BOSTON — When the Celtics started 0-3 then floated around the .500 mark, it looked like they could be in for a long season. There were murmurs of potentially tanking ahead of what’s looking like a loaded 2026 NBA Draft .

But the C’s have not only bounced back, but some of the underlying metrics pop out after their blowout win over the Lakers on Friday . The Celtics are now fifth in the NBA in net rating at a plus-7.2. That only trails the Knicks in the East, who are at a plus-8.3. The C’s are also all the way up to third in the NBA in offensive rating at 121.9.

“I feel like you’re never perfect as a team, and you’re always learning and growing together,” Sam Hauser. “And we’ve only played 23 games with this group together, so you get 82 of them to figure out what works and what doesn

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