Who Can Topple the Boston Celtics?

The runaway champions of 2024 may face some unfamiliar foes in their quest for back-to-back NBA titles

Jan 14, 2025

When I was writing over the summer about the one-sided 2024 NBA Finals dominated by the Boston Celtics, I lamented that we might be in the early stages of a dynasty.

“The question now beckons: who can stop the Boston Celtics?” - me, 7 months ago

Well, as the 2024/25 NBA regular season nears the halfway mark, I’ve gone from having no answer to that question to conjuring up the lazy yet probably valid response of “Nikola Jokic because he’s the best player in the world,” all the way to my current collection of five teams that I see capable of dethroning the Celtics later this year.

So I thought I’d hop on here and briefly explain why each of these squads may be able to beat the Green machine led by that strikingly composed, seemingly unmalleable, yet madly loveable head coach otherwise known as Joe Mazzulla.

Mazzulla’s press conferences are greatly entertaining. (Image: Getty Images)

I’ll preface by saying two things.

Firstly, I’m purely analyzing what I’ve seen this season. I’m sure you could sit me down and tell me why a fully functional Joel Embiid-led 76ers team could cause the Celtics a lot of trouble. You’d probably be right. I’d probably listen and then spend the next half an hour convincing you that my 8-32 New Orleans Pelicans could do the same thing. But, much like this paragraph, that would be a waste of everyone’s time.

Basically, what I’m saying here is that all the teams on the list have consistently shown what they're capable of during the ongoing NBA season. Teams that exist more often in theory than in reality, a variety beautifully epitomized by my Pelicans, don’t qualify.

And secondly, I am still picking the Celtics to win the championship. I don’t look at any of these teams as title favourites, I merely see them as capable of pulling it off. If my money was on the line I’d still put it on Boston.

Okay, without further ado (except please subscribe for free and make my day, I greatly appreciate that you’re here), let’s discuss some potential Celtics-slayers.

1. Cleveland Cavaliers

Now, I’ve reluctantly placed the Cavs on this list. I just feel like leaving off a team on pace to win 70 games would be a disgrace to what Kenny Atkinson has achieved in his first season in charge in Cleveland.

You don’t just stumble into a win-loss record as good as the Cavs’. What they have is clearly working. The development of Evan Mobley has transformed their two-big lineup into a dominant one. Jarrett Allen’s net rating when he shares the floor with Mobley is a positive 13.3.

The dynamic, prolific backcourt pictured above are both scoring over 20 points a night. The Cavaliers are balanced and can beat you in a variety of ways. If it’s not a barrage of three-pointers from their bench, it’s using their size inside to overpower opposing defenses. If it’s not Mobley driving downhill with his slender man length to finish at will, it’s any number of their guards headlined by Donovan Mitchell scoring for fun in isolation. They don’t often turn the ball over. On the other side of the floor, the Cavs are also top ten in defensive rating.

They jumped out to a historic 15-0 record to start the season. But who stopped them in their tracks and handed them their first defeat, you may ask? The Boston Celtics.

2. Oklahoma City Thunder

Moving over to the Western Conference, I’m listing the only other team with a better record than the Celtics as this article is published. And, much like the Cavs, I’m slightly reluctant to have them here. But for the same reason - all the wins they have to their name - I’d feel foolish to leave them off.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a bonafide MVP candidate. Jalen Williams has developed into a borderline All-Star. Oklahoma City has what feels like an unlimited number of lengthy, pesky wings that make life miserable for opposing offenses while also drilling more than enough threes of their own. Head coach Mark Daigneault has a deep arsenal at his disposal. So deep, in fact, that he’s got the Thunder atop the conference without yet playing a game at full strength.

Before center Isaiah Hartenstein could suit up for his first appearance of the year, fellow 7-footer Chet Holmgren went down with a hip fracture that has kept him sidelined since.

Despite this, the gap between the Thunder’s number-one defensive rating in the league and the Orlando Magic in second is as large as the gap between the Magic and the eighth-best Warriors.

There’s no question the Thunder's defense can and would stifle Boston’s offensive firepower in a potential Finals matchup. However, there do remain doubts on the other side of the ball, where OKC’s offense is much more centric around a single player in Shai Gilgeous Alexander and perhaps less adaptable. It’s also far less tested on a playoff stage.

As Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks exemplified in the NBA Cup Final in December, it’s possible to overcome the Thunder’s defense (Milwaukee still managed just 97 points) when their offense isn’t going. It only took a poor game from Gilgeous-Alexander for the Bucks to win the Cup comfortably.

It would take a special offensive series from the Thunder’s superstar point guard if they were to take four games from Boston. But their defense is easily the best you’ll find from any team on this list. And as the saying goes, defense wins championships.

3. Denver Nuggets

Despite what you’ve read up until now, I promise I’m not also reluctant to put the Nuggets here. We’ve finally found a team I strongly believe can pull this off. Or, more accurately, a player I strongly believe can pull this off.

Nikola Jokic is easily the best player in the NBA and has been for a few seasons now. Having the guy with that label on your roster tends to be a ticket deep into the playoffs. And the Nuggets have achieved that. When Jokic’s supporting weapons were all at 100%, they won the title in 2023. Last year, his hobbled point guard Jamal Murray provided little help as they crashed out to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round.

Reinforcements arrived over the summer in the form of Russell Westbrook, a fellow triple-double savant and former MVP.

And he’s been great. His minimum contract is arguably the best value deal in the NBA. His veteran presence has clearly made a difference in Denver and I believe will remain an underrated component of his contribution to their postseason aspirations. The fact his play alongside Jokic has been so good has been an unsurprising yet welcome bonus.

Assuming Murray and Michael Porter Jr can bring their production closer to matching the money on their contracts, the Nuggets will have enough through Jokic alone to cause the Celtics trouble. Aaron Gordon is just back from injury and has long proven to be the perfect frontcourt partner for the man with three of the last four MVPs to his name.

What’s more, on the last two occasions Nikola Jokic suited up against Boston, the Nuggets came away with the win.

4. New York Knicks

You can only pray that the Knicks’ key rotation players all survive the gauntlet that is staying healthy through 82 games of Tom Thibodeau basketball.

Assuming they do, then the postseason in the Eastern Conference promises to be a spectacle. The summer addition of Karl Anthony Towns appears to have completed the Knicks’ apparent solution to the Celtics obstacle: copy them.

Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, and OG Anunoby can match the Celtics’ supporting cast on both ends. Their scoring efforts to match Boston’s stars will be spearheaded by the superb Jalen Brunson and the aforementioned Towns. Towns’ ability to shoot from anywhere as a 7-footer is only rivalled by a couple of players, one of whom is Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis.

A Boston - New York matchup would guarantee to be awesome. TD Garden and Madison Square Garden are two of the league’s most iconic venues. With Towns now among the Knicks’ brass, I see the battle between these two to be relatively evenly matched. The main difference is the ring on the Celtics’ fingers.

5. Milwaukee Bucks

After the way Boston trounced the Eastern Conference in last year’s playoffs, I wouldn’t have expected to have just two teams from the West on this list. But, mainly because of the two players in the above image, I have to add the Milwaukee Bucks to this list.

After a rocky start to the regular season, the Bucks have kicked into gear. They’re 19-9 in their last 28 games, alongside winning the NBA Cup as mentioned earlier.

A more settled Damian Lillard back to his best raises the Bucks’ ceiling. But the real difference maker is the two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Antetokounmpo has dealt with injury each of the last two postseasons, and it has led to a pair of first-round exits. I feel this has blurred fans’ vision of the Bucks.

In 2021, the second-last time he’s been healthy in the playoffs, the Bucks won the NBA Championship.

The last time, in 2022, it took the second-worst three-point shooting performance in playoff history for the Celtics to beat the Bucks in a game seven in the second round. Although both teams look different today, that series likely remains a good indicator of where these two teams are when Milwaukee is healthy: tightly matched.

The Bucks would have the best player in a Boston series. While that alone isn’t enough (just as it wasn’t for Luka Doncic and the Mavericks in the 2024 Finals), that particular player does happen to have one of the most impressive resumes among any active NBA player. When he’s fit and in the postseason, he’s as real of a threat as the Eastern Conference can present to the Celtics.