Stop denying it to yourself, the Celtics are the best team in the NBA

[Witch-King]

Considering how well we start every season, I will withhold judgment.

The #1 variable, KG's health, looks amazing right now.

Yeah, as long as Garnett is healthy we probably wouldn't have to worry later in the season going into playoffs. Besides that, it's still important that we can attain a solid season record this year so that we can have home-court advantage in the post-season. The '09 season proved that we definitely need to have all of our best players on the court and healthy in order to have any chance of making it out of the Eastern Conference.

I can't wait to see Shaquille O'Neal in the playoffs again. I remember two seasons ago he was on the Suns and they finished with a better record than the bottom 3 teams in the East as the 9th seed in the West. Shaq, Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire didn't even get into the playoffs that season. 

[Fafnir]

Didn't you see him in the playoffs last year though?

[BballTim]

Considering how well we start every season, I will withhold judgment.

  Yes, but we start out each season well because we're the best team in the league.

[snively]

Certainly is a team for the ages if we're healthy for the stretch run. 

LA and Miami aren't exactly cream puffs if healthy either, though Miami has looked extremely mortal to us early.

The talent at the top of the league is incredible. 

[LB3533]

When you can beat a team by 30 points and play terrible....that's a mark of a good team.

[tenn_smoothie]

I'll keep saying this....

We should enjoy watching the Celtics with every fiber in our bodies. This IS a GREAT team. Playing so unselfishly and so much like a team is supposed to play. 

Years from now, we will look back on the greatness of this team. And years from now, we will miss this era and team terribly. We need to soak it all in because one day it will be over. Enjoy the Celtics people! 

at the end of the 1986 season, after the Basketball Gods decided that Red & the Boston Celtics had won enough and were just too good for the rest of the league and they viciously and without mercy struck down Len Bias and Reggie Lewis in order to destroy the franchise, sending us to years of suffering and having to watch pretenders like the Bulls and Spurs and Lakers win titles and claim that they were the greatest franchise in history - after all that, i think all Celtic fans have learned never to take greatness for granted and will remember to enjoy how special Boston Celtics Basketball is. this current group epitomizes  Celtics traditions beautifully with their defense, with their unselfishness, with their toughness and with their savvy ability to win games.

i especially enjoy this team because they remind me more of the championship groups of the 60's & 70's than they do of Bird's great teams. the key piece to this era has been Kevin Garnett - he's the one who brought in a new mentality that was not there before and he's the one who made defense our #1 priority. Garnett has been a Celtic all his life - he just didn't know it.

[guava_wrench]

Considering how well we start every season, I will withhold judgment.

  Yes, but we start out each season well because we're the best team in the league.

[kg is king]

Most of us don't want to admit it, but way in the back of our collective minds, we wonder exactly how good these Celtics are.  We have a feeling they are great, we have a feeling they may be the best team in the NBA.  But unlike 2008, we have less certainty.  For one, the Celts have suffered season ending surgeries to one of its starters in each of the past two years(Garnett and Perkins).  For another, the Lakers are now 2 time champions and worthy of those titles or not, the confidence has to help them.  Besides Kobe is arrogant enough blind himself from the Celtic's superiority (though I will give him credit for calling them "tough"). Throw in the whole Miami uncertainty in there also.  Anyways, here's the thing, the Celtics were so good last year, that they took out the 2 teams with the best records in the NBA without home court.  They nearly took out theLakers in the finals, also without an even more beneficial (3-2-3) home court format.  With all that, this team is not only deeper, the big 4 are all playing at a higher level this year.  Ray Allen was struggling at this point last year and worried about being traded.  Pierce has obviously gotten in better shape and is having the most efficient year of his life with a Jordanesque 50% FG clip. Rondo, has taken yet another leap.  More than any other thing, KG is playing like a rabid animal again.  To think we came that close to winning with A KG that lacked fire.  Finally, the Shaq factor cannot be undervalued.  Ray Allen recently commented that the addition of Shaq to the starting lineup has made the team extremely difficult to defend since Rondo has 4 capable options to get the ball to.  No offense to Perk cause we love him like crazy, but this is indeed why the team's starters are playing on all cylinders.  We are 18-4 despite the fact the bench is not yet clicking.  

So stop denying it to yourselves.  The Celtics are the best team in basketball at this moment.  If they keep improving and stay healthy, the Celtics will win banner 18.

Bold statement there. Sounds like a fan over reacting to a blow out win  We are amazing, no doubt, one of the best teams in the league for sure. But I am not ready to say the Celtics are the best team in the NBA, not yet at least. Despite being a quarter done with the season, it is still too early to tell. For one, we do not have the best record in the NBA, that belongs to the Spurs. Secondly, we do not have the longest winning streak either, that belongs to the Mavs. Keep in mind the C's also lost to Dallas...

The Celtics have been playing some excellent basketball so far, but I am just not ready to crown them the best team in the NBA just yet.