When it comes to playing NBA basketball at the highest levels, what you can (and can't) see clearly can be the difference between winning it all and going home empty-handed. This perspective is not lost on veteran Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday, who recently sat down with the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast to talk all things Celti…

The annual league event known somewhat generically as the "in-season tournament" has returned for its second-ever iteration, and it has a new name to go with it. Now known as the "NBA Cup," the midseason tourney is starting to pick up some momentum from fans and players alike, yet is still far from being a hands-down hit that is certain to return f…

What is going on with the Milwaukee Bucks to start the 2024-25 NBA regular season (and are they still a threat to Boston)? This was supposed to be the season that star Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and new(ish) arrival Damian Lillard learned to play together, that coach Doc Rivers got the team chemistry in order, and that Khris Middleton got …

Not even a full week has passed, and we are already projecting the entire NBA season for the Boston Celtics off entirely too little data. But that has never stopped the league's media from trying to do so in the past, and we have new tools to project how the season might go in NBA 2K's official season projection for the Celtics that the hosts of th…

The Boston Celtics elected to take Ring Night to a whole new level, blowing out the new-look New York Knicks 132-109. That it was against the team that was framed as their biggest rival for the 2024-25 NBA regular season made the victory all the more sweet, wrapping up a timeless ring ceremony replete with Celtics champions of past eras there to ce…

The 2024 NBA offseason is coming to an end, and the 2024-25 regular season kicking off with it. Which teams around the league have seen their stock rise in recent weeks? Which clubs have seen their stock fall, and which are holding steady as injuries, extensions, and signings shift the title odds ever so slightly? And of course, where are the Bosto…

What does it take to repeat as an NBA champion -- and do the Boston Celtics have it? There has not been a repeat champ in the league since 2018, and there have only been a handful since the turn of the century. At present, the Celtics are heavy favorites to win it all and hang Banner 19, but what does the past tell us about Boston's potential futur…

The Boston Celtics have finished their training camp and kicked off their 2024-25 NBA preseason with a pair of wins over the Denver Nuggets in Abu Dhabi. And around the rest of the league, preseasons are kicking off with the last of the trades and signings we are likely to see until the month of December having been finalized. With these data point…

The Boston Celtics have had their Media Day and training camp early to facilitate their preseason exhibitions in Abu Dhabi later this week, but they have done so with a few notable shadows hanging over the storied ball club. The more imminent and tangible of those two shadows comes in the shape of Karl-Anthony Towns having been dealt from the Minne…

For the Boston Celtics, the NBA's 2024 offseason has officially ended with the arrival of the team's Media Day. And while many Celtics have been back in the City of Boston for some time now, now the work truly begins for the team to defend their status as the league's reigning champions. During the annual event, Celtics President of Basketball Oper…

For such a popular league, the NBA's origins are among the most mist-shrouded among North America's major pro sports, with the flash, cash, and reach of the sport of obscuring its humble -- and sometimes problematic -- early history. And at the core of the institutionalized racism that was ubiquitous in the Basketball Association of America (BAA) e…

When news initially broke about the potential sale of the Boston Celtics, fans were still elated over their favorite ball club finally winning Banner 18. We collectively scratched our heads, and then moved on with our celebratory mood still in full effect, not quite digging into the story behind the story when it came to the Grousbeck family electi…

Just how much playing time do we think each player on the Boston Celtics' roster ought to get next season? The Celtics have run it back with more or less the same roster they won Banner 18 with in the 2024 NBA Finals, but shifting expectations, father time, and injuries have conspired to through such a roster a few curveballs that won't just be a s…

With some time to soak it all in, we are just beginning to have had enough context to begin to place the Boston Celtics' 2024 NBA Championship in its proper place in terms of history. What will we remember about it in five, 10, or twenty years? Which were flashbulb moments along the path to Banner 18? Which will quickly be forgotten? And most impor…

Star Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum is the new cover athlete for NBA 2K25, gracing the newest iteration of the popular video game with WNBA star A'ja Wilson of the Los Vegas Aces. The first-ever cover to feature both an NBA and WNBA star, the summer of Tatum continues. The game itself will be out in September, but the hosts of the CLNS Media "…

The 2024 Paris Olympics are over and done with, and the only thing that may still remain of them is a potential grudge for star Boston Celtics forwards Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to carry forward into the coming 2024-25 regular season. And with the NBA having just released the schedule for that regular season this week, the hosts of the CLNS Med…

Team USA won gold in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but plenty of drama (especially that involving star Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum) coupled with an improving field came a bit close for comfort. What will the US National Team need to do to stay on top in the 2028 Olympics -- and which Celtics (if any) might be part of that push? To take a closer …

With the 2024 NBA draft and Las Vegas Summer League firmly behind us, fans of the Boston Celtics and the sport of basketball more generally have been laser-focused on the 2024 Paris Olympics and Boston's players on Team USA. And with that focus has come some concerning narratives, some of which have substance to them -- and others less so. To get i…

While there has been plenty of excitement over the moves that other ball clubs in the NBA's Eastern Conference arms race, by and large the Boston Celtics are seen as a cut above the rest of their peers in the league's weaker conference. But those moves could make for a tougher regular season path to the 2025 NBA Playoffs, especially among teams lik…

The Boston Celtics have finished their run in the NBA's Las Vegas Summer League, leaving the remaining trickle of news and the trio of Celtics playing for Team USA as the last flickering flames still burning from Boston's banner season. But given we are on the threshold of the dog days of summer, we'll take what we can get when it comes to Celtics …

