Celtics jump to No. 6 in ESPN power rankings. SIX.

No. 6, Bill Russell.

Marc Stein of ESPN.com released his weekly NBA power rankings yesterday, and your Boston Celtics find themselves in the No. 6 position.

Sixth.  In the entire NBA.

Only the No. 1 Warriors (24-1), No. 2 Spurs (20-5), No. 3 Cavaliers (15-7), No. 4 Thunder (16-8) and No. 5 Raptors (16-9) are ahead of the C's (14-10).  A 2-1 week that included a blowout win in New Orleans, a home victory over Chicago and the epic double-OT loss to Golden State lifted Boston from No. 9 in last Monday's rankings.

Stein was at Friday's showdown with the Warriors, and his opinion of the C's this week is admittedly somewhat influenced by the atmosphere at the TD Garden that night.  However, something I've been saying since last spring--there's an outside chance the Celtics actually are the second best team in the Eastern Conference.



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