A guide to the NBA’s second half for dummies or Celtics fans who haven’t taken their eyes off of the Cs

NBA All-Star weekend has come and gone, which means it’s time for fans to buckle up and get ready for the “second half” of the season. It’s always pretty funny when it’s referred to that way, since most teams, including the Boston Celtics, have less than 30 games remaining before the playoffs start in April.

We’re almost there, people.

Now, if you’ve been solely focused on the reigning champs or perhaps you just had to cope with living through the first Sunday without your precious “football,” you may be curious as to what’s been going on around the rest of the Association.

I suppose it makes sense to quickly discuss our heroes in green.

Despite playing two months of inconsistent, often mindboggling basketball, the Celtics are on a similar track to the one they were on last year en route to Banner 18. They’ve been towards the top of the NBA on both sides of the ball and have recently looked much more like themselves, winning eight of nine before the break.

Turmoil at the top

You may be looking at the above graphic and thinking to yourself, “Wow, they’ve got a better net rating than last year and somehow are third best?”

That’s right.

Our first stops around the league will be in the small markets — more specifically, Cleveland and Oklahoma City. The Cavaliers and Thunder are the two reasons why Boston’s net rating isn’t at the top again. Both teams have gotten off to an incredible start this season, each holding a conference-best record of 44-10.

Heading into the year, many people would’ve been confident in OKC’s chances, after they finished first in the West in 2024. Their young core got some playoff experience and had an entire offseason to sharpen their game, not to mention that they strengthened their supporting cast by adding Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso. The Thunder have succeeded even though each of those new additions has missed a fair amount of time.

Oh, yeah, and they’re just now getting Chet Holmgren back.

Cleveland… Cleveland is a different story.

Nine months ago, I (a noted NBA expert, btw) would’ve told you that the Cavs were dead. They fired JB Bickerstaff after losing to the Cs in the second round, and then reports of a rift between Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland began to surface.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Cavs have been excellent under new head coach Kenny Atkinson, Mitchell has been playing out of his mind, and the rest of the cast has followed suit.

While both of these squads have been steamrolling most of the league, the Thunder feel like the more realistic title contender. Their depth and star power separate them from some of the conference’s other great teams, who seemingly only have one or the other.

As for Cleveland, I’m not sure they serve as a threat to Boston, who’s beaten them two out of three times this season.

Both teams will be at TD Garden in the next few weeks, with the Cavs in town on Feb. 28 and OKC here on March 12.

Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

“Rivals”

Any time there’s a franchise like the Celtics with a great history, prestige, and top-end talent, there are going to be teams who want to be the foil to such greatness. Enter the New York Knicks, Milwaukee Bucks, and Philadelphia 76ers.

Let’s start in the Big Apple. Just as the Celtics were heading back to the States after a pair of preseason games in Abu Dhabi, the Knicks swung a blockbuster trade to land then Minnesota Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns. It was a move that turned the volume up on some of the whispers that New York may be for real.

Bringing in Towns and landing Mikal Bridges earlier in the summer led many to believe that the Knicks could be a serious threat to the Celtics.

They’ve been good, just not against Boston.

Now, I hate to bring down everyone’s favorite “the league is better when they’re good” team as much as the next guy. But, there’s no getting around the fact that Boston has made a mockery of New York in both of their matchups so far. They made an example of them on Opening Night, winning by 23 points (it was really more), after watching Banner 18 be raised to the rafters. Then, just last weekend, the Cs lit Madison Square Garden on fire with a 27-point W (again, it wasn’t this close).

I look forward to a third straight humiliation on Sunday (Feb. 23) afternoon.

Speaking of three straight humiliations, the Bucks went 0-3 against the Cs this year. The losses weren’t quite as bad as what happened to the Knicks, but there was certainly some disappointment in there.

This season as a whole can be described as that for Milwaukee, to be honest. Things aren’t going quite as poorly as they did after Doc Rivers was hired last season, but 29-24 probably isn’t where they would’ve hoped to be at this point.

But hey, at least they won #TheCup, right?

Their season has basically been like if you took the play of the December through mid-January Celtics, but just applied it to an entire season. Milwaukee’s inconsistencies have been so glaring that they decided to move on from noted Celtics killer Khris Middleton at the trade deadline.

It’s okay, Bucks fans, Kyle Kuzma will save the season!

Unfortunately (a real shame), down in Philadelphia, there is no saving what’s going on.

As of today, the 76ers have the same record (20-34) as the Brooklyn Nets. One of these teams was meant to be a championship contender and the other was a shoe-in for the “Capture the Flagg” tank-off.

To everyone’s surprise, Joel Embiid has struggled to stay on the court with a recurring knee issue. After hobbling through a six-game series against the Knicks in April, the big man decided that it’d be a good idea to play for Team USA in the Olympics, rather than rehabbing and working to recover from the injury.

After capturing the gold, he comically wasn’t ready to start the season, missing the first nine games for Philly. Embiid only appeared in four of the team’s opening 20 games and has suited up just 17 total times so far.

To make matters worse, the team’s big offseason move of replacing Tobias Harris with Paul George has netted them an older, more expensive version of Harris.

The 34-year-old George has been extremely disappointing for the Sixers, after being named to back-to-back All-Star Games in the past two seasons. He’s averaged 16.1 points per game on 42.6% and 36.3% shooting splits and has become the City of Brotherly Love’s new favorite scapegoat.

Thomas Shea-Imagn Images

Wait, these teams don’t suck anymore?

We’ve now reached the part of the piece where I am no longer going to be mean. There’s no getting around it — the Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets have been a joy to watch this season. Both franchises have had a rough couple of seasons (more than a couple for Detroit) and are now looking like they’ll be heading to the postseason in some capacity.

Houston has built a defense-first identity under former Celtics head coach Ime Udoka. The Rockets were solid last season in his first campaign at the helm, logging a .500 record and finishing the year strong.

They’ve improved upon that and currently sit fourth in the Western Conference with a record of 34-21. Houston’s core of exciting young players like Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson will make them a fun watch when the playoffs roll around in a few months.

Up in Detroit, the Pistons are looking like a completely different team than the one that logged a franchise-worst record in 2024. They’re sitting at sixth in the Eastern Conference and are closer to fifth-place Milwaukee (one game back) than seventh-place Orlando (2.5 games ahead).

They, much like the aforementioned Thunder, saw their young players take advantage of the offseason and sharpen their skills. Plus, the front office brought in some much-needed shooting to help space things out for Cade Cunningham, who has been excellent this season.

The former 2021 No. 1 pick just made his first All-Star appearance and has been doing it all for Detroit. He’s their leading scorer and assist man, averaging 25.4 points and 9.4 assists per game.

Additions like Malik Beasley, Tobias Harris (lol), and Tim Hardaway Jr. have all fit in nicely next to Cunningham and have made the Pistons one of the more exciting teams to tune into on League Pass. It feels like they’re in a dogfight at the end of regulation almost every other night.

The rest

There haven’t been many other drastic shifts in performance relative to expectations around the league. Denver is still good, Indiana is still a frisky fun team, and the Wizards are still fumbling around at the bottom. Sure there have been some big moves, but you’d have to be living under a rock to have missed all of the fun in the week leading up to the trade deadline.

Luka Doncic is a Laker, Jimmy Butler is a Warrior, and PJ Tucker is once again a Raptor.

These next two months will be very interesting to watch when it comes to playoff seeding and I can only hope to have set you up with a nice foundation to do so.