It might be fool’s gold, but the Cleveland Cavaliers’ struggles in the early goings of this season are making it appear that the East is wide open. The top team in the East right now is the Boston Celtics. The C’s have now won 14 consecutive games after losing their first two. Their latest win came against basketball’s best team – the Golden State Warriors. Warriors point guard Stephen Curry says that it’s “likely” that the Warriors will be seeing the Celtics in the Finals this year:
Stephen Curry on whether he’ll be back in Boston in June: “It’s looking very, very likely right now.”
— Connor Letourneau (@Con_Chron) November 17, 2017
The Warriors have two of the top three or four players in basketball, plus Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and a deep bench. The Warriors making the Finals for a fourth straight year is a foregone conclusion. The Celtics making it that far, however, isn’t. Heading into the season, everybody was picking the Cavs. The Celtics were pretty clearly no. 2 in the conference, but once Gordon Hayward went down for the year, it was tough to know what to make of the Celtics.
Holders of the NBA’s best record, the Celtics have shocked the world. They’ve received massive contributions from young guys like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and even Daniel Theis. Kyrie Irving and Al Horford are a match made in heaven.
Curry isn’t the first member of the Warriors to compliment the Celtics; Kevin Durant gave Brown and Tatum some huge praise, and Steve Kerr called the Celtics “the team of the future in the East.”
