How Celtics compare to last six defending NBA champs through 20 games

How Celtics compare to last six defending NBA champs through 20 games originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics just wrapped up their 20th game Sunday — a 115-111 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on the road without Jaylen Brown or Derrick White.

The Celtics are 16-4 through the first 20 games of their title defense season, which is pretty impressive. They could realistically be 20-0 because they had a lead with under four minutes remaining in all four losses.

Now that we’re about a quarter of the way through the 2024-25 campaign, it’s time to analyze how the Celtics compare to recent defending champions after 20 games.

The short answer is the C’s compare pretty well. They have the best record through 20 games of the last seven defending champs (including themselves). They also own the best offensive rating and net rating of these seven teams.

It’s not quite the 18-2 start that the 2008-09 Celtics had through 20 games as defending champs, but still pretty good.

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The most impressive team in this group through 20 games, at least from a statistical perspective, is the 2020-21 Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers are the only defending champ in this group that ranked top 10 in all five stats above through 20 games.

Injuries ultimately played a huge factor in the Lakers being unable to sustain that pace for the full season. Superstar center Anthony Davis ended up missing 36 games (half of the 72-game season), including a stretch of zero appearances from Feb. 15 through April 21. LeBron James also played in just 45 of 72 games. The banged-up Lakers lost to the eventual Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns in a six-game first-round series.

None of the last five defending champs even made it past the second round. The Denver Nuggets had the best chance last season, but they blew a 20-point lead in Game 7 at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the conference semifinals.

The last defending champ to get back to the Finals was the 2018-19 Warriors, who were trying for a three-peat. Injuries prevented the Warriors from making history, though. Kevin Durant missed a month of playoff games and returned for Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, only to tear his Achilles. Klay Thompson scored 30 points in Game 6, but he also tore his ACL. The Raptors barely survived 114-110 to win their first championship in team history.

The Celtics are on pace to finish with a 65-17 or 66-16 record. If they hit either one of those win totals, it would be the best win/loss record by a defending champ since the 2015-16 Warriors won a record 73 games but ultimately lost in Game 7 of the Finals that season despite having a 3-1 series lead.

In fact, just four of the previous 20 defending champs — the 2005-06 Spurs (63-19), 2008-09 Celtics (62-20), 2012-13 Miami Heat (66-16) and the 2015-16 Warriors (73-9) — won 60 or more games, and only one of them, the 2012-13 Heat, successfully defended its title.

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The Celtics are in good shape health-wise. They have no major injuries. Veteran center Kristaps Porzingis made his season debut last week after rehabbing a leg injury suffered in the 2024 NBA Finals. Porzingis has had no setbacks so far.

The Eastern Conference also appears to be weaker than anticipated. The Philadelphia 76ers were supposed to be a title contender after acquiring Paul George in free agency, but the Sixers are 4-14. The Milwaukee Bucks have played better of late, but they are barely above .500 at 10-9. The Indiana Pacers made a surprising run to the Eastern Conference Finals last season, but they’re 9-12 this year. The New York Knicks made bold offseason trades to acquire Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns, but they’re 12-8. The Miami Heat don’t look like much of a threat at 9-9.

The biggest surprise has been the Cavaliers, who started out 15-0 and own the league’s best record at 18-3. They are 1-1 versus the Celtics. The Orlando Magic also deserve credit for starting out 15-7 despite not having star forward Paolo Banchero for most of the season so far.

Injuries can always happen. The rest of the conference has lots of room for improvement. But as of Dec. 2, the Celtics are better positioned for a repeat than most of the recent defending champs at this juncture of their title defense.

And if complacency does begin to creep in with this Celtics team, you can bet head coach Joe Mazzulla will do what’s necessary to stop that right away. He is very, very good at keeping his players focused and motivated.