play. Their three losses on the other hand have come against teams in their tier (MIN, POR) or above them (MIL). As “early” favourite arguments go, they haven’t done much to put themselves in that discussion. Can that change over the course of the season? Sure, but as of now they haven’t earned that right to be in that discussion.
Who cares about a teams early season victory strength this early in the season. I don’t think they have a shot at the East because of their record currently, that’s just idiotic. The fact that they have a shot is because of their roster, not their current results from 2 weeks. They have probably the most depth in the East with Tyreke and McDermott on the team and added to an already strong bench.
Quite clearly Toronto right now.
Don’t sleep on
unseasonably warm porches
even with rain falling just so
or tomorrow will drag.