Breaking News: Celtics' rank jumps – Cs no longer 5th best team in NBA

The Celtics' Net Efficiency Rating of +6.7 is no longer 5th best in the NBA. With Miami and Cleveland both losing ground last night, Boston saw its league ranking rise dramatically on its day off.

The Celtics are now ranked THIRD best team in the NBA.

Net Rating — sometimes called the "scoring differential" — is the difference between the number of points a team has scored and the number its opponents have scored, per 100 possessions. It's the most accurate team-ranking stat available.

Just to be super-clear about this: Net Rating is the gold standard of performance stats, the one ranking best correlated with ultimate W/L records. And it's slotting the Cs at #3 in the league right now, this morning — behind only the Warriors and Spurs.

Put another way: the Net Efficiency Rating statistic — an extremely reliable predictor of final results — says that if things (team strengths and weaknesses) were to stay exactly as they are now, the Celts would most likely end the season with the league's 3rd best record. (Yes, you read that right.)

But wait! — there's more.

Boston's defense was #4 in the league a day ago, with a Defensive Rating of 96.8 (pts per 100 possessions). As of this morning (November 18) — with every other top team not named "Spurs" losing ground overnight — that 96.8 mark makes them the league's #2 defense. Yes — the Celtics have the second best defense in the NBA today, according to their Defensive Efficiency Rating (the gold standard for ranking team defenses).

(Funny thing: we wrote just yesterday that "sometime soon" the Celtics' defense could reach #1 or #2... thinking it might take a few weeks, maybe a couple months, etc. No idea. At all. THE NEXT DAY! Smh.)

P.S. The Celts' Offensive Rating of 103.4 remains #14 in the league. (Note: it's been improving in each of the last few games... so... who knows? Better stay tuned.)

And of course.... the usual caveats definitely apply: It's early in the season, sample size is still relatively sorta/small, anything can happen, yada, yada, yada.

Green Stats runs an analysis after each Celtics game, right here, usually within ~ 1 to 20 hours after the final horn.


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