Last season, the Boston Celtics dominated not only the Eastern Conference but the entire NBA by finishing first in wins (64), then dominating the postseason to capture the franchise’s record-tying 18th championship.
Now that the defending champs have a clear slate ahead of them, other up-and-coming competitors will start pursuing the goal tied to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s backs. Paolo Banchero, a forward with the Orlando Magic, is one of them. He thinks the Celtics won’t sweep the East (again) when the 2024–25 season begins.
“We feel like we’re right there,” Banchero said on Friday to ESPN’s “First Take”. “With all those (top teams in the East), we’re right there. We began the previous year as one of the top two or top three seeds, and everyone assumed it was an anomaly. Everyone anticipated that we would finish at the top of the East and be a play-in squad. We had a great finish, secured the fifth spot, and a real opportunity to secure the top two seeds at the end of the season. Last year, we were there. This year, we improved. We everyone got well, including me. We have some new things that will be quite beneficial. Our goal is to create some noise. We ought to be a top three or top four team with ease, and we could even win the East.”
Last season, Boston and Orlando had a number of run-ins, the most notable of which occurred when the teams met in the NBA In-Season Tournament, which is now known as the NBA Cup. On November 24, Banchero scored 23 points to help Orlando pull off an unexpected victory over Boston, which came after 27 points from former Celtic Moritz Wagner. When the conference rivals squared off again on January 23, Tatum and Brown suffered their second straight loss to the Magic, resulting in a 2-2 split of the regular season series.
Overall, given the information and experience from the 47-35 season previous season, Banchero feels confident enough to turn the page.
According to ESPN, Banchero stated, “I learned how to kind of slow the game down in the playoffs.” “I felt like I was playing a little faster in those first two games of the series in Cleveland; I turned the ball over a lot.” And I believe that’s when I made that change, that leap, and began to really slow down the game between those Games 1 and 2.
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