With the NBA draft and the league's 2024 free agency period over with for all intents and purposes, we know what every team in the league is going to look like on opening night. With that knowledge, we can begin to project how the order of each conference will come together once the games start getting played as the Boston Celtics pursue another ti…

The vast majority of action in NBA free agency for the 2024 offseason has gone down, with rosters around the league looking more or less finished barring any unexpected trades. So with that in mind, we can begin to assess how the order of the league will look when opening night finally arrives for the 2024-25 season. And to get a handle on how move…

The Boston Celtics already had more than enough going on when news broke that Wyc and Irv Grousbeck would be selling their majority share in the team. That very day, the ball club's front office extended not only starting point guard Derrick White to a team-friendly deal, but also star forward Jayson Tatum to the largest deal in NBA history. So the…

The Boston Celtics are your 2024 NBA World Champions, but if they want to repeat in 2025 to hang Banner 19, they are going to need to avail themselves of every advantage ahead of the 2024-25 season, particularly the looming 2024 NBA draft. For the vast majority of the team's fans, this is one draft we have not been paying very much attention to, gi…

After five trips to the Eastern Conference finals over the previous six seasons, the Boston Celtics have finally hung Banner 18. And while winning Banner 19 is the logical next step for the Celtics, if the path to Boston's current title has taught us anything, it's that there are a lot of moves required to push a team over the top. To that end, the…

They did the thing, finally. The Boston Celtics are your 2024 NBA Champions after a historic 2023-24 NBA regular season and an equally historic run to the long-coveted Banner 18. The game and series were won with teamwork and defense in classic Boston style, sending beloved Boston broadcaster Mike Gorman off with a proper closeout to a storied care…

The Boston Celtics have taken a commanding 3-0 series lead vs. the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals, thanks to some clutch play from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum as they combined for 61 points in Boston's 106-99 Game 3 victory, and elite defense late in the game's second half. That the win came with star Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis ha…

The Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 105-98 in Game 2 of their 2024 NBA Finals series to take a 2-0 series lead at TD Garden this past Sunday (June 9) night. This puts the Mavs in a position that 36 other teams in the finals have found themselves in: a 0-2 series deficit, something only 5 of those teams have ever come back from. Can the Mav…

The Boston Celtics took Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals in emphatic fashion thanks to a surprisingly spry Kristaps Porzingis in his first game in the '24 NBA Playoffs in over a month, and perhaps the best defensive game of Jaylen Brown's career. Even on a night that saw Jayson Tatum go 6-of-16 from the floor, he still found ways to impact the game, a…

The Boston Celtics will take the court against the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals on this coming Thursday (June 6) evening at TD Garden. And despite the fact that Boston was widely seen as a chief contender even before the 2023-24 regular season and the Mavs much less so, both clubs share a number of parallels that should make this an abso…

The Boston Celtics punched their ticket to the 2024 NBA Finals when they defeated the Indiana Pacers in just four games to win the league's Eastern Conference finals, and now we have Boston's finals opponent set with a winner for the Western Conference finals as well. That victor will be the Dallas Mavericks, who needed five games to beat the Minne…

The Boston Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers 105-102 in Game 4 of their 2024 Eastern Conference finals, sweeping the Pacers to advance to the 2024 NBA Finals as they await to see which of the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves Western Conference finals series. The Celtics will have a 10-day gap between the final buzzer and the start of the f…

The Boston Celtics defeated the Indiana Pacers 126-110 in Game 2 of the NBA's 2024 Eastern Conference finals thanks to a career playoff-high matching 40 points from Jaylen Brown. But it came at the expense of backup big man Luke Kornet's wrist being sprained on a team already thin at center; will Boston be okay with Kornet on the bench?. On the oth…

Game 1 of the Boston Celtics Eastern Conference finals series with the Indiana Pacers is in the books, and the Celtics have a 1-0 series lead with their 133-128 win. But it took overtime to pull it off, and Boston digging deep with a few lucky breaks to pull out the win, a few minor mistakes over the course of the contest nearly costing them the wi…

The Boston Celtics have defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 113-98 in Game 5 of their 2024 Eastern Conference semifinals series to advance to the NBA's 2024 Eastern Conference finals. It came via a massive game from veteran Boston big man Al Horford, and it also saw perhaps the best postseason play from star Celtics forward Jayson Tatum as well. As an…

The Boston Celtics have a commanding 3-1 series lead vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers in their East semis second round series. But there were moments in the contest where old Celtics habits crept back in and put the game's outcome in doubt, with fans of the team predictably melting down on social media in response to those mistakes. Do we need to worry …

In Game 2 of their 2024 Eastern Conference semifinals series with the Boston Celtics, the Cleveland Cavaliers came out with a plan and stuck to it. The Celtics, on the other hand, came out with an all-too-familiar lackluster effort that cost them a potentially critical contest. Boston should have anticipated a hungry Cavs squad would be prepared to…

The Boston Celtics finally know their opponent for the NBA's 2024 Eastern Conference semifinals series. With the Cleveland Cavaliers emerging victorious in their first round series vs. the Orlando Magic, Boston's next opponent is locked in. And with that knowledge, the Celtics and their fans can begin to get an idea of the potential contours of thi…

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…

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 Porz…

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, B…

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 Merc…

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…

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 te…

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…

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 C…

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 …

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…

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 ha…

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, no